This may sound a bit strange, but I haven't watched a single world cup game all the way through since I've been here, apart from those I've photographed, and there's no chance to really "watch" those when you are shooting them anyway. There just isn't time - the games tend to be on when I've just arrived at a stadium, or am just leaving. As a result I have absolutely no idea who is where in which groups, who is playing next and so on. It's not just me - quite a few of us don't know what day it is let alone who is playing next.As a result, I feel very detached from the tournament itself, despite being so intricately involved in it. As I say, it is strange, but an unavoidable consequence of the schedule, and mine is amongh the lighter schedules of the guys here.I'm writing this by candlelight as the whole of the Botafogo area of Rio (quite a large part of the city) has been plunged into darkness by a large powercut. This has the benefit of rendering all the traffic lights useless and as a result the traffic flows far more smoothly! Ben and I are trying to figure out where to go for dinner as we are both starving and neither of us have had any lunch. Happily our hosts have provided candles, and I have a couple of torches with me as well.It was game day again today. This time Belgium v Russia, the second game for both teams. A Belgian win would see them through to the knockout stages apparently, but they also had to make sure they didn't lose. Russia, managed by ex England supremo Fabio Capello, had to not lose to stay in it I think. With 8 premier league stars in the Belgium team they should be pretty effective in my view, and I've got them as my own favourites to win it.The game was at the iconic Maracana stadium in Rio. Because they close a load of roads around the stadium, the best way in and out is by media shuttle bus, so we taxi'd to the nearest stop which was the Ibis hotel in Copacabana where we got a bite to eat and then jumped on the bus for the transit back the way we'd come into the stadium.On arrival I was struck by the number of police and army types that were around the stadium. Lots and lots and lots of them, many decked out in riot gear. This is most likely to be a FIFA reaction to the storming of the media centre by Chile fans a few days ago (Ben was in the thick of that). Seeing how easily a bunch of fans could get in I imagine FIFA freaked out as any bunch of banditos could have barged their way in to do a lot more harm than the guys who just wanted to see a football game.Despite looking like Robocop though, they were very approachable and were OK with me taking pictures of them. One squad had a dog. A big dog. Some kind of extreme rottweiler I imagine. Anyway, seeing as police are always better photographed from low down to make them look powerful and imposing, I knelt down in front of them (after asking their permission) and the dog went for me. Thankfully I was far enough away but blimey - it took two of them to hold it back. Hmmmm...won't be doing that again. The guys thought it was all very funny and I was annoyed as I hadn't pressed the shutter as the dog went for me.After shooting ranks of police (not literally obviously) I went back in to get my seat for the game sorted out. As neither of the teams playing were in England's group, I was in the 3rd tranche of place allocations - it starts with teams in the group that are playing, then it's Brazilian press, then photographer's from countries who are in the tournament, then everyone else. Due to being a bit tardy, I was 19th in line to pick a seat, and all the ones in the corners on the goal line had gone so I opted for the far corner in front of the Belgian supporters.Once that was sorted, I went to get a bite to eat from the media centre cafeteria. I didn't fancy any of the buffet so made do with a large pack of peanuts and a Coke Zero (again). I still had to sort out my caption for the game, which is a base caption that you then add specifics about each individual shot to e.g. "Eden Hazard in action in the match between Belgium and Russia in the Maracana stadium, Rio de Janeiro..." where everything after "Eden Hazard in action" is generic to every picture.Unfortunately I wasn't able to do any general views of the stadium as we aren't allowed in until 2 hours before kick off and once in we aren't allowed up into the stands. However, once in I was happy to find my spot was at the shady end of the stadium which was good news as it was hot and sunny and the rain that threatened earlier definitely wasn't doing to happen. Then it was onto getting some crowd scenes, especially thinking of my motorbiking friends I got this one:The Russians definitely have the best looking fans so far. And to keep a balance I took one of some blokes as well:Then the game kicked off and the sun had moved around a bit so the shade had gone and I was in full sun. Bizarrely, despite choosing positions totally separately, Ben was just a couple of seats away from me. It got pretty hot so I rolled my sleeves down and put my collar up and my hat on. I had some factor 30 in the bag as well that security hadn't confiscated and sprayed some of that on as well.We did the pre-kick-off shuffle to the positions to shoot the team lineup and group shots. As we were all assembled, the ground staff turned the sprinklers on and thoroughly soaked all of us. Oh how the crowd laughed.The game itself was really messy. It took some time before I was able to get my first usable pictures out. The Focus Images remote editing capability was in the pub back in the UK so I was editing my own pics which is always a bit tricky compared to having someone else do it, but happily I had just enough space in front of me to put my Peli case on it's end and rest the laptop on top of it.I also had a load of focus issues as well, with my 400mm camera not getting sharp shots - something to do with the massive contrast but also I'd got used to a 1DX and I had my 1DIII on the 400 today as I had decided not to borrow any gear. The 1DX is much better  - I'll try and get one again for the England v Costa Rica game in a couple of days.Anyway, the game was a dull fest until Belgium scored at the other end right at the end - the wrong end for me and the celebration went even further away, and there were a load of players in the way through the crowd so it was generally a disaster. I did get Fabio Capello looking grumpy which is fairly normal after losing as far as I can tell.So, a dull game and the 75,000 crowd was definitely rather fed up with it. I tried to make up for not getting any GVs before the game by blagging my way back into the stadium once it was empty. A couple of security guards gave me a nod and a wink and I was able to sneak back in again and do some shots with my fisheye. I still need to get some good high-level external shots of the Maracana though - work in progress.Anyway, as I type I am in another power cut. In the first power cut Ben and I went out to find some food and first restaurant we found was about a mile away and happened to be an incredible "eat as much as you can" meat restaurant. We had to wait quite a while for a table, but the meat was superb. Imagine having the best top quality steak - ribeye, filet etc etc, freshly cooked and beautifully juicy, and as much as you want. Knowing we had a road trip coming up to Belo Horizonte we ate as much as we possibly could for the price of R$116 per person (about £30. When we got back the power was back on so I could update the blog, but just I was about to press "post" the power died again so we're under candlelight again, which is why you may not get this blog until the morning my time when hopefully normality is restored.