A night at the morumbi
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2007
1
6
24
Trip End
Dec 29, 2007
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The Estadio Morumbi is in the part rich, part poor suburb of Morumbi. Interestingly, the rich and poor are seperated by a cemetary. Originally, I had planned to go to the game on m own, but then I met Gustavo in the ticket queue the day before -
Gustavo - "How will you go to the game?"
Me - "I'll take a bus"
G - "No. Don't go alone, I wll take you."
Me - "Why?"
G - "You are a tourist. This is not an ordinary game. It could be confusing, maybe dangerous. Come with me, my uncle and brother."
Me - "OK."
At the time, I didn't understand. How confusing could it be? It's pretty simple - bus, match, bus, home. Right? Wrong. What confronted me outside the stadium was mad - a sea of people in red, white and black.
G - "Put your hands in your pockets"
Me - "What?"
G - "Put your hands in your pockets so no-one can steal your money."
Any other week a crowd of 30,000 would have been good, but on this night all Sao Paulo needed was a draw or a win and they would be champions - 70,000 turned up to party.
And party they did. It took until the 40th minute, but when Hernanes smashed a 25m bullet past the America-RN keeper, the crowd went nuts and didn't stop until the ref blew the final whistle. Sao Paulo dominated, absolutely dominated. America didn't have on shot on goal to test the Sao Paulo 'champion' keeper, Rogerio Ceni.
G - "Ceni is the best Brazilian player in the world!"
Me - "Really?"
G - "Yes."
Uncle - "Yes."
Brother - "Yes."
Brother's friend - "Yes."
G - "He loves Sao Paulo, so he doesn't play in Europe. The CBF (Brazilian Football Associuation) don't like him, so he doesn't play for Brazil. The CBF is corrupted, just like the Brazilian government. Ceni is a hero to the people of Sao Paulo."
I can't find the words to properly describe the atmosphere in the Morumbi, so I'll let the videos do the talking. The noise was deafening - chants, fireworks, and of course, endless whistling everytime America had the ball. I dig that the most about South American football - the whistling. 70,000 people jumping and waving flags and clapping is an awesome sight.
As out-of-control as it was inside the stadium, it never felt particularly dangerous. I had expected trouble. And everything was going well as we were leaving the stadium, too. Then it happenned. Two dudes, both Sao Paulo fans, started fighting. But no-one joined in. Everyone mved away from them, like they knew something bad was about to happen. In stormed the military police on their horses and started whopping anyone who was near the fight. Insane. Zero tolerance. It sent the crowd into chaos. Pure chaos. We managed to get out of the crowd and off the street. We then adopted a possum-like defense mechanism where we stood completely still and waited for the chaos to subside. No harm done.
For me, the high point of the match was 2 minutes before the end, when the crowd let biggest cheer of the night. I thought the ref had ended the match, but then I saw the scoreboard. Sao Paulo's bitter rivals, Corinthians, had just lost 2-1 to Flamengo. The loss puts Corinthians in the relegation zone. The crowd cared more that Corinthians had lost, than that Sao Paulo had won.
Football is different here. And the World Cup is coming in 2014....
I am still waiting for the video Gustavo took on the night, but this youtube video should give you an idea of the atmosphere in the Morumbi...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntSbToRMtos
