Maracanã

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The Maracana, what can I say, this is the stuff of boyhood dreams and everybody who likes football knows of this colossal stadium and is one of the most famous in the world and only second to Wembley for fame. When I first thought of South America as a destination, football was always one of the main reasons and couldn’t wait to see this stadium and even better to watch a few games.

Over the years the Maracana has been rebuilt and modernised and now I think it’s a 100,000 all seated stadium but not sure as when I try and find out the internet gives different numbers from 80,000 to 105,000! From history the record attendance was the 1950 World Cup final against Uruguay where the official attendance was just under 200,000 fans but people have written that it was more likely 230,000 as lots sneaked in! Just crazy and if only I had a time machine to go back in time for that game! Brazil lost the game by the way and could only imagine the mayhem afterwards!

Over the last few months I have bumped into a few people that have been and they loved it and said it’s the best ground they have been too for atmosphere. Most of the games they went to took in one of the four Rio teams, Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco de Gama who all share the ground. Surprisingly for me they said that teams fail to fill it and the average attendance was under 30,000 with it only getting busy for the local derbies or important games. This didn’t seem to matter because the Brazilians know how to party and because of this the stadium always sounds full and they had a fantastic experience.

It looks like our luck was in as when we got to Rio the first game was a Rio derby of Flamengo vs Fluminense, which apparently is the biggest game of the season! Brilliant, I had to get tickets for this. The hostel was doing the same as in Argentina and selling packages for 15 pound each but we went to the ground early on the same day of the match, queued a few hours in the Rio heat and managed to get tickets for 6 pounds and I was well chuffed and left very happy hoping for a sell out.

The kick off was 7pm so we came back a few hours before the game as the tickets we got had no seat numbers and after talking to the guy in the hostel you just sit where ever you want so advised to get there early to make sure we got a decent view. After loving the atmosphere in Argentina, I wanted to make sure we were in the thick of the action and we weren’t let down. We decided to support Flamengo as they were classed as the home team for this game and it was Brilliant. We were amidst fireworks, samba drums, non stop singing, huge flags and 75,000 crazy fans going mental it was an amazing atmosphere and like nothing I have witnessed before, it was brilliant. It’s lucky the atmosphere was so good as the match it self was pants and the quality of football was no near as good as I hoped, it was like watching a championship game at home. Fluminense won the derby 2-0 with the only 2 shots on goal of the game! Even with Flamengo losing you would never have guessed as they didn’t shut up throughout the game and can only imagine what it would have been like if they won!

One thing I have to mention is the safety. Like I said we were in the thick of it and had our camera and had no problems from anybody, if anything the fans around us were very friendly and we didn’t feel intimidated at all. After the game there was lots of police about and we didn’t see any trouble.

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Photos

Flamengo Vs Fluminense (Rio Derby)
Flamengo fans with their huge flags

Flamengo Vs Fluminense (Rio Derby)
Fluminense fans

Flamengo Vs Fluminense (Rio Derby)
This old guy is famous and comes on at halftime for every game. He manages to do kick ups until the players come back out for the second half!