South American Football

One of the best things about South America is it's football. Here's a brief account of three games I've attended in the last month here.

Last month I took a short trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and in the latter city I attended a game. Paying 120 Uruguayan pesos (just under £4) to watch Peñarol, the best team in the country, didn't seem like a bad idea, coupled with the fact that there wasn't much else to do on that late autumn Sunday back in April. The whole experience was very South American. The Centenario, in which the game was held, was built to commemorate both a hundred years of Uruguayan independence from Spanish rule and for the purpose of hosting the majority of the first ever World Cup's games. This was back in 1930, and not a lot has changed since. Not a single steward was visible inside the ground - the menacing police on the outside was the only presence of authority around. The fans, therefore, were left to their own devices, which consisted of flare lighting, exuberant singing and dancing, drug smoking, and general self-controlled anarchy. In other words, light years away from 21st century English football (but not dissimilar to what the game was like in the UK pre-Premiership, or some European leagues today). The game itself was an entertaining spectacle - Peñarol opened the scoring with an awesome bit of skill by their Argentine no. 10, but the opposition Liverpool managed to take the lead before half time. Cue frustration among the gathered masses, but following an equalizer after 70 minutes, Peñarol scored two in the dying minutes to provoke unbridled joy. The quality of football on display was of a good standard - but I don't see any of either teams players being the target of transfer speculation from Europe's big boys. Having said that, the price to entertainment value was excellent - when it's 10x cheaper to watch this than Man Utd or Chelsea you can't complain.

A week later I was in the Engenhão in Rio de Janeiro, watching a classico between Flamengo and Fluminense. The Engenhão is a 40,000 capacity stadium located in the north zone of the city, and is acting as a stop-gap for Rio's major teams now that the Maracana is closed for repairs. Only four years old, the stadium reeks of Ikea-Cardboard-Cutoutness - it could be put in any city in Europe and not look out of place, such is it's lack of any discernable character. This makes it look highly incongruous in relation to it's surroundings of drab lower class neighborhoods. About the only thing in common between the two experiences was the passion of the supporters - again, unremitting chanting and singing for 90 minutes. Curiously, unlike any other stadium I've been in, the hardcore fans were based at the side of the pitch, not behind the goal, but it didn't hamper the excellent atmosphere. As for the on-the-pitch occurrences, the torrential rain greatly hindered the free flowing football we were supposed to be seeing, and the fact that the highlight of the game was the penalty shootout says it all. Interestingly, halfway through each half the game stopped for a few minutes for tempo técnico - a short break for the players to gather instructions from their manager (instead of having them yelled at him from 30 yards away), and for the team to take stock of their performance so far. It baffled me at the time, but I've since been told that it's a recent innovation in Brazilian football which may well be popularised in the rest of the world

Last night I saw Vasco da Gama vs Avai in the semi finals of the Copa do Brasil. Alluded to in it's name, Vasco was formed by the Portuguese, which is shown in not only the architecture of the stadium itself (the São Januário) but also the surrounding area. You could convince yourself you were in Lisbon at times, albeit a rather rundown area. Although lacking in capacity, the stadium more than makes up for it's lack of numbers with a terrific, very Brazilian atmosphere. Living in the south zone of Rio I often forget what real Brazil feels like - a trip to the decidedly un-gringo suburb of São Cristóvão, which surrounds Vasco's ground, is a great reminder. Yet despite the packed ground and the fever pitch atmosphere, the game was let down by lack of quality - a far cry from the Vasco side, who with Romario and Edmundo beat Man Utd eleven years ago.

I hope to catch some of the national championship games (a chance to see Neymar and Ganso of Santos in Rio) before I head home in a month.

Jack