Close Call

Wednesday night was another game night for the best team in sports.

That's right. Inter played again. We played against a team from Rio called Flamengo. They are a big team with a history of success in Brasilian football. We played them in the quarter finals of the Brasil Cup. I know that doesn't mean anything to most who read this but it's a big deal. The winner of this tournament qualifies for the biggest tournament in South America next year.

In the Brasil Cup you play a home and home game to see who goes to the next round. Highest combined score wins. There is also more value given to goals that are scored in your opponent's stadium. I'll try to explain. If you go to your opponent's place for the first game of a home and home game and you tie 2-2 and then you go back to your stadium and tie with them 1-1, then your team will go to the next round. Even though the combined scores were 3-3 after 2 games, your team scored 2 away goals and that is worth more. Is it clear now? Probably not.

Last week we played Flamengo in Rio and we tied 0-0. That meant that if the game in our stadium ended in 0-0 then we would go to penalty kicks. If it was tied with any other score then Flamengo would go to the semi-finals because they scored goals on our field and we did not on theirs. So we had to win to go to the next round.

It was a 9:50 p.m. start time. This is close to the Blume bed time (parents and two oldest kids.........the others go to bed even earlier), so for us those late games are always a little tough, but this was an important game. Benay never likes to do anything that starts late at night.....ever. Amazingly she agreed to go to the game with me. We also took our friends Paul and Keri. Kind of had a couples' night out at the stadium.

The game had the most electrifying atmosphere of almost any game I've ever been to (with the exception of the finals of the Libertadores). It was incredible.

We scored with just a few minutes left in the first half. The place went crazy. I love the spontaneity here of Brasilian fans. After that goal I had one man on my left hugging me and one man behind me grabbing, rubbing and shaking my head.

Then in the second half the unthinkable happened.....Flamengo scored with about 15 minutes left in the game. The silence in the stadium was incredible. It lasted for about 5-10 seconds and then the fans erupted with cheers to encourage our players.

Our coach made one last substitution about 10 minutes later. He put in a guy named Andrézinho. Four minutes after he entered the game he saved the tournament for us. How? Here's how:

The place went absolutely bonkers. 50,000 screaming soccer mad fans. Benay isn't a big soccer fan but even she went crazy with the excitement. In fact, we 4 north Americans made our share of noise.

Now we are on to the semi-finals. We play again on Wednesday night. Bronwyn and I went this morning to buy our tickets. It's the best deal in town for around $9 per ticket. We'll keep you informed.

For those who want to see the best moments of the game then click here: