A few Sundays ago, Flamengo, arguably the most popular soccer team in Rio, won the Brazilian Championship for the first time in 17 years. Achieving their sixth national title in a 2-1 win over Grêmio in a crowded Maracanã stadium, the 38th edition of the championship “came to an end with enough drama to rival one of the country’s famous soap operas,” boasted one blog.
Drama was, in fact, everywhere. Normally when there is a soccer game cheers, jeers, and gasps can be heard from anywhere in the city. So many people are watching the game that you will be sitting in your living room, and all of a sudden, life in your house will pause for an instant. Noise – screaming, cursing, and/or fireworks – floods the streets before life can resume.
So, on this day, if you can imagine, the entire country was paralyzed. Even non-soccer fans were glued to the television, holed up in bars, and getting rowdy in the street.
Soccer fans were generating so much noise that thieves were able to use cheering as a disguise for blasting, as they made their way through 110 yards through of solid rock to steal $6 million dollars from a cash delivery firm in São Paulo. These thieves had dug a tunnel one yard high by one yard wide, and clearly waited for the opportune moment to execute this operation. Even though security guards heard the noise at about 5 p.m. on Sunday, they figured it was from fireworks that soccer fans had been setting off throughout the afternoon.
During all of this, I, for one, was trying to take a nap as I’m not really into soccer. But clearly the nap was in vain.
That night as I drove to dinner with some friends, my one friend sitting in the backseat of the car took off his Flamengo jersey, hung it out the window, and started shouting to his fellow comrades. He wasn’t alone. Buses, motorcyclists, bicyclists were also flashing their lights and beeping their horns. Pedestrians of all ages were waving their banners and shaking hands with one another, in between shouting in celebration.
After dinner, the cheers subsided slightly as Rio fell asleep. But at 2:00 a.m. there was a resurgence. An impromptu ticker-tape parade – complete with blaring music, large floats and screaming marchers – came down one of the main streets in Botafogo. In my sleepy state, I remember thinking, “Man…well, at least they didn’t lose!”
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Soccer never really caught on in the U.S. Mainly because there’s very little scoring going on and American’s need instant gratification. We are lucky to have a multitude of sports to watch and enjoy…from Hockey to Baseball, Basketball to American Football. Something for everyone. Too bad about Soccer. They tried starting leagues but they never had the audience that they have in Europe and South America. Out loss.