Dubbo resident Francisco Oliviera was born and in raised in Brazil and is a passionate soccer fan but he does something almost unthinkable for most of his countrymen.
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He supports Germany.
Francisco became alienated from Brazil because of their behaviour off the pitch, as much as on it. He began supporting Germany in 2008, encouraged by his girlfriend at the time and his allegiance has remained strong.
While most Brazilians mourned last week as the hosts went down to Germany 7-1 in the semi-final and crashed out of contention, Francisco was cheering. The celebrations increased as he watched them beat Argentina 1-0 in yesterday morning's final.
"I knew Brazil was going to lose that game. I didn't think it would be by so much but I knew Germany was going to beat them. And I was confident Germany would win the final too," Francisco said.
Francisco said Brazil's popularity has decreased because of the amount of money that has been spent on sport in the nation.
"Brazilian soccer is very corrupt and it's not nice to watch. Most Brazilian people protest against the World Cup and Olympics because the country is spending all this money on stadiums rather than important things like schools.
He went one further and suggested Brazil were lucky to make it as far as they did.
"I don't really think Brazil deserved to be in the semi-final. They didn't play particularly well. If you look at a team like Costa Rica and what they achieved for a small country, it is quite impressive and it would have been nice to see progress further.
"The Germans play a beautiful style and they play as a team, rather than relying on one man like Argentina and Messi or Portugal and Christiano Ronaldo."
Francisco said he will catch up with his German friends on the weekend and have a beer to celebrate the win.
