Vasco Boy

On Wednesday 13th May our Brazilian friend and host took us to Sao Januario for a Copa Brasil match. His (and my new) team, Vasco Da Gama, named for the Portugese navigator and still, as Edu explained, traditionally the Portugese community´s Rio team (there are four), was playing the first leg of the quarter-final against a team (Vitoria, from Bahia) in the division above. Vasco, who play in black and white, were relegated to the second tier for the first time ever last year and are hoping for an instant return, though this match was irrelevant to that campaign, which has just begun.

The first of Vasco´s goals arose from a careless error in the box by a Vitoria defender, pounced upon and slotted in from eight yards. Second was from a corner and the game was over by half-time. After the break and a non-alcoholic beer, a curling free-kick pretty much ended the tie but it was all wrapped up when a Vitoria defender handled a through ball and saw red for his effort. The resulting free-kick was smashed into the net and Vasco take a 4-0 lead north in a couple of weeks.The Vasco fans were livelier than in any English match, with jigs aplenty, particularly behind the goal. However, the stadium was less than capacity and there were very few opposing fans. I was able to join in with some of the chants and was happy to stand the whole of the second half (we had sat on the terrace for the first, and getting up and down was bothering my knees). The only surprise was the abuse heaped upon one or two of Vasco´s own players when they failed to add to the rout.