Last Chance Goes Begging

Author's note:  This post covers the day of July 5th.  I wrote the post on July 8th on the plane to Dusseldorf.

Our last full day in Brazil got off to an early, sputtering start.  I woke up at 5:30 AM with the intention of going down to the beach to watch the sunrise, but it was cloudy.  The first few mornings in Brazil were all gorgeous, but the last couple days started off cloudy, ruining any chance I had of getting some cool sunrise photos of the beach.  And every evening we watched the sun set from our bus, so I didn’t get any cool sunset photos either.  But whatever.  I went back to sleep and woke up again at 7.  I then went and woke up the team.  They could either choose to wake up then and grab breakfast before heading to tour the grounds of the Brazilian first division club Vitoria, or they could stay at the hotel until noon when it would be time to leave for our last game.

I ate breakfast and then found Anderson.  Unfortunately, our intended transportation, Anderson’s friend Ronald, had not arrived and we couldn’t contact him.  So, after waiting around for an hour we were finally able to get 3 taxis to take the 8 players, 3 adults, and Ruben’s sister Neyda to the club Vitoria. 

I rode with Diego, Andres, and our Brazilian goalkeeper Marcello.  The car ride was enjoyable because we got to see a little more of Brazilian city life.  The highlight was when our taxi driver slowed down to laugh at what appeared to be an incredibly drunk and destitute man stumbling down the street.  No shirt, ripped shorts, shoes so decomposed that the soles and upper flapped apart like Pacman eating dots as he weaved a path with a Frankenstein-like gait.  We then discussed whether he was likely drunk or mentally handicapped, in which case we should feel terrible about the way that we found amusement in his stupor.

To get to the grounds of Vitoria, we climbed a hill of a few hundred feet before entering a gate emblazoned with their emblem.  Once we progressed a couple hundred feet beyond the gate the stadium was laid before us.  The field is located in a valley surrounded by higher ground on three sides.  The hillsides had been carved out and filled with concrete bleachers, save for the seats near midfield that were individual seats and separated from the bleachers by a locked fence.  The two endlines had bleachers rising beyond them.  One sideline had the seats in the center and the concessions and club store at the top.  Along the opposite sideline sat a building that housed the locker rooms, club offices, and press areas. 

We drove down a steep hill with the stadium on our left and a concrete wall on the right with spray painted caricatures of famous past players, managers, and club presidents.  I am struggling to remember names of some of these venerated club members. I do remember David Luiz was there (current player for Chelsea).  Maybe some of my players or Martin can remember and add them below in the comments?

We descended the hill and curved behind the building on the far side of the stadium.  The practice fields sit behind this building.  There are three full-sized practice fields, but only one of them looked like it was in as good of shape as the Jonesville fields.  The others were muddy and torn up.

Anderson’s friend and current club Director of Football, Flavio, met us there and began the tour.  Flavio was a star for the club back in his playing days.  Apparently he has played more games for the club than any other player in the clubs 113 year history and has his caricature included on the wall of club legends.  He explained to us that one of the practice fields was being repaired and maintained.  We met the club B team coaches leaving the fields.  We walked onto the stadium field and through the locker room.  The locker room had the first team “caixa” rules posted.  These rules stipulate the amount of money that must be deposited into a box for every infraction made.  At the end of the year, the money is donated to a charity.  Rules included penalties for infractions from being late to practices or games to urinating on the field.  We toured the press conference room, where we had fun doing a mock interview with players and taking “contract signing pictures”.  We saw the club offices and came upon a player signing his contract.  He was a native Bahian, but had been playing in Bulgaria or Hungary, I can’t remember which.  We saw the club weight room, which measured all of about 200 square feet, with just some free weights, one barbell, some weight machines, and a treadmill.  We saw the medical offices and then rode in a van back up the hill but to the opposite side, where the youth training dormitories are located.  The youth players live on site, eating in the cafeteria, and sleeping in small dorm rooms.  One really interesting feature near the dorms was a sand soccer field.  This field is left in poor shape on purpose to train their touch to be great even when the ball takes an unexpected bounce.

We also saw the “relaxation house” that is separated from the other residential buildings by a wall.  The day before a match the first team players leave their apartments and homes in the city and spend the night in what basically amount to small hotel rooms similar to the hotel we were at.  The rooms were larger, but not by much.  They included bathroom, a tv, and three beds.  In the day the players eat at together and have a pool, garden, ping pong, and billiards for relaxation.  There was also a room for pregame film sessions and a separate eating table for coaches.  After that we went to the club store before the taxis picked us up to go back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel way too late.  We rushed eating lunch and packing for the last game.  I was worried we would be late.  But traffic was no problem and we arrived an hour and 20 minutes before game time against the hometown team Madre de Deus.

Once again, this was a team we should have beaten.  They had not given up a goal against either Ypiranga or Conquista, so I expected a stout defense.  But they had only scored a combined one goal against those teams, so I wasn’t worried about us being able to stifle their attack.  I am proud to say that for the first time, we really did control the play for long stretches, especially in the first half.  We carved out a few half chances and one great chance, but Richard was unable to put his shot far enough from the keeper, and he made a diving save.  The second half was roughly even, but unfortunately they found the back of the net and we didn’t.

On leaving the stadium we went straight to downtown Salvador for the first time.  We got out at the port, walked past the Mercado Modelo and took a public transportation elevator that scaled the cliff overhanging the port.  The cathedral and wonderful views of the city awaited us at the top.  We walked through parts of the old city and went to a touristy shop for the guys to be able to buy some souvenirs and gifts.  While we were in the shop the street outside suddenly became crowded.  Then music could be heard and suddenly there was a full on parade going through this narrow one way street.  I couldn’t see much because we were so packed inside the store, and the street was so narrow that I was still 10 feet inside the store as the parade went by.  I heard the music and saw the massive statues Catholic statues that were being carried.  After the parade passed we walked back to the bus, via the elevator, as it began to rain.

From there we drove past the new stadium that is being built for the World Cup (still a LONG way to go to get that ready for the Confederations Cup next June) and to the boardwalk that we had walked to on our free day before being told it was too dangerous.  I don’t what had changed by then to make it safer, but we sat at tables on the street and bought food from the street vendors and drinks from the establishment whose tables we were using.  Some of us tried the local specialty acarajé, but most found it not to their liking.  The shrimp still had their shells on, and the flavors didn’t seem to really be as big as I was hoping.  Acarajé seems to be a type of sandwich made by layering cooked shrimp onto a kind of sweet potato mixture that is spread onto a fried roll that has been sliced open.  A spicy pepper relish can be added, as can chopped onions and other vegetables.  Most of the guys preferred the pasteles.   Pasteles are essentially hot pockets.  Dough filled with your choice of meat, cheese, sauce, or even dessert ingredients like bananas and chocolate.  The final food place there was my favorite, the tapiocaria.  They specialize in desserts using tapioca.  The tapioca is placed on a soft, sweet bread, then topped with whatever ingredients you would like, eg. coconut, chocolate, condensed milk.  Then the bread is folded into a taco-like shape.  They were delicious!  The guys had been getting quite cranky before we ate because it had been many hours and a soccer game since they had last eaten.  Finally, with filled stomachs, empty pockets, and Brazilian souvenirs, we returned to the hotel.

But the day wasn’t over.  We still had to pack.  So, starting at 11PM we packed up.  The guys were getting rowdy and we had a noise complaint from the hotel staff.  After being quiet for a while, the guys were just starting to get loud again.  I stepped out to tell them to be quiet.  Immediately upon doing this, one of the Cruzeiro players walked down our hall and indicated using a couple words and some sign language that he was trying to sleep and needed quiet to do so, but that the kids weren’t the problem.  The problem was that I was stomping around.  Well, I felt bad but somehow confused.  I wasn’t trying to stomp, but I do walk heavy, and how did he know it was me anyways?  But whatever, after finally packing up, I got to bed sometime around 12:30.  I think some of the guys just chose to stay up all night, because the next day was going to start even earlier…