Almost 60,000 fans, the largest crowd in Rio's Pan American Games, watched on Thursday Brazilian women's soccer team beat the U.S. team 5-0 to win the country's 35th gold medal in the games.
Despite the unusual time for a soccer match (noon), fans packed the legendary Maracana stadium to its seat capacity.
If the time was unusual, so was the crowd. Instead of the regular male fans of Brazil's soccer pro leagues, the crowd was predominantly comprised of women, children, and sober fathers.
A significant number of the fans were tourists from other states of Brazil, who are in town to watch the Pam Am Games. This was the case of Juliana and Jessica Braga, who are sisters and attended the match with their elder brother Felipe. The two came from Rio Claro, Sao Paulo state, to Rio, and are spending the week with Felipe, who lives here.
"It is my first time in a stadium, and my first time in Rio," said 14-year-old Jessica. "The match was cool. I expected Brazil to win, but not with such a high score."
Juliana, 22, who is a college student, knew Rio, but she had never been to Maracana, "It was wonderful. I was optimistic and expected Brazil to beat the U.S."
Felipe said he is happy to have his two sisters staying at his apartment in Copacabana until Saturday. He is disappointed, though, with the lack of tickets for other Pan Am Games events, "This was the only match we attended. I managed to buy those tickets months ago on the web, but I was not able to buy tickets for other events."
Source: Xinhua
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