New Season: New Team?

A perfect Summer afternoon saw Campinense play their first friendly of the season against Division Two team, Picui. With their new stadium still unfinshed (apart from the flag!), they played at the Governor-owned Ernani Sátiro "O Amigão" stadium shared with local rivals Treze.

As the players ran out onto the pitch holding hands in the traditional Brazilian manner of unity, I asked my friend Daniel to point out his favourite players for me.

"I don´t know yet, this is the first time I´ve seen them play," he replied.

I was confused, I thought this was his beloved club. Surely he knew every players name, weight and Mother´s maiden name?

However, he explained that since they did so badly in last season´s State Championship, they had failed to qualify for the National Third Division (only the top two clubs do so). As a result, they hadn´t played a competitive match since last June and all their players had left for other clubs. This was a completely new team from back to front!

The game itself was played at a fairly leisurely pace, but despite this, plenty of goals flew in. Campinense fought back twice to equalise at 2-2 before scoring a penalty winner for a 3-2 victory.

Daniel wasn´t so impressed with the win over superior opposition. "They played badly, and the new striker is stupid," was his cutting post-match analysis.

I wasn´t quite so downbeat. After all, when I thought about the biting cold and snow back home, a lazy day watching lower division football in the sun was practically heaven.