Arrival In Brazil

So, I wrote this blog post on Friday night in Word.  The internet at the hotel isn’t working in the room even though they gave us the password.  I don’t know what’s going on, but none of us can connect.  So I'm posting this from the lobby, and it takes forever to upload pictures, so I'll add more later.

Anyways, the trip down here went fine.  I sat next to Diego and Gabriel on the flight from Orlando to Sao Paulo.  They really enjoyed the games available on their personal entertainment system in the back of the seat in front of them.  Diego found the time to point out to me every time he won a hand of video poker against the computer despite his reckless playing style.  He either won it all or lost it all fast.  That’s what happens when you continue to bet despite having a 2-7 off suit in the hole.

We had very little time in the Sao Paulo airport.  We made it through customs, checked our bags again, and made it to the gate in time to catch the last bus to our plane.

While waiting to pick up our bags in the Salvador airport, who do we see but Cruzeiro, the team we play tomorrow.  They have some big boys on their team, but size is the least of my concerns for tomorrow.  I’m worried about how we play together, if we’ve had enough time to gel and play as one.

A bus was waiting for us to take us to our hotel.  We drove for about 15 minutes, and they dropped us off, a nice hotel, small soccer field on the side, fancy lobby.  But no sooner had we gotten our bags into the lobby than they realized they had taken us to the wrong hotel!  Apparently this hotel is for the Brazilian U17 national team.   So, we put our bags back in the bus and then proceeded to drive around for 20 more minutes, making 2 u-turns in the process before the driver finally found the hotel we were actually staying at.  And who else should be staying there too, but Cruzeiro!

The hotel rooms are small, and we’re crowding three people into each room.

But the views make up for it.

The beach is gorgeous, but a little dangerous due to all the rocks and strong surf, so the players aren’t allowed in the water during the afternoon when the waves are stronger.

We have added 6 Brazilian players to our team, and I’m still trying to learn all of their names.  Unfortunately, only two of them speak any English, and only one of them, Matheus, really understands me.  So I had Matheus translate for me as I explained our formation and tactics.  I had no to paper to use, so we did this on the beach where I could draw on the sand.  Probably the coolest chalkboard session I’ve ever done.

The food has been pretty good here at the hotel.  The beef and onions at lunch was very good, and rice and beans is good too.  It seems they will serve rice and beans at every meal.  There’s also some kind of cilantro-pepper salsa at each meal that is insanely hot.  They served us some kind of fruit juice that was a little bitter and not very sweet.  Everyone was kind of disappointed until one of the staff assigned to us pointed out that we were supposed to add sugar to it at the table.  Within seconds everybody was pouring sugar packets and the sound of drinks being stirred was louder than any conversation.

Now I’m sitting in the hotel room trying to figure out the best way to approach tomorrow’s game from a personnel standpoint.  I need to make sure I have cover on the bench at every position, but at the same time I want to start the strongest team possible so that we can keep the game competitive for as long as possible.  There has been somebody setting of fireworks outside the hotel.  I’ve heard that the 3^rd of July is a Brazilian holiday, so maybe someone’s starting their celebrations early.

That’s gonna do it for me.  I’ll do my best to get internet tomorrow so I can post this and the result of our first game.