GRÊMIO VS. GOIÁS

Yesterday was the game. It was incredible. We left the house at around 1 with a van of Grêmio fans to Porto Alegre where Estadio Olimpico (Grêmio's Stadium) is. We got there about 2 hours early and walked into the complex of Estadio Olimpico, we weren't in the actual stadium yet but we were just outside where there were a ton of people and some food stands and a Grêmio store. Every single person was wearing Grêmio jerseys and hats and coats and scarves and pants and everything you can imagine. Probably 95% of the crowd was for Grêmio. I didn't see a single person rooting for the other team, Goiás, the whole day. I saw a Goiás flag and a banner at the other end of the field but that was it. Then we entered the stadium which surprised me because it looked smaller than from what I had seen on TV. It was really beautiful though. There are two levels. The top level has all seats just like a stadium in the US. The lower level has two big sections, one has benches and the other has cement steps because no one there is sitting. The sections are separated by a tall metal grating to hold back crazy fans. At the base of the stands there is a wall so people don't jump onto the field but not only that, past the wall there is a 15 foot deep cement trench which has barbed wire all along the rim so no one gets onto the field. We were two hours early but there were still a lot of people there. The stadium kept on filling up until it was almost completely packed, it was pretty incredible. Me, Bernardo, Guto, and Arthur were in the Geral do Grêmio which is behind the goal on the lower level and is where all the craziest fans are. No one ever sits down there. It was a crazy fanatical party the entire game, even before the players were on the field. The most amazing thing about Grêmio fans is that they are ALWAYS singing their team songs. They have so many songs and everybody knows them by heart. You are just surrounded by thousands and thousands of people all wearing the same jersey, jumping up and down in synch, waving Grêmio flags, and singing the same song all together. They also have a band that plays along to the music. This all creates the most unbelievable, empowering atmosphere and experience I've ever been a part of in my life. At first I only knew like two or three songs but during the game I picked up more. When it got dark people all around us started shooting off fireworks toward the field. The Geral is the most crazy thing in the world. But the single craziest thing about it is what they do when Grêmio scores a goal. They call it "Avalanche". Everyone in the Geral runs to the bottom of the stands in an "avalanche" of people. It doesn't sound that crazy but to be in one is insane. My friends kept telling me the whole game "as soon as they score, run. It doesn't matter who is in front of you or who falls over just run". When they finally did score it was at the other end of the field so it was hard to see what happened but it was easy to know that they scored when the avalanche started. It was like being in a mass panic attack and every single person had to get to the bottom of the stands or they were going to die. I was being pushed from the back like hell so I pushed the person in front of me like hell. I can't believe I didn't trip and fall but if I had I don't know what would've happened to me. Even when there wasn't any more room to go forward, the ocean of people collapsing down on you from behind pushed you even harder into the people in front of you. It felt like being in the worst dogpile of my life but I was standing up. A huge section of people next to me started sinking down and I was being dragged down too but I fought back and stayed on my feet. Then the climb back up the stands was almost equally as chaotic. I was just using people all around me to climb. And then the chanting and singing began all over again. It was indescribable. After the first half we moved to a less crazy section because we had been jumping the whole time, Arthur's shoulder was bleeding because someone stabbed him with a flagpole during the Avalanche, and we actually wanted to watch part of the game. Everyone was still standing up but there was no risk of Avalanche. We got a good view of the goal that Grêmio was attacking but sadly they didn't score in the second half. Goiás won 2-1 and everyone was very angry. But we didn't stop singing and we left the stadium singing "O Grêmio vai sair campeão!" which means "Grêmio will emerge the champion". It was amazing and I will never forget it.