Sao Paulo vs Boca Juniors

Last Thursday saw Bernardo and I awash in a sea of Red, White and Black as 'El Tricolor' hosted Argentinian powerhouse Boca Juniors for the Recopa Sul Americana title and for bragging rights.



Matches between Brasileiros and Argies are always fierce and I was hoping that this one will not disappoint. From the very beginning, the Sao Paulo fans set the mood for the night, with their singing and chanting....from passionate hymns saluting their club to more rowdy chants aimed towards insulting Boca Juniors and their band of supporters who traveled all the way from Argentina to support their team. This is what I like about football...sometimes it is not about who is playing but more about the atmoshpere created by the interplay between fans and the team.



Indeed, sometimes my focus was more on the spectacle around me than the game that was ongoing on the pitch. Not that the quality found on the pitch was lacking. In fact the game we saw was a good one, not devoid of excitement and, more importantly, of goals.

It was interesting how contrasting the two teams played. Sao Paulo, I would say, had the better individual players. Individual brilliance and technique causing most of their goal scoring chances. However, tactically they were very disorganized. Boca Juniors, on the other hand, was a well oiled machine. Their passing and movement without the ball was a sight to behold. So much so, that Bernardo, who is Brazilian thru and thru, was rooting for the team from the land of the enemy...albeit not too loudly...lest we incur the wrath of the legions of Sao Paulo fans all around us.

And they had reason to have their wrath incurred. Sao Paulo actually opened the scoring....a brilliant through ball releasing one of the forwards who deftly sidefooted the keeper for the goal. Like I said, individual brilliance. The Sao Paulo crowd was delirious after the goal.



Boca, however, was not fazed. They had been sitting back throughout the match but after the Sao Paulo goal, they piled on the pressure, creating several chances that were kept out by desperate defending and the brilliance of Sao Paulo keeper Rogerio Ceni. Alas, Sao Paulo flirted with disaster too many times and less than 10 minutes after the Sao Paulo goal, the score was level again.

By the time Boca scored a second goal after some horrendous defending by Sao Paulo, it was all over. Because Boca came into the match leading 2-1 on aggregate, the second goal of the night for Boca meant that Sao Paulo had to score 3 more goals just to win. Something they were unlikely to do. The crowd, unfortunately, vented their frustrations in a violent way. Rioting ensued in one section of the stands and in the commotion a Sao Paolo supporter fell from the railings. We took this as our cue to exit the premises and call it a night....not risking the chance that the crowd would turn even more violent.