Missed Opportunities

Author’s note:  This blog post covers the day of July 4th.  I began writing this blog post on July 5^th on the way to the stadium in Madre de Deus.  Finished on the plane flight to Atlanta on July 8^th.

Missed opportunities must be the bane of man’s existence.  I can think of few feelings worse than realizing that you had a chance to succeed, to accomplish, to realize something unique and amazing, and that you let it get away.  It has elements of guilt, loss, and shame all brewed together into one depressing concoction.  It could be a relationship with an amazing girl that you screwed up by letting your neuroses get the best of you.  It could be that job interview that you know you blew the second you walked out the door.  For us, it was the chance to get a victory over a Brazilian squad.

We arrived in Madre de Deus yesterday (July 4th) at 2 PM, so it was still plenty bright enough for us to see the industry of this town.  It’s oil, gas, more oil, and more gas.  Pipelines and tanker refilling stations start appearing kilometers out of town, while gas tanker trucks and trucks carrying hundreds of large blue propane tanks fill the roads.  The Petrobras “BR” logo is scattered everywhere like mouse ears at Disney.

The stadium in Madre de Deus lies just a playground away from the ocean.  The stands run the length of one sideline and are slightly larger than in Sao Francisco, and the press box is larger and enclosed in glass.  The press box looks a lot like an airport air traffic control tower.  The grass on the field is of the same kind, but a little less thick.  The field is enclosed on three sides by a concrete wall that makes the field seem smaller, but it’s the same size as Sao Francisco’s.  The locker rooms and team benches are located under the overhang of the stands.  Behind one endline sits a row of two story houses giving its occupants free viewing of any game at the stadium.  Behind the other endline, workers busy themselves building (or what looks more like renovating)  a gymnasium.  From the field you can see the blustering pilot flame of an oil or gas refinery in the distance.

We got to the field with an hour remaining before kickoff despite hitting some nasty traffic leaving Salvador.  Our opponents, Ypiranga, got it even worse because their team didn’t arrive until exactly at the kickoff time of 3PM.  They were given 5 minutes to warmup, so I asked the team to press hard from the beginning before Ypiranga could get their feet under them.  It worked well and we dominated the opening exchanges.  The Ypiranga defenders almost seemed to be sleepwalking as they gave the ball away repeatedly and failed to track runners.  Our pressure was rewarded with our first goal of the tournament.  Fabio got into the box, and after one blocked shot, fed the ball to Richard, who blasted it past the goalkeeper.  The guys were excited, but we didn’t have the killer instinct we needed as we stopped pressuring as effectively and let them get more time on the ball, rather than doubling down on the pressure as we should have.  Ypiranga got a goal back on some confusion between Ty and the backline as to how to deal with a ball played into the box.

The remainder of the half was fairly even.  Neither side getting great opportunities.  But then Fabio drew a red card on an Ypiranga player by pressuring him.  The player became frustrated and hit Fabio with hand to the face as he was trying to escape the pressure.  Our advantage grew when in first half stoppage time, Ruben cut in from the left and played a perfectly weighted through ball to Fabio, who placed it past the keeper.

Up 2-1 at halftime and playing against 10 men.  That HAS to be a win.  Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.  The 2^nd half saw us fail to pressure or possess the ball effectively, meaning their man disadvantage didn’t bother them.  After getting the tying goal when Andres had to come off for a minute due to an injury, a bad pass by Grant at the back gave Ypiranga a 1v1 with Ty.  That goal hurt.  We tried to press for the tying goal, and created lots of opportunities.  Fabio and Guilherme had 1v1’s on the goalkeeper but both made a poor touch to push the ball too far out in front of them, allowing the keeper to clean them out.  Luis had a couple shots from the right hand side, but neither one found the target.

It was incredibly depressing.  But we move on and look forward to the last game.

The final of the Copa Libertadores was that night.  Corinthians (the Real Madrid of Brazilian soccer) was playing Boca Juniors (the Real Madrid of Argentinean soccer).  This was a really big deal because Corinthians, despite their Brazilian league success had never won the Libertadores.   But they finally succeeded, winning 2-0.  Their second goal looked remarkably similar to the goal that defeated us against Ypiranga.  Even professional fullbacks give the ball away at the back sometimes.

Well, that’s all I can remember at the moment about that day.  If I remember more I’ll add it later.