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Brazil's passionate volleyball fans cheer team's success

While soccer is Brazil's most popular sport and that won't change anytime soon, Brazilians also love their volleyball, a sport that has given local fans a lot to celebrate of late.

Volleyball attracts passionate fans in South America's largest country, and that has been the case again at the Pan American Games in Rio.

The fans have packed the 12,000-capacity Maracanazinho stadium in nearly all matches of the women's team -- including in the heartbreaking final loss to Cuba -- and several of the men's team's matches were sold out days before the competition began on Monday.

"This is volleyball country too," 19-year-old Marina Cabreira da Luz said. "We love the sport here. Every time they play somewhere here in Brazil, the stadiums are crowded, it happens all the time. We just love the excitement of the game."

It also helps that Brazil has been dominant in the sport, maybe even more than in soccer recently.

The men's team is the reigning Olympic champion, and earlier this month it won its fifth straight World League title -- and seventh overall. Only Italy has more, with eight. Brazil also won the last two world championships.

The women's team is just as impressive. It won the last three Grand Prixs -- the equivalent of the World League -- and was runner-up to Russia in last year's world championship. It was fourth at the Athens Olympics in 2004, but only after blowing seven match points in a semifinal against the Russians.

"Every time they play, they win," 38-year-old Cristiane Barbosa de Souza said. "That's fun. We keep coming back for more."

It wasn't fun, however, when the Brazilian women were upset by rival Cuba in a thrilling final at the Pan Ams last Thursday. Brazil was favored to win the gold, but missed six match points -- including two in the tiebreaker -- in the heartbreaking loss.

"Yeah, it's frustrating, but this team has won enough recently to keep fans proud for a long time," Brazil women's coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes said. "We hadn't lost to the Cubans in almost two years, and they are our biggest rivals. That shows you."

Some fans couldn't hold back tears after the match was over, and the disappointing loss made the front pages of nearly all newspapers the next day.

The men's team will begin their quest for gold at the Pan Ams with a three-set victory against Canada on Monday.

But no matter the results on the court, volleyball crowds usually put on a show in Brazil, with young fans chanting incessantly to support their players.
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