I have been a Fluminense fan since i first heard of the legendary Fla-Flu derbies. In the early 90s there was no way of obtaining information about them in the Netherlands. Luckily, in 1994 Sensible World of Soccer arrived. the first great football game to include teams from all over the world. I played the Fla-Flu derby with heroes like Rogerinho and Ricardo Rocha.
In 2004 I thought I finally would be able to see them, when I went to Rio with my girlfriend. I had checked that Flu would play a home game. They did play at home, but played their game at Volta Redonda because of an Olympic event in the Maracanã. i could do nothing but by a Flu-cap, while visiting the empty stadium.
Luckily this year my worked asked me to go to Brazil. My Portuguese had improved a bit, so I could discuss the derby between Palmeiras and Sao Paolo when I was in Sampa. At the end of the trip we went to Rio as well. We went to a favela, for the IBISS project. It was Vicario Geral, famous for massacre ten years before My Flu cap raised many discussions there, as the quarter supported Flamengo, as do many of the favelas. There were some Flu fans as well, luckily, and together we song the Flu clubsong, to show our love for the Fluzão.
On sunday we would finally go to a match. the dutch embassy had supplied me with an address were I could buy tickets and we would be picked for a match. The match in the Maracanã would start at about 6, and we would be picked up at around 4 a clock. At 4.10 we were all looking into the tunnel which seperates Botofogo from Copacobana to look for the bus. A bus in Fluminense colors arrived and stopped before our hotel. A few men in Flu Tricolor were standing next to it.
I went to the bus and asked in my best portuguese if this bus would go to the Maranana. "Sim"a young man said and I asked if it would come to pick up. "No" he said, and smiled, we go to play. Soon it became clear to me I was talking to Felipe. It was only a week before he did something that was even mentioned in the Dutch press: his suspension for a whole season. In real life he was a very nice bloke though.
Our own little buses arrived shortly afterwards and we raced towards the Maracana. As we entered the stadium, the chants of "Nense", "Nense" domnated the big Arena. Flu was playing Vasco in the Campeonato Carioca, the championship of the state. Any Rio derby is always filled with emotions and so was this one. Fluminense had sent Romario away in 2004 and he had gone to Vasco. This was the first game of o Baixo against his former club
When at home in Amsterdam. i saw Romario scoring against Ajax for PSV. I didn't have a good feeling about this game. After 17 minutes Vasco opened the score. Fluminense played the better game, but couldn't score. In the second half, Vasco played towards us. The inevitable happend: Romario de Souza Faria scored. He went to the Flu fans and laid a finger on his mouth, to silence us, as we had be singing "We don't need Romario". The Flu-crowd wasn't about to get silence though and started cheering their heroes on with extra force. We scored and continued to dominate. We didn't make the equaliser though and lost the game.
When I returned and checked the scores of the Campeonato via Internet a few weeks after the game i knew we had our revenge. Fluminense secured its 30th state championship. The feast in Laranjeiras, the quarter whe Flu originates, would surely be massive.
