Atlético, Atlético

When you marry someone, you marry into their family, their country and their culture.  When you marry a Brazilian, this will usually include football.  Not only do you have a cast-iron excuse for supporting Brazil, but you will more than likely pick up a new league team as well.  For me, this team is Atlético Paranaense, nicknamed Furacão (hurricane.)

Everyone knows about the Brazilian national football team – they’re the most successful national side with 5 World Cups under their belts and are known for their flair and skill.  Not so much in the 2014 World Cup, but I’ll gloss over that for now.  Surprisingly, though, not so many people outside Brazil are aware of leagues in Brazil.

The 20 teams in the 2015 Brasileirão

The main event is the Campeonato Brasileiro, Brazilian Championship, which is divided into 4 leagues from Séria A to Séria D with a system of relegations and promotions between the leagues.  The top tier is Séria A, often known as Brasileirão and usually runs from May to December.  Earlier in the year, before the Brasileirão begins, each state holds its own championship.  The state championships of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are usually hotly contested as these states have a large number of top flight teams.  In some other states, the competition is sometimes derided as a waste of time as the league is usually dominated by one or two top flight teams with the remainder typically playing in the lower leagues of the Campeonato Brasileiro.

The Campeonato Paranaense is one of these leagues.  The state of Paraná has two teams in the Brasileirão; Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba (nicknamed Coxa); one team in Séria B; Paraná (which together with Atlético and Coritiba forms the top three clubs from the state capital Curitiba) and 9 other teams from around the state that play in leagues lower than Séria B in the Campeonato Brasileiro.

State flag of Paraná

Usually this leads to a one-sided competition contested by the top 3 teams, indeed in 102 competitions, between them, the top 3 from Curitiba have won 88 titles and came second 61 times.  All of which makes Atlético’s recent form come as a surprise, having won 2 and lost 5 of their 9 games this year (as of 17^th March 2015), and languishing in 9^th place out of 12 and, embarrassingly, in the relegation zone.

I’ve been following Atlético and watching them on tv for a few years now and I hoped the team would be in a better form than this for my first match at the Arena da Baixada.  Still, the opponents for the match were Maringá – a team from Séria D of the Campeonato Brasileiro and also skimming the relegation zone – hopefully Atlético would wake up and get a long awaited victory.  Fingers crossed…

We met some friends in a bar directly opposite the stadium.  The allegiances of the bar could never be called into doubt with Atlético’s signature black and red colours everywhere and memorabilia on the walls.  Fans drifted in and the bar gradually filled with a variety of team shirts from official replicas covering the last several years to classic team shirts to supporter’s t-shirts.  No two shirts were the same!  After a beer or few, we made our way to the stadium. 

Supporters in the bar before kick-off

We had a great view from our seats; high enough to see the whole pitch but low enough that we could see all the action.  It is customary to start Brazilian football matches with the national anthem, followed by the state anthem of Paraná.  I’m not sure which other states do that, but I don’t think I’ve seen the state anthem in Campeonato Paulista (São Paulo state) and Carioca (Rio de Janeiro state) matches.

After the anthems, it’s time for kick off and the bateria (the ever present drums) begin.  The bateria enhances the atmosphere of the game and gets everyone in the mood.  To my left, behind Atlético’s goal, the Fanáticos (the die-hard Atlético fans) were singing, jumping, and holding giant skulls.  The two main themes of the songs are how much they love Atlético and insulting their rivals, Coxa.  As the songs involve a certain amount of swearing, I won’t transcribe them here.

The Fanáticos - die-hard Atlético supporters

Atlético started the game strongly; pushing forward with plenty of shots.  They really looked like a winning team.  Before long, a penalty was converted to put them in the lead making a win seem all the more likely.  The fans went crazy!

The optimism was premature though, as numerous defending mistakes led to an equaliser for Maringá.  I’m sure their fans here happy although there were only between 10 and 20 of them, so the net result was stunned silence.  Around this point, Atlético seemed to fall apart, giving away possession and making school-boy mistakes.  The boo-ing of the crowd at the half-time whistle said it all.

Fanáticos with their backs turned

The second half continued in much the same fashion as the first ended.  Players were falling out of position leaving empty spaces for the Maringá players to move into.  Maringá made the most of these chances and it wasn’t long before they went 2-1 up against the home side.  The Fanáticos showed their disappointment by turning their backs (and the skulls) to the team while they continued to sing.  It didn’t take long before the singing focussed on how badly the team were playing and how angry the fans were: “s*** team” and “f*** off” to the team’s coach and president.  While the frustration that the fans felt is understandable, such chants took a clear toll on the morale of the players, making more and more silly mistakes.  The game was turning into a farce and several fans left early in disgust.

In the last 10-15 min, Atlético appeared to receive a second wind and took to the offensive once again, playing with skill and attacking Maringá’s goal, but it was too little, too late.  The damage had been done and they were unable to beat the keeper in what little time remained.

After the whistle, the stadium echoed to the sound of boo-ing and chants against the coach.  After such a bad run in games that should have been easy, it was clear that something had to change.  Indeed the day after the game, it was announced that the coach, Claudinei Oliveira, was leaving the club and a day after that, a new coach, Enderson Moreira, was announced.

It’s never fun to watch your team lose, especially in a game that they should easily win, but the atmosphere of the stadium along with the experience of watching a game with friends (who accused me of being Mick Jagger – dooming the game with my presence) made for an enjoyable experience.  I really hope the new coach can inspire them to improve and steer away from relegation to the second division of the Campeonato Paranaense, which would be the ultimate embarrassment.  And of course, in a couple of months, the Brasileirão begins – fingers crossed….

Inside the Arena da Baixada, Atlético Paranaense's home stadium