“[…]working with a country the size of western Europe only 26 years out of the debilitating grip of dictatorship and still deeply statist in outlook. The young democracy’s eagerness to haul itself into modernity is reflected in something as innocuous as the decision to change electricity sockets from two-pin to three.”

World Cup 2014: It's chaos in Brazil – but don't panic

The builder they call "Mr Luis" perhaps best defines the challenge Brazil has faced in staging a World Cup.