Belgium cancels scrimmage with U.S. due to traffic concerns

You have heard the dire signals about horrendous traffic in World Cup host cities such as Sao Paulo, and your skepticism meter started beeping.

Surely, you thought, it cannot be as dreadful as reports suggest.

Well, yes, at least to Belgium coach Marc Wilmots. He had arranged a private scrimmage Thursday with the U.S. at the Americans’ training base in Brazil’s most cosmopolitan town but decided to call it off out of concern that the Red Devils would spend, by his reckoning, five hours cooped up on a bus.

The commute from their headquarters in Mogi das Cruzes? About 60 miles round trip.

The only other feasible transport option was the subway. After all, the Belgians do not have the celebrity cachet of other teams, so they could blend in with the regular strap hangers.

Oh, wait, subway workers might resume their on-and-off strike Thursday. Never mind.