Futebol Match -- SPFC v Santos

Soccer, or futebol, is big in Brazil, (just like the rest of the world besides the States). Sao Paulo has 3 teams: Sao Paulo FC (Futebol Club), Corinthians FC, and Palmeiras FC. Gustav wanted us to see Corinthians, and the guy that came for one of our culture classes was a radio announcer/futebol historian for Corinthians, but we went to Morumbi stadium on Sunday and saw Sao Paulo play Santos, which is the city right on the coast an hour from here.



It was a ton of fun! It was shorter than most U.S. sports, we were only in the stadium for about 2 hours. Fun fact: the stadiums are allowed to sell alcohol, in an effort to keep people more civilized. So they only have cerveja sem alcool, non-alcoholic beer.








The crowd was awesome! Granted the stadium was far from full, but there were sections for the casual fans of each team, and of the hardcore fans for each team. We were in the section where people stood the whole game and as soon as the match started they started to chant, and kept the chant going, and going....and going. We thought they would just sing it a few rounds and then stop, but they kept it right up through the whole match! They switched up the chant, and sometimes it got softer or louder, but people were literally chanting the entire game. It was pretty cool, though we wish we knew what they were saying! We went along with the clapping and singing whatever words in English it sounded like though, so it was really fun. I got a video, I'll try to upload it if I get a chance.

Lex, Pano, and Jared sporting the flag of Sao Paulo FC

 About the 3 teams:
When I was at Club Lion last weekend, I was talking to a pair of Brazilian girls that spoke English very well. I had a solid chat with them about our time in Brazil so far, and I told them that we went to a Sao Paulo FC match. She was a Corinthians fan though, and said not to root for Sao Paulo, because "they're a fag team" haha oh man. The guys I met at Clash (another night, another club) were also Corinthians fans, except for one lone Palmeiras fan haha. Its like Jets-Giants in NY, or White Sox-Cubs in Chicago. Guess you've just got to pick one!

Pano, Lex, Jared, and Sunny eating Popsicles, they were pretty cheap and came in either lime or coconut. There was also people selling water and other snacks, just like a U.S. sports game

Santos ended up beating Sao Paulo 2-0, which was a little sad. But not really, since we had been Sao Paulo fans for all of about 90 minutes! We left a few minutes early to beat the crowd and got knockoff jerseys for R$ 20,00 (like 9 bucks) from a guy on the street.