SAY PAULO, Brazil – Hundreds of Palmeiras fans gathered in the narrow streets around Allianz Parque to scratch their necks to see a glimpse of the television screen they could find. The pandemic meant they could not go to the final in Rio de Janeiro. But it also meant they could not even go to the pubs and restaurants, which are limited to pick-up service on weekends.
Instead, the fans improvised. A handful of them, residents of the apartment buildings and houses around the stadium, home to their beloved football team from Palmeiras, tilted their screens so they could be seen on the street outside. Other fans gathered outside the pubs and cafes, packing cheeks for jaws, waving flags over their shoulders.
Their minds were 300 kilometers away, in the sweltering heat of Rio, inside the famous Maracanã, where their team faced rival Santos in the final of the Copa Libertadores, and the best prize in South American club football uitdraf.
In a normal world, of course, many of them would have been there, by tens of thousands, by plane and by car and by road, flocking to the spiritual home of Brazilian football in green and white. It was, after all, a historic moment: the first time since 2006 that Brazilian teams have contested the Libertadores final, and the first ever by two teams from the state of São Paulo.
Of course, the vast majority of them could not be there, because it is not a normal world. Only 5,000 fans are allowed to attend the final in person – all specially selected by the respective clubs, rather than by a ticket sale, and all, counter-intuitively, are packed in the single open parts of the Maracanã with 78,000 seats. as spread over its expansive, largely empty bowl.
But even if circumstances changed, the old instincts were not. Over the past ten months, it has become clear that – regardless of the risk or the limitations – playing football, for the moments that matter most, fans will feel an urge to be together.
And so the Palmeiras fans came to the Allianz Parque on Saturday, to the place that feels at home, hours before the game starts, to drink and sing and wave their flags. They have been waiting a long time for this – their team has not been crowned the champion of South America since 1999 – and they will have to wait another 90, played through 90 minutes of a match defined more by its caution than quality. by more conscious teams of what can be lost than what can be won.
Then it happened in a wave. A melee on the sidelines and Santos’ veteran coach, Cuca, was sent off. The 90 minutes were over, the clock ticked deeper and deeper into the injury time. After eight minutes, Palmeiras forward Rony conjured up a deep, searching cross. Breno Lopes, the timing of his jump, sends his head over the Santos goalkeeper.
He rushes in the direction of the fans, and they shower over the seats to reach out to him and his teammates. Palmeiras scored his victory. And in the narrow streets around Allianz Parque, those who could not be there finally feel as if they were.