Deutschland, welcome to Porto Alegre! We were all rooting for you to be first in the group! You will find plenty of support in the city, specially considering the LARGE german settled areas north of Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states! Even football is more german than english here. They say an englishman brought football to Brazil, but southern Brazil has the oldest brazilian club, and it was founded by german immigrants and descendants. And Grêmio? Founded by germans too, in 1903. Check out the flyer of the first Gremio-Internacional derby, in 1909. Look at players names, as well as referees (juizes) and comission. Independent newspaper, from England, with article about support for Deutschland in my town, coincidentally called Novo Hamburgo (Neu Hamburg) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...s-against-Ghana-in-Brazils-Novo-Hamburgo.html I suppose it will be easier for German tourists to communicate in German in Porto Alegre than english... (not really, but travel a bit north of Porto Alegre and that will be true). Just talk slowly, because most people only talk hunsruckish dialect. (ps: the english article above mentions Passo Fundo, city of origin of Luis Felipe Scolari, but for obvious reasons, that is italian land. The previous Brazil coach however, Mano Menezes, is from Santa Cruz do Sul, german land, and although reading his name you wouldn´t think it right away, his full name is Luiz Antonio Venker de Menezes, thus he is german from his mother side (Venker)
I first learned about the German connection in Brazil in high school when we had an exchange student. Gremio is a club of great tradition and history. Many talented players have come from there thru the years. Cheers!
thanks. This is a photo of our old stadium however. This is the new one. not sure, but it´s possible Germany will train there. Or Algeria. It´s being used by FIFA as an official training ground (the Porto Alegre stadium being used is the one which belongs to Internacional)