No More Onion Bags

Brazil Should Win Every World Cup

// January 29th, 2010 // Uncategorized

I just got back from a two week vacation, most of which I spent visiting my parents in Uruguay.  It was summer down there, and I spent most of my time at the beach.  It was wonderful.  Uruguay is a soccer-mad country, so there were countless games on the beach.  I got myself into a couple of juggling circles, and scouted various games of beach foot-tennis.  From my eye, the future of Uruguayan soccer looked strong — everyone played, and pretty darn well.

Then my girlfriend and I spent four days on our in Rio de Janeiro on our way back to the States.  First of all, if you haven’t been to Rio, it’s time for you to go.  Right now.  Drop your iPad tablet thingy and pack a bag (all you need are flip flops, bathing suits, and tank tops, which comprise the Rio uniform).  That city is amazing.  Great weather, great people, music everywhere, and beautiful beaches that are only minutes away on the subway or bus.  And the place is more soccer-crazy than even Uruguay.  I’ve never seen a higher concentration of people walking around in soccer jerseys (since it’s Brazil, many of them are of the sleeveless variety).  What’s nice is that it’s also the highest concentration of women wearing soccer shirts that I have ever seen. 

My girlfriend and I made it out to the world-famous Maracana stadium to catch a Fluminese game in the Carioca (Rio) championship, which was awesome.  As soon as I walked through the ages, I raised my arms and screamed “Uruguay, champion, 1950!”, since Uruguay won the World Cup final there 60 years ago.  (The security guards cracked up.)  What an experience in the stadium.  Not a ton of fans (it was a small game versus Volta Redonda), but people sang throughout, at least 75 percent of fans wore team shirts, and at least 40 percent were women on children.  Just a wonderful environment.

What really struck me most about Brazilian soccer culture, though, was what happened on the beach.  Everyone knows that Brazilians are good at beach volleyball — volleyball courts run all along the beaches.  What is crazy, however, is that they use these same courts to play foot-volley (futevolei).  Not the way I play it, which is over a tennis (not volleyball) net, or no net at all, and allowing the ball to bounce once on each side.  They simply play it like volleyball, just without hands.  Two players on each side, covering an entire side of a volleyball court, over a regulation volleyball net: simply amazing.  Each team gets it over at least three or four times each before one of them ends up doing a vicious overhead kick over a volleyball net! to win the point.  Amazing.  And they do it wearing Speedoes, which made it feel a little like a time warp.

I’ve never seen anything like the skill on display, except in these insane videos from Thailand and Malaysia.  But since the Thais and Malays don’t actually care all that much about soccer, I think the Brazilians have the soccer world on lockdown for the forseeable future.  Not that we didn’t know that to begin with, but now at least you know why. 

Posted by Lazar