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Published: April 22nd 2007
Gremio vs Caxias
Me and Jose Paulo at the game
Gremio vs Caxias What a busy week! I think my new found addiction to Brazilian coffee didn't make me realize how tired I was thus I slept about 15 hours on Saturday. Anyways to begin with I have moved apartments. I am now living with two sisters, Aline (23) and Fabiana (27). My room is pretty much a small box with a mattress, which I guess is a good thing because it means I never want to be there except for sleeping. On the up side, it is a perfect location with only a 10 minute walk from work and the girls are very nice with again an unbelievable amount of patience with my portuguese.
Things at work this week really picked up because both of my bosses arrived from Germany and Rio but it has been a lot of fun. The office is very new so there is still a lot of processes and work flow that we are trying to get into place but it is hard to call this work because it is exactly what I want to be doing. It is very cool because we are constantly switching back and forth between english, portuguese and german and there
New roomies
Fabiana, me and Eline is so much to learn. I gave a presentation to my bosses and our scouts this week over the MLS so that they would have a better idea about the league, types of players and salaries that would be a good fit. I think it went over pretty well.
Now to the main topic of this post: Internacional or Gremio? Porto Alegre currently has two teams in Brazil's top division for soccer. Internacional (or Colorado) won the Fifa World Club Championship last year beating Barcelona in the finals. Barcelona has a player most of you have probably heard of named Ronaldinho, well he was born here in Porto Alegre and began his professional career at Gremio before heading to Europe. To put this in terms that most of you would better understand: this rivalry puts Carolina vs. Duke to shame. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked in the first two weeks: Red (Inter) or Blue (Gremio). And I've given everyone the same response, I have to see both teams before I decide but I have to admit Gremio had a slight edge to begin with because of their Carolina blue jerseys and Inter wears red
Leaving the first Apartment
Me leaving Kassyus and Fabiany. They were great and as you can see Kassyus is an Inter fan. Suprislingly enough, Fabiany is Gremio. Like a Duke-Unc marriage which I of course immediately associated with NC State.
Well I got my chance to see both teams last week. Again re-iterating how nice people here have been to me, two different friends took my to the games. Thursday night I went with Francisco to see Inter play in their last Copa Libertadores game. Inter is sort of on a hang over from their success last year and have not been playing that well this year. They needed to win the second leg 3-0 in order to advance. They won 1-0. Friday night I went with Jose Paulo and his pops (who happens to be on a board of consultants to the team), and his brother. Gremio was playing in the second leg of the state tournament here in Rio Grande do Sul (the league is setup up very differently here with different state, regional and national competitions). They were suprised in the first leg by a third division team, Caxias, and were beaten 3-0 thus needing a big night on Friday. They didn't disappoint winning 4-0 and advancing to the finals. The atmosphere at both stadiums is very hard to put into words (check out the short videos
Gremio Game
Jersey just feels right in the top left corner). I have been fortunate enough to go to a lot of professional and World Cup games across the US and Europe but have never seen fans as a whole as passionate or as into the game as here in Brazil. It is really just something you have to experience to understand. Both stadiums were great but I think the craziness of winning 4-0 and advancing, and the pull of me bleeding Carolina Blue has put one team in the lead...
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Mom
non-member comment
Thanks for the visuals-only your mom will probably read this over and over-love you!!! Gremio-go Blue!!! Love you!!!