Thursday, August 16, 2007

MESSI's cousin helps Flamengo beat Fluminense

It is one of the most attractive derby matches in the world. One that in the past, knew how to attract crowds of 160.000 people at the Maracana Stadium. It's one of Rio de Janeiro's top spoting events. It's Flamengo - Fluminense. Or Fla-Flu as the locals call it.

These two teams are not enjoying a great campaign in the Brazilian league. After Flamengo won the state championship earlier in 2007 and Fluminense won the Brazilian Cup (reaching the Copa Libertadores for the first time in a loooooooooooong time), they are very far from league-leaders São Paulo.

'Mengo', the most popular team with 35 million supporters only in Brazil, is in the relegation zone. Granted they have 3 games in hand and they depend on themselves. While 'Nense' is sitting in mid-table after a promising start.

When they faced each other tonight, though, it was all about Argentina!

How come?

Well...Flamengo's number 10 is a guy from Rosario that goes by the name of Maximiliano BIANCUCCHI. And he happens to be Lionel MESSI's cousin!

He's one of Flamengo's new signings and he scored the only goal to help the red and black hooped team to beat one of their most important rivals (the other being Vasco da Gama).

Maxi scored his first goal for Flamengo in his first start and I'm sure Lionel will be proud of his cousin being in the cover of every major newspaper in Brazil tomorrow.

Not bad for Maxi! 35 million people are a little happier tonight, and only because of him!

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:39 am

    Seba,

    To help your non-Brazilian readers understand what Fla-Flu is, it is nice to add that Nelson Rodrigues, arguably the greatest Brazilian footbal writer ever, once said that the Fla-Flu was "created 40 minutes before nothing".

    Fla-Flu is so big that it has its own Wikipedia article!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fla-Flu

    So we welcome Maxi to the legend of the Fla-Flu!

    Mengo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:49 pm

    Tjena Sebá!

    I saw Maxi Messi's fantastic goal connecting from Lisbon airport during a long wait for a flight to get back home. Important to say Flamengo was two men down at the end of the match just to add more drama to a Fla-Flu that's already part of the legend, as Tiago said. Qué belleza, por favor!!

    Oh, as for the albicelestes, the greatest Argentine of Fla-Flu's history is called Narciso Horacio Doval. Flamengo brought him from San Lorenzo (where he played with Bambino Veira) in 1969 and he became an idol after winning two state leagues (at that time much more important than nowadays, since there was no Brazilian Cup and the Brazilian Championship had just been created). He then moved to Fluminense, where he won another state league. A Flamengo fan, he died in 1991 in Buenos Aires. More about him:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narciso_Horacio_Doval

    MENGO!

    ReplyDelete
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  5. Anonymous12:30 am

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