Joga bonita

I had a very Brazilian futebol moment in Brazil yesterday!  After seeing and hearing very little about the round ball game, scarcely any joga bonita to speak of (but lots of fireworks in São Paulo for the centenary selebrations for Corinthians), I was in the car with Thiago and Jane driving back to Belo Horizonte from Serra do Cipó. 

First some background … there are two first division football teams in Belo Horizonte - Cruzeiro (doing rather well this year - Jane’s team) and Atlético Mineiro (languishing near the bottom of the table since about 1972 - Thiago’s team).  The big stadiums (and they are huge, particularly Minarão) in BH are closed for renovation, in preparation for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.  The home games are therefore being played in the interior of Minas Gerais state, 3-4 hours drive away and out of the reach of most of the fans.  Home games are not broadcast free to air in the state of origin either - but for a princely sum (R$50-70) you can see them on cable.

In amongst listening to music, Thiago was occasionally tuning the radio to the Cruzeiro v. Palmeiras game to annoy Jane, as Cruzeiro were trailing 0-1.  At some stage we heard a roar from the surrounding cars in the traffic jam in Santo Lago - Cruzeiro had obviously scored a goal in play.  There happened to be a bar nearby screening the game on cable TV, and most of the nearby cars tried to get in line to watch the replay.  I was laughing, but everybody else was deadly serious. 

Later that night São Paulo defeated Atlético Mineiro 3-2, but for Thiago’s sake I will leave it at that ...

Incidentally, Cruzeiros won … but if you need a solid bet for national champions this year, it’s Fluminense from Rio de Janeiro, and daylight second - so the local experts tell me (and they are, mais ou menos, all experts).