So we went to the finals of the South American Cup last Wednesday night to see the greatest soccer team in the world play. The regulars went (me, Bronwyn and Garrett) and our brother Garigran and his son Aaron also went with us.
We got there a little after 8:00 (for the 10 p.m. start) and it was already 60-70% full. By 9:15 it was packed. It was the first time in the history of Brasilian soccer that members of the club bought all the tickets to a game. Tickets are normally sold first to members and then open to the public. Inter now has 80,000 members and all 50,000+ seats were sold out to the members. When we left after the game people were just hanging out on the street watching tv's in their cars and listening on radios. They just wanted to be close to the stadium. I haven't seen anything like it.
We sat next to the Estudiantes (our enemy from Argentina) crowd. It was wild and the police were out in full force. Let's just say both sides were pretty animated about their teams.
Two weeks ago in Argentina we won 1-0 so the return game was back here in Porto Alegre.
If you don't follow soccer allow me to explain the typical rules. You add up both teams goals scored during both games (in a home and home series) and the one with the most wins. A tie breaking twist for these games is that during a home and home series during a championship, if you score on your opponents field it's worth more. Let's say you get beat 2-1 on their field and then next week you play in your stadium. You win 1-0. You would win the series even though it was 2-2 after two games because you scored on their field and they did not on yours.
This rule was changed during the finals of this championship. So it was the best combined score wins after the two games. If the score is tied after the two games you then play two 15 minutes extra periods. If still tied then you go to a penalty shoot out.
So, all we had to do was win last week or even end the game in a tie and we would be champions.
It was a pretty nervous night. We didn't play that well at all. They scored first. The game ended and we went to the extra periods. We score once and hold it until the end of the extra 30 minutes and we win. They score and hold and they are the champs. If no one scored we went to penalties which are insanely nerve racking. Here is what happened.
A funny thing happened during the game. I realized that it was just a game. Before the game even started Garrett was complaining of not feeling well. We went and got him someting to eat and drink and he felt better. About halfway through the second half he told me he was feeling worse. I asked him if he wanted to go home and he said yes. Funny how your son being sick can make you realize how stupid getting nervous over a game came be isn't it? Bronwyn, Garigran and Aaron graciously understood and we left the game. We didn't see the winning goal in person but heard it on the radio in the car on the way home. We got home at 12:45 this morning and got to the see the highlight of the goal.
Garrett is feeling much better today.
No Brasilian team have ever won this championship before. It was fun, again, to be a part of such a big game.
If you would like to read more about the game you can go here or check out this blog just about Inter. You can even go here to check out some more videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment