ALLAN D’CRUZ
FATORDA: Thousands of football enthusiasts set ablaze the Fatorda Stadium creating an electrifying and vociferous atmosphere on Friday evening.
The much awaited match of the tournament did manage to live up to the expectations as the spirited and passionate football enthusiasts —undoubtedly Brazil fans — thronged to the stadium wearing the pristine yellow jersey showing their love for the South American nation.
‘Ole Ole Ole Brazil, Brazil! The fans interspersed the chants. For a moment, surely Brazil felt playing at home in front of their own fans. The dull and cloudy weather conditions and the fear of the unexpected showers didn’t stop the fans of making it to the stadium. Luckily there were no showers!
The locals hardly knew any youngsters, but the half-packed arena made no excuses to applaud the three-time champs, who took the field wearing the unusual blue colours.
Brazil coach Carlos Amadeu was happy to play in Goa. “The kind of support we got here, we felt like home. The fans were great.”
It was all about el Selecao in Goa! A night to remember for the Goan fans and cherish their moments of watching the future Brazilian stars in action.
“Wow! I simply can’t explain the feeling of watching my favourite team. Though they are youngsters and just 17 surely at least 6-7 of them will make it to the senior team in years to come,” expressed a young fan Briden Andrade from Collem.
Brazil didn’t keep their 15,814 spectators waiting for long as to open the account.
From boys, girls, young and old, everyone enjoyed the Brazilian treat, who beat Niger 2-0 in the last Group D clash to top the group with nine points. Niger played a tough game that they saw them earn praise from the locals too.
“I didn’t expect Niger to play such a good game. They gave a fight to their opponents. Brazil had the possession yet again and should have scored more. Overall a great result,” said Jovito Mascarenhas.
However, the ‘sold out’ match as claimed by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) witnessed just 15,000 odd spectators, raising questions to the other 4,000 vacant seats.
“It’s surprising to see the empty seats for the match when there were so many locals looking out for the tickets. Surely those seats must of the people who carry the complimentary passes and feel no pinch of not making it to the match, as they haven’t paid for them. The complimentary passes must be given to football passionates and not just anyone,” complained another fan Samford Fernandes from Nuvem.
While the history said the two nations were once connected by Portuguese colonial rule or the Lusofonic relation, however, on Friday the state was once again linked with the South American nation but this time it was because of ‘The Beautiful Game’.
