The historic wave of protests sweeping across Brazil in recent days has gained some important allies - the players of the Brazilian national soccer team.
Brazil is hosting the Confederations Cup, a tournament of continental champions that serves as a warm-up for next year's World Cup. But the Brazilian players' focus has turned to the demonstrations for improvements in basic services such as public transportation, schools and hospitals.
The Brazilian players were reluctant to speak about the demonstrations at first, but it became difficult to avoid after hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to show their displeasure with politicians, authorities and local government.
Brazil striker Hulk says after seeing the demonstrations, he felt ''like joining them.''
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