Rivalries

This past Sunday we went to our first Gre-Nal.

Gre-Nal is a game between the two professional soccer teams in our city. Internacional and gremio (still can't bring myself to use capital letters for them).

Benay and I grew up in the southern part of the United States where SEC football is king. I understand rivalries. Alabama-Auburn. Alabama-Tennessee. Tennessee-Florida.

We understand Yankees verses Red Sox.

We understand rivalries - or at least we thought we did. No offense to those of you who think those are rivalries, but they literally are small potatoes in comparison to what we have in our city.

Nothing we have in the states compares to the intensity or the rivalry of a Gre-Nal. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen. Fans from both sides will shoot fireworks off in the city when the other team loses, or when their team scores a goal. That goes for when you are playing each other, or even when either team is playing a team out of our city. Crazy.

Anyway, in our 7 years here we have never been to a game where they played each other. We bought into what Brasilians (and some Americans) told us about any Gre-Nal. They told us never to go to these games and especially don't take our kids because of how dangerous they are. They lied. Don't get me wrong. If the fans actually had a chance to sit next to each other it would not be pretty. There would definitely be some drunken brawls.

But this is the reason you don't have to worry about that happening:This was about 45 minutes before the game started. As you can see, there are 2-3 empty sections between the enemies' blue jerseys and any type of red jersey. There were also lots of police officers at the borders of the empty spaces. Security was tight and we are always thankful for that.

We bought tickets for me, Bronwyn, Ansley and Garrett. At the last minute Ansley decided to stay at home because of a big test she had the next day. We offered Giu the ticket, and he decided to go. It was pretty painful for him to sit with us because he likes the other team. In order to keep him safe we made him wear one of our jerseys. We didn't fear for our safety at the game, but we sure weren't going to invite trouble by having an enemy jersey. He wasn't happy.This picture shows why it would not have been a good idea to have a blue jersey sitting beside us. Nothing but a beautiful sea of red.
It's always fun to see our fans in action.
Here is what that would look like if you were sitting right in the middle of it:

Then it was game time. I love this picture because of the sign above the stadium. It says, "Campeão de Tudo" which means champion of everything. We are the only Brasilian team to have won every major championship. Yes, I'm bragging.
It didn't start well for us. The bad guys made a goal first. As we mentioned on Saturday it was our club's 100 year anniversary. All the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" before the game. To lose to our hated rival on our most important birthday would not have been good.

We quickly turned it around and made our first goal on a penalty kick. I love this picture because in the bottom left hand side you can see Giu just dying as we scored, and he had to try to pretend not to be dissappointed by covering his face with his sweat shirt.
It was a great game. How did it end up?
Everyone's favorite soccer team: 2 and the bad guys: 1.

Here are the highlights from our victory (mainly for my dad, father-in-law and Sascha). Enjoy.