If there was a sport Brazil needed to win gold in most at this year’s Olympic Games, it was football.
In need of redemption after their humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the FIFA World Cup semifinals in 2014, it was fitting Brazil was to face them once again in the Olympic final.
While thousands of people flocked to Rio’s historic Maracana Stadium to watch the spectacle unfold, Newshub’s Greg Pearson, Simon Ashworth and I joined the locals at a sports bar in suburban Barra da Tijuca.
It was small, but busy. About 40 people gathered around modest wooden tables. Everyone chatting in excited but ever-so-slightly nervous-sounding Portuguese.
We were there primarily to shoot footage for Greg’s story on the football, but settled in with some pizza and a cerveja - getting involved like everyone else. The atmosphere reminded me of being in a pub during an All Blacks test match back home.
Once the game got underway, the expected emotions of a nation teetering on the edge of a gold-medal cliff went on display.
Gasps every time the Germans got close to the Brazilian net. Cheers-turned-groans every time Brazil went in for a shot on goal but missed. Hands clutching faces. Fingers running through hair.
Things changed in the 27th minute, when Brazil’s Neymar took a successful free kick on goal. The place erupted.
Germany leveled the scores in the second half, and there was a lot of nervous waiting through until full time and extra time.
Then, the penalty shootouts. Every time Brazil scored, the bar exploded with a confetti of cheers like they’d won already. There were stifled gasps every time Germany knocked one in.
Germany missed its fifth penalty shot on goal. Brazil didn’t. That meant a gold medal for Brazil, and at least two minutes worth of the loudest cheering and vibrant celebrations I’ve ever seen.
A lot of noise came out of that little bar in Rio tonight. Lots more would have been coming from the Maracana Stadium. But for me, I couldn’t think of a better place to witness a memorable moment in Brazilian sport.
Newshub.
