A surprising result
By Adam Morgan, 24/09/2010
So I am in Rio. Last night I am taken to a football match, a local derby – Botafogo against Vasco da Gama. The match starts officially at 9pm, although the abuse of the opposition goalkeepers as they warm up starts a little earlier than that. We sit with the away fans – Botafogo – and the first half is a sore test of their patience. Botafogo miss a couple of good chances, go two down themselves, and lose their left winger to injury. At which point, my host and I leave – we have an early start, and need to be on song. And, frankly, it looks like this match is only going one way.
I get the requisite seven hours, and when I get up I find I have two priorities. The first is to just check the view from my bedroom window is as spectacular as I think it is going to be.
It is.
And the second priority is to find out what happened in the second half of the match.
So I Google it.
I am thinking that this is going to be a pretty tall order – finding an overnight coverage in English of a Brazilian league game. But Google always delivers: there is a paper that pops up. In English, with the result and a commentary.
It’s just not an English paper. It’s China Daily.
I loved this. An Englishman in Brazil finding the report of the match he went to see last night in his own language in a Chinese newspaper. That is delicious in so many ways. Consider the timezones. Contemplate the blurring of borders. Marvel at the fact that China Daily has half an eye on Brazilian football, for God’s sake.
It’s a wonderful world. In the little things, at least.
Adam, we hope you get to enjoy beautiful Rio… which unfortunately doesn’t always get the best news coverage. For me, there’s something special about the combination of urban with ocean, mountains and tropical vegetation that is unique to Rio. Enjoy!
Great story in the ChinaDaily covering Brazilian football.
Carlos Ricardo
Carlos
Just back – and loved it. Full of happy surprises, and all too short.
We’ll be back…
Adam