Brazil and USSR defeated the rain at Maracanã 40 years ago – 07/25/2023 – Sport

It didn’t matter that, at that time, in the early 1980s, the presence of the Brazilian men’s volleyball team was a guarantee of a packed gym. The biggest concern, though, was the audience.

Players got in touch with all their family, friends, acquaintances, and asked: “Please show up there.”

“If we put 15,000 people in Ibirapuera, the stands would be full. But 15,000 people in Maracanã were nothing”, explains Renan Dal Zotto, former winger and now coach of the team.

The questions asked in the locker room were variations on the same theme.

“How much public is there now?”

To enter the court, each one was called by name on the loudspeaker system and on the electronic scoreboard. The noise of the announcement shocked all the athletes.

“It was something incredible”, marvels Marcus Vinícius Freire, who at the time was a newcomer to the national team.

40 years ago, on July 26, 1983, Maracanã hosted a volleyball match for the first time. There were 95,887 payers, a record for an open-air Olympic sports event. It surpassed the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games, in 1964. Brazil faced the Soviet Union, then Olympic and world champion, in a series of five friendlies.

The most important event was to be the first of the series, in what was then known as the largest stadium in the world. It became a logistical challenge, one of persistence, a fight against time. Chronological and meteorological time.

One of the most striking images in the history of Brazilian sport is of Brazilians and Soviets, who had starred in the World Cup final the year before, on their knees, drying the court wet from the rain.

Postponed three times, threatened by Suderj (Superintendence of Sports of the State of Rio de Janeiro), CND (National Sports Council) and by rain, the match took place on the last available date. If it was unfeasible on that 26th, it would be cancelled.

“The game only happened because of the Soviets. They were very partners in the event and were very willing to make it happen”, recalls José Francisco Coelho Leal, Quico. Partner of the narrator Luciano do Valle (1947-2014) in the staging of the match, he was responsible for all the logistics.

One of them was to dismantle the entire 800 square meter court placed in the center of Maracanã, because there would be a round of the Carioca Championship the following weekend. As soon as the last football match ended, the entire structure was reassembled.

One of the questions that are still up in the air today is who came up with the idea of ​​that friendly match. In an interview with ESPN Brasil’s Bola da Vez program in 2013, Luciano claimed to be the child’s father. Players who participated in the match say that the initiative had been the then president of the CBV (Brazilian Volleyball Confederation) and future president of the COB (Olympic Committee of Brazil), Carlos Arthur Nuzman.

Reports from the time suggest that the first mention of the possibility of playing in Maracanã came from the Soviet Union coach, the Polish Viacheslav Platonov (1939-2005).

Those who most closely followed the whole logistical realization of the event say they don’t remember.

“The person who told me about making the game was actually Luciano. But the idea could have been Nuzman’s. He did a lot for it to get off the ground”, says Quico.

The starting date was July 19th. A deluge fell on Rio de Janeiro. The game was postponed to 24 hours later. The rain didn’t stop. The players were not able to practice reconnaissance on the court, which was covered by a waterproof awning. The organizers realized that it would be impossible to play before the 23rd and 24th, when the Carioca Football Championship round would take place. Stayed for July 26th.

“It’s the last chance,” conceded Nuzman.

It wasn’t the only problem. Suderj began to question the damage that the court would bring to the Maracanã lawn and asked for an inspection. The CND published a statement complaining that the friendly match would disrupt the qualifiers for the Women’s Basketball World Cup, scheduled for Maracanãzinho. Nuzman untied all these knots. In the late afternoon of July 25, he signed a new stadium lease.

Luciano do Valle and Quico were fighting against Grupo Globo, which had decided to ignore the realization of the game on TV, radio and newspapers, which would be broadcast by Record.

On the night of July 26, it rained again. The first serve, scheduled for 21:00, was postponed for 30 minutes.

“When we realized that it started to rain heavily, it was desperate”, recalls Quico.

“[A chuva] started when the two teams entered the court. We wiped, tried to play. We try to play without sneakers, just socks. But it didn’t work”, says Renan Dal Zotto.

The fear that the public would leave was unfounded. But there had to be a solution so the court wouldn’t be slippery. The saving idea came from the Soviets.

“We noticed that they started to carry carpets”, says Marcus Vinicius Freire, who would later become COB’s executive director.

The visitors came up with the idea of ​​using rugs that were in the passage from the locker room to the field and placing them on the court because they would absorb the water. It was a precarious solution, but it allowed the continuation of the game.

“The Soviet Union had the [Aleksandr] Savin, the best player in the world. he had the [Vyacheslav] Zaytsev… And everyone there, carrying carpet. It took a long time, and none of the audience left. The game continued, and the carpet lifted when we jumped. That’s why I have a lot of admiration for the Soviet Union team. It didn’t matter who won. Everyone wanted to deliver a show to the public”, says Renan.

He claims that even today, unknown people talk to him and remember the Maracanã match, without even remembering the result.

“We won 3-2, didn’t we?”, Quico remains undecided, when questioned.

The Brazilian team won by 3 sets to 1 (14/16, 16/14, 15/7 and 15/10).