Jogar futebol com os Brasileiros

One of the main reasons I chose to travel to Brazil is my love of soccer. Although soccer is popular in most places in the world (aside from the United States), the tradition of soccer in Brazil is unmatched. Brazil has won the World Cup five times, more times than any other country and seems to have a never ending stream of great players. The Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janiero is the largest stadium in the world. When Brazil is playing a World Cup match the stores are shut down, people have off from work and all other things stop as the entire country gathers to watch.



Brazilians also excel at futsal, a five-a-side version of soccer played indoors with a smaller, slightly heavier ball. I have learned that futsal began in Uruguay and Brazil since a shortage of playing fields forced people to start playing small sided games. This past weekend I decided to give futsal a try...

One of the teachers at my school invited me on Saturday night to play futsal with some of his friends. Well, to be honest, I knew that he played soccer and purposely mentioned that I was looking for people to play with and he mentioned that he would be playing on Saturday, probably thinking that I would decline the invitation to play with a bunch of men. Apparently in Brazil it is not very common for women to play soccer with men. But, I decided to give it a go.

So, are the stereotypes true? Are all Brazilian men great soccer players? Are they as chauvinistic and vain as others have described?

Well, yes and no.

When I arrived to play soccer there were about 15 people, 12 men and 3 girls including myself. The men decided to create three teams of 5, with a girl on each team, to make things equal. Although they spoke no English, I could tell that they were hesitant to have me on their team. Perhaps because I was a girl, perhaps it was lack of a Brazilian soccer jersey, perhaps because I forgot to pack my indoor soccer shoes and showed up to play in my sneakers...I had butterflies in my stomach, wanting to prove to them that I knew how to play.

We took our places to start the match and the men on my team directed me to the side of the field where I would be marking the one girl on the other team. I started the game there, but as the game went on I eventually made my way to a new spot, angered that just because I was a girl, I was expected to mark the other girl the entire game. At first the men on my team were extremely hesitant to pass the ball to me, despite my running around in circles and yelling, "Aqui! Aqui!" After I scored my first goal, I think they began to realize that I had in fact played soccer before.

The games continued on for two hours, before it was time to go home. At the end, my teammates came over to me and finally asked me my name. They told the teacher that had invited me something in Portuguese that I couldn't quite understand and then waved goodbye. As one guy boarded his moto-bike to drive home he yelled out to me, "Mesmo tempo, no proximo sabado," which means "Same time, next Saturday."

I guess I have found something to do on the weekends...