National League
I know most of you won't be interested in this (specially fellow Brazilians that happen to squee over all of the horrible, nasty rival teams xD), but I can't not share this.
Brazil has the most competitive soccer league in the world. Be it State Championship, National Cup, Brazilian Championship, or whatever regional league it is. There are usually over a half dozen team with real chances of winning, if not more.
This year it is not different. We are ONE game away from the end and the champion is still unknown. There are three teams up for the title, each one counting on a slip of the other.
The team on first place is Fluminense with 68 (most likely to win), my team Corinthians is second with 67, so it has a chance in case Fluminense loses and we win, and Cruzeiro is in third with 66, needing both teams to lose.
My team has only been below second place a couple times during the whole year, and led for a big part of it until Fluminense was able to pass because we had a couple of slips playing small teams (aren't those annoying?).
The reason I'm writing this post is that we are most likely going to lose because of rivalry with other teams. Fluminense's last two games we against the two greatest rivals Corinthians has (in the list of the world's greatest team rivalries), and the fans put an insane amount of pressure for their teams to LET Fluminense win, just to avoid making us pass to first place. It was really ridiculous.
Fluminense beat São Paulo (one of the greatest and best teams in Brazil) 4x1. In each goal the whole stadium cheered, both sides. They spoke really bad names about Corithians (things that aren't postable here) and in the Palmeiras game it was even worse. Palmeiras started the game winning (what a BEAUTIFUL goal that was!) only to be recieved with yelling, screamming, complaining and A LOT of cursing from their own fans. They called all their best players traitors of the team for actually *scoring* a beautiful goal. Their goallie was *the* star of the team and was hostilized with horrible names each time he made a save. They called him really horrible names in chorus in the whole stadium. It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. They were trully and actually mad. They threw bottles of water and objects towards him. His own fans! In the end, the pressure was must have gotten to the players and they lost 2x1.
It was sad. Both São Paulo and Palmeiras have great teams with more than enough soccer to easily beat Fluminense. And do you know the worst part? The worst part is that *I* would have done the *very* same if roles had been reversed. I'd rather see my team lose than they winning. Hands down. No doubt. I'd have gone to the stadium only to push my own team down and pressure them to lose. It's sad. Really, really sad. But I've got double standards when it comes to soccer and I don't care.
The very last game is going to be against easy teams. For both us and Fluminense. Fluminense will play against the third place from bottom up with no hopes whatsoever of staying in this league next year, Guarani, so they've got no motivation for winning. Now, there will obviously be money from Corinthians to give Guarani an extra incentive (it is NOT against the rules and I'm SO not against that), but I'm afraid that money won't matter. They don't have a team to beat Fluminense save a Christmas miracle. If they actually do it, they will totally deserve whichever amount Corinthians can afford. I'll help it if they ask me.
So I've got my fingers crossed that Santa will visit us wearing Guarani's green giving all of this Corinthian's Nation a very Merry Christmas indeed.
Cross all your fingers please!!!
Brazil has the most competitive soccer league in the world. Be it State Championship, National Cup, Brazilian Championship, or whatever regional league it is. There are usually over a half dozen team with real chances of winning, if not more.
This year it is not different. We are ONE game away from the end and the champion is still unknown. There are three teams up for the title, each one counting on a slip of the other.
The team on first place is Fluminense with 68 (most likely to win), my team Corinthians is second with 67, so it has a chance in case Fluminense loses and we win, and Cruzeiro is in third with 66, needing both teams to lose.
My team has only been below second place a couple times during the whole year, and led for a big part of it until Fluminense was able to pass because we had a couple of slips playing small teams (aren't those annoying?).
The reason I'm writing this post is that we are most likely going to lose because of rivalry with other teams. Fluminense's last two games we against the two greatest rivals Corinthians has (in the list of the world's greatest team rivalries), and the fans put an insane amount of pressure for their teams to LET Fluminense win, just to avoid making us pass to first place. It was really ridiculous.
Fluminense beat São Paulo (one of the greatest and best teams in Brazil) 4x1. In each goal the whole stadium cheered, both sides. They spoke really bad names about Corithians (things that aren't postable here) and in the Palmeiras game it was even worse. Palmeiras started the game winning (what a BEAUTIFUL goal that was!) only to be recieved with yelling, screamming, complaining and A LOT of cursing from their own fans. They called all their best players traitors of the team for actually *scoring* a beautiful goal. Their goallie was *the* star of the team and was hostilized with horrible names each time he made a save. They called him really horrible names in chorus in the whole stadium. It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. They were trully and actually mad. They threw bottles of water and objects towards him. His own fans! In the end, the pressure was must have gotten to the players and they lost 2x1.
It was sad. Both São Paulo and Palmeiras have great teams with more than enough soccer to easily beat Fluminense. And do you know the worst part? The worst part is that *I* would have done the *very* same if roles had been reversed. I'd rather see my team lose than they winning. Hands down. No doubt. I'd have gone to the stadium only to push my own team down and pressure them to lose. It's sad. Really, really sad. But I've got double standards when it comes to soccer and I don't care.
The very last game is going to be against easy teams. For both us and Fluminense. Fluminense will play against the third place from bottom up with no hopes whatsoever of staying in this league next year, Guarani, so they've got no motivation for winning. Now, there will obviously be money from Corinthians to give Guarani an extra incentive (it is NOT against the rules and I'm SO not against that), but I'm afraid that money won't matter. They don't have a team to beat Fluminense save a Christmas miracle. If they actually do it, they will totally deserve whichever amount Corinthians can afford. I'll help it if they ask me.
So I've got my fingers crossed that Santa will visit us wearing Guarani's green giving all of this Corinthian's Nation a very Merry Christmas indeed.
Cross all your fingers please!!!