Rooting for brazilian teams in Libertadores is basically cheating, its like rooting for english, german and spanish teams all at once in the CL.

EDIT: I will let you pick a state though.

Some of these SA team names are truly incredible. Sudamerica has some real gems

ABC over here. Anyone but Corinthians. Porcos or bust!

Libertadores is really niche because of some weird marketing desitions.
You get the CL with basic cable but you have to play extra to see Libertadores. Conmebol realized they were hurting the product in the long run and will know force a game to be in free TV every week. Also the final will be one leg only from 2019 and it will be on free TV. Its a great reform because the intrest of the younger generations in the local teams has gone down.

Also teams constantly change every year so I really dont have a clue as to how good or weak they are. That is good for the fans of the teams in the sense that there are literrally 50+ teams in the continent that are capable of making a deep run but as a neutral you have no idea who plays for who anymore.

Val: How about no teams from the State of São Paulo?

Ok but you also have to leave out either Belo Horizonte or Rio Grande do Sul. Brazil is so sick that they have multiple cup winners in 4 states lol.

Deal. **** the south and all those snobby euro wannabes.

And heart Minas Gerais

Maybe one day my beloved Bahia will make it.

Weren't they involved in the big melee and the game that had to be called off ?
What was the aftermath of that ?

Against main rival Vitoria in the annual State championship tournament (seems like each state runs it’s own such tournament this time of year with teams across all levels.). Anyways after 9 red cards given they called the match in the 80’.

NOW you're talking!!

Yeah a Bahia player scored and then did a provocative dance towards the Vitoria fans that led to him getting punched in the face and a massive brawl and a lot of players sent off.

In the end Vitoria didn’t have enough players to continue and lost by default 3-0. The game was 1-1 when it stopped.

Everyone got off pretty easy with suspensions and such.

Guy sat next to me on my flight to Brazil was a Vittoria fan. I was half asleep when we were talking about but it was all stuff leading up to the game that had this kick off right? Someone said something then another player said he was going to dedicate the goal to a guy on the other team's mom or wife or something like that? Amazing stuff

Heart

Going to the last group play week of the Rio Cup, the state championship. Vasco at Botofogo....both need 3 points to advance to the semifinals, though with 1pt Vasco still has a chance.

Basically, here's the relevant table (6 teams in each group, 6 matches....you play each team from the *other* group), top 2 in each group advance to the semifinal.

Group B
Vasco 10pts +3
Flamengo 9pts +3
Cabofriense 9pts +2

Group C
Flumenese 13pts +10
Portuguesa 10pts +3
Botofogo 10pts +2

They all play each other in this final week.

Botofogo v Vasco
Flamengo v Portuguesa
Cabofriense v Flumenese

No one has clinched, though Flololulmenese basically has. Sick sweat.

How exactly do the state championships work clark? I know my beloved Botafogo has Santos in the mata mata round. Is it done by seeding? Is it bracket style or redraw every round? Random draw? Amazing how little information is available online

The format changes every year and each state is different but for SP this should help you:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018...onato_Paulista

Awesome thanks. Still so confusing but at least it makes sense now lol. So teams from the same group play each other in the knockout round, but everyone plays everyone not just the teams in their group? And for some reason they have a single table also for I'm not sure what reason, which seems to be the more popular presentation of the table when you search "Paulista Table"

Yeah I only follow the Rio Cup and Bahia as long as they’re alive.

You really need Portuguese for this stuff. Great way to practice though.

The Portuguese isn't the problem, it's that nowhere has it in the same form.

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Palmeiras on tv here today and Botafogo-SP on tv here tomorrow! My two Brazilian teams on tv in the USA is pretty amazing. Granted it's standard def Gol TV (wtf don't they have HD?) which is worse quality than an Iraqi internet stream, but I'll be watching

The games here are all on HD. I don’t get them tho because the sports package is super expensive (like $30USD a month!!)

At Botofogo v Vasco. Basically a play-in to the semifinal. Vasco is totally housing them. 2-0 at the half. Huge fan showing for them too. Botofogo fans yelling puta
at an injured Vasco player getting carted off into the tunnel.

Flamengo up 1-0 also at half vs Portuguesa and Cabo v Fluminense just started.

Gorgeous stadium (Nilton Santos) built for the Olympics.

Refs really letting them play. Could get ugly but Botofogo so flat maybe it won’t. They did have a few controlled good chances but Vasco has dominated possession and really out hustled them.

Wow. Seemed like a BS penalty given to Botofogo. 2-1. Vasco fans cheer, trying to compete with the Botofogo fans cheering. Like “come on. Let’s go. Bring it.”

Place lit now. Vasco right away two scoring chances. Not even sure whose fans are louder now.