17FEB2007

I went to a Corinthians Futebol Match. They have the largest fan base or Gaviôes Do Fiel which you can see at YouTube all day. I didn't bring a camera because everyone wants me to be scared of being stolen from and so on and so forth. It's becoming quite difficult to get any good pics at all because someone "might steal your camera". I give up. If it gets stolen, it gets stolen, it's better to have the pictures in my opinion!

We were late to the match because Gauchos (gentleman from the southern most province of Brazil, Rio Grande Do Sol) are the latest of all Brazilians and my host happens to be a Gaucho. As we walk up to the stadium we begin to hear the roar of the crowd. Now this stadium is reported to be the single purpose stadium in the world but the en.wikipedia site says nothing about this. We actually heard the drums first, and I thought to myself, "we must be going to war." I had no idea, that this was exactly how every fan in the stadium felt. Upon entering the grounds of the stadium we are beset upon by all sides hawkers of all sorts of wares but primarily, tickets, of which I have know idea how many are fake and how many are real but my guides, the Gaucho and the Paulista (someone born in São Paulo) begin to bargain for tickets. This takes only about a second and we have three tickets for $R30 (fully half the price) and off we go to find our gate. Upon entering the stadium I am shocked and amazed by the throng of people jammed into one another. Almost no one is sitting in a seat and they are standing shoulder to shoulder singing at the top of their lungs. Interestingly, there is no alcohol for sale during the game, there is non-alcool beer for sale but, what's the point? So after an amazing goal with everyone singing and dancing and drum pounding madness, half time is called and we find a seat (assinged seats are useless in this madness) the waiting begins. On the field are some amazing bobble head guys that are playing "futebol" sort of charicatures of the teams that are playing, but no one is paying attention because more sales people are hawking the DVDs of every one of the 4999 games that came before this one. For this, is the 5000th match for the Corinthians and I am present and accounted for!

Half time ends and the madness begins again! I am, at this point, learning some of the songs and begin to sing in horrible Portuguese and if ever there was a crash course in swearing, this is it. So I'm standing there, waiving my hands in the air and cursing like a sailor because our team is sucking for whatever reason...too much cocaine last night, is what I can discern from the crowd, it happens, the other team scores. I can't believe it, no one can believe it. It just isn't possible, despite their superior play today, no one can score against the Corinthians! The attitude doesn't shift, we love the Corinthians and sing songs that say as much. In fact one of their songs says that "I'm crazy, I'm crazy for you, the more crazy I get the harder you play" loosely translated of course. The match ended tied and quietly with people sad, because if you don't win, you didn't win and when you don't win, it's not good. That's how it works with the Corinthians.

How else can I express to you the overwhelming amount of passion that is present at these games? It was incredible and all of this experience for only $R10! I can't believe I've missed this my entire life.