Internacional-Champions of the Dubai Cup

Those of you who know us well know that our family has a passion for our soccer team. Internacional is the name of our favorite soccer team. They are based here in Porto Alegre and we go, as often as possible, to see them play. In 2006 we won the World Championship. Which basically means that all the teams of the world played an elimination tournament on all of the continents. Bronwyn and I were blessed (through a gracious gift from her grandfather) to witness, in person, the finals of the South American championship. It was, without a doubt, the best, most incredible sporting event I've ever been to. It is a memory that Brownyn and I will never forget. The winners of all the continental championships are then invited to play in a tournament in Japan each December. In 2006 we won the championship against Barcelona who was/is one of the strongest teams in the world.

Anyway, a rich sheik in Dubai puts together a tournament in January and he invites different champions from around the world. It's called the Dubai Cup. This year he invited us (because of our world championship) and he also invited last year's Italian champion (Inter de Milan), German champion (Stuttgart) and the Dutch champions (Ajax). We beat Stuttgart first and then this past Monday we played Inter de Milan in the final. They are one of the stronger teams in the world and so it was really nice to get the chance to play them. Then to beat another European power, like Barcelona, was icing on the cake. Here is a picture of the sheik with our team captain.



Since we've arrived in Brasil I've found out what the world already knows.....that soccer really is the "beautiful sport." I never watched or paid much attention to soccer before we moved here but now I/we really love it. Here is a video of one of our favorite players, Nilmar (and Ansley is hopeful that he might be her future boyfriend), making the goal that won the championship for us by way of a bicycle kick. It is a thing of beauty.