FUTEBOL

Apparently keeping up with soccer is a full time job in Brasil.  It’s impressive actually.  I honestly didn’t even know there were this many soccer games going on in the world.

It’s almost like a social network here, everyone knows what’s going on, is watching the same games, and therefore is all on the same wavelength.  Everywhere you go you can start up a conversation about the game last night, or this morning or this afternoon or the game coming up tomorrow, or all of the above.  Not to mention that most places are, of course, playing the games on their televisions. 

So don’t worry because if you are at work, you can always check online for the score, and when you take your lunch break you can watch it pretty much anywhere you go.  Or at the very worst, if you really can’t watch it at all, you certainly still don’t need to worry because if a team scores, you will, without fail, hear someone scream “GOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!” from at least one home or business on the street.  It’s like a city of soccer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Like The Truman Show, this thing that everyone is in on and everyone is watching…all the time.

If you leave to get a sandwich, the sandwich booth guy is watching the game, along with everyone on the street.  If your team looses, you don’t answer your phone because you know it’s your brother’s friend's somebody who was rooting for the other team just waiting to rub it in your face. And when you meet people for the first time you have to ask what team they root for, because that obviously defines who they are. 

About a month ago, my mom was hosting a Brazilian exchange student whom of course I told that I had a Brazilian boyfriend and would be moving to Brazil.   His third question, after asking what city I would be going to and when, was to know what team Daniel roots for.  At that time, I did not know the answer to this question.  Which yes, now realizing I just spent four paragraphs ranting about how important this game is here, I am now embarrassed by my previous ignorance.  

So, in case you are Brazilian and DYING to know, Daniel has a team he roots for for every country he has lived in.  For Brazil, he roots for Sao Paulo, for Spain he roots for Real Madrid, and for Italy he roots for Milan. 

I had already thought the obsession with soccer here was a little excessive, and then a few days ago I found out something that really just put it over the edge.  Apparently all the times I have seen Daniel watching soccer games, or as they call it ‘futebol’, he was often actually watching two at the same time on television, and following another two or three on his computer.  Yes you added that up right, FIVE. I mean talk about devotion. 

Eventually I had to ask Daniel what they do in off season.  He paused for a while and then said, “…nothing…we wait” and then laughed hysterically.
Probably because it’s true.   

The other day my father sent me an email with an article, “10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Brazil”, by Jessica Festa.  #5. Brazil’s soccer team is the only team in the world that has participated in every World Cup. 

I may not have known this specific statistic, but it CERTAINLY doesn’t surprise me. And in case you were interested, they have won five of those world cups. 

To recap:

LIFE IN BRASIL = SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER