First Brazilian Soccer Game

The day after we arrived in Rio, we went to see Botafogo and Vasco play soccer. Rodrigo and his brother Rafael are die-hard Botafogo fans, so we were all cheering for Botafogo.

Soccer here is BIG TIME and it is very different from soccer in the US and sporting events there in general. Marcanã Stadium in its current state holds about 70,000 people. It held around 100,000 prior to being remodeled with bucket seats instead of bleachers. There are no assigned seats. It is all general admission, except for maybe a couple of sections where celebrities and famous people might sit. As you enter the stadium, you are directed to one half of the seating depending on which team you are cheering for. This is to cut down on the fights.

Once we were at our seats, there was a sort of minor league game going on out on the field. These are mostly high school aged kids trying to break out of the Favela’s by making it as soccer players. They play hard and even though the crowd is much smaller for these games, it is still pretty intense with all of the chanting and cheering. Botafogo won the first game.

By the time the main event started the stadium had filled in quite a bit more and the crowd was getting excited. This was just a regular season game and the closest I can compare the energy I felt in this stadium is to that of the NCAA national championship game I went to at the Rose Bowl in 2002. It was insane. All over the stadium, from little kids to senior citizens, everyone is chanting and yelling. When someone gets hurt on the other team, you don’t sit quietly hoping they are all right and cheer for them when they get up. Instead, you celebrate and talk smack to them. Imagine you are laying on the field with a torn ACL and 30,000 are calling you a pussy and telling you to get off the field so the game can finish. I don’t necessarily condone happiness in someone getting hurt, but I can think of a few people I wouldn’t be sorry to see go down for the count. I certainly wouldn’t think it crass to boo someone for wearing a Patriots jersey into Colts territory, even if said person was a little girl. She shouldn’t have even been allowed into the dome with that thing. I digress.

There are various cheering blocks for either side. They wave flags and lead chants and generally appear to try and incite chaos. No one will try and tell you to sit down if you are standing up and yelling for your team, and you definitely won’t be told to wait for a break in the action before you cross in front of people to get to your seat. If you are in someone’s way for too long, you will probably just be pushed aside.

All over the stadium people were waving sparklers throughout the game and it was perfectly acceptable. Try bringing a box of those into an NFL game.

Probably the best part about Brazilian soccer was the pace of the game. If it gets to slow, the crowd starts yelling at the players to go faster. Apparently, when tens of thousands of crazed South Americans tell you to do something…you do it. It makes for an exciting game.

The highlight was a Botafogo victory on a penalty kick score with only a couple of minutes left in the game. I’m hooked and I look forward to more games on this trip.