So we happened to get some tickets (thanks Veri!) to this match in Sao Paulo. Both teams were in the top 3 of the championship, so the tension was expected to be high:) Another special feature of the match, that Ronaldo (the fatty one) is playing in Corinthians, but planning to retire next year. Great opportunity then to see him on one of his last matches. As we found out, in the team of Corinthians, there is another legend, someone I like way more than Ronaldo: Roberto Carlos!
So we arrived all enthusiastic to the stadium, which turned out to be not the stadium of Corinthians, but some replacement one, as most stadiums in Brazil are closed down for reconstruction for the upcoming world cup. There were around 35 000 supporters, and painfully enough only a dozen toilets:)
The match started in pouring rain, huge flags and banderas were covering all sides of the stadium to greet the local favorites: Corinthians. We quickly learnt the local cheering also, which is not really complicated: “Timao, timao”, and slight variations;)
Cruzeiro was way better throughout the match, and the celebrated star, Ronaldo was catastrophic. Not that we expected much more, but every time he got the ball, the ball was bouncing away, or he was pushed to the ground by a defender. A performance that even semi professional Hungarian players can easily reproduce. Roberto Carlos was also just a shadow of his past: inaccurate passes, less running, lacking any enthusiasm. All together it was comical to see them but also an honor, since they were such great players some years ago.
The match was 0-0 until the last 10 minutes, when Ronaldo produced one of his theatrical falls inside the penalty zone and the referee awarded a penalty kick. Bothered by no one, he managed to score and thus winning the game for Corinthians. Just by this he became the man of the match, ironically.
During the match the big display showed a number of interesting statistical data, we try to remember some of them:
- number of visitors: cca 35k
- number of military/police visitors: 1k
- priests of different churches: 13
- students: 1k
- number of people wearing no.9 Ronaldo shirts: 40k
- distance covered by Ronaldo: 12m
- Hungarian visitors: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment