Carnival Comes Early to Rio de Colonia

Yellow. Canary yellow. Everywhere. Vivid, painfully bright canary yellow as far as the squinting eye can see. It's not an option. It's mandatory.

And flesh. Lots of flesh. In between the canary yellow and the screaming green there is exposed, mostly tanned or brown flesh. And it refuses to stand still. It ripples in waves to what seems to be an incessant drum beat.

Brazil may be playing Croatia in Berlin but this party is in Cologne and for many of the fans here, it's home from home. Quite literally.

Cologne is the biggest Brazilian enclave in Germany and it shows. Ever since the World Cup arrived, the city has been enjoying a Brazilian makeover.

Usually the western German city has to wait until February for their own version of carnival. but thousands of residents and visitors have brought the festivities to the streets early.

The streets are decked out in those ubiquitous colors, the storefronts feature all manner of Selecao merchandise and the thousands of Brazilians who live in Cologne, relatively quietly for most of the year, are out in force every day.

Then there's the Brazilian invasion. More than 7,000 fans from Brazil are in town to boost the numbers, many of whom paid about $9,000 for packages that included airfare, hotel and tickets through the first round.

When you also factor in the wannabes -- those supporters who hail from Cologne, Dortmund and Leverkusen rather than Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Porto Alegre -- it makes for a pretty impressive and imposing army of fans.

Fan park a sea of yellow and green

And it seems that they're all watching the game at the Fan Park in the city center. The festival site had been heaving with fans for a good three hours before kick-off; a samba beat keeping those jigging bodies moving while France struggled to a lacklustre 0-0 draw against Switzerland.

Not that any of the Brazilian fans noticed or cared much. Even Zinedine Zidane strutting his stuff for the last time at a World Cup was not enough to disrupt the beat.

The Brazilian game is not the inspiring display that everyone is hoping for either, but that doesn't matter. Just the sight of the team going through i's rather labored motions against the Croatians is enough to send the assembled masses into rapture.

The fact that a slim 1-0 win fails to dampen the mood and the final whistle leads to a party that stretches from the fan park to the city center and into the first sunlit hours of the following day.

"Brazil, Brazil, Braaaaaaazil…" shouts Crisanto when asked what he thinks of the result "Brazil is beautiful, the World Cup is beautiful, Germany is beautiful."

Deciding that interviewing fans at the Caipirinha tent is possibly not the best move, I move into the heaving mass of the crowd.

"The World Cup lasts for four weeks," a gyrating Alex manages to scream as the drumming band goes into overdrive behind her. "There's plenty of time for Brazil to win in style. For now, we party for the three points."

Alvaro, a Cologne resident, is more thoughtful. "It is sad to see the great Ronaldo in such a way," he says in reference to the ineffective striker who was replaced during the match by Robinho. "And only Kaka from the beautiful four played well. We were lucky. A better team than Croatia would have embarrassed us."

His is a voice in the minority. For the Brazilians, they know their team can play and they know that they will, given time. A win in the first game takes some of the incredible pressure off this team, a team everyone expects to win the World Cup -- and provides the fans with a reason to party.

Not that they need one.