Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Esporte Clube Bahia - Brasileiro 2014



Bahia play at the utterly charmless FIFA World Cup 2014 venue, Arena Fonte Nova.



Arena Fonte Nova replaced the old Estadio Fonte Nova, which had a great deal more character and, during the 1980's and 90's a tremendous set of A-frames at either end of the field.




Further back in Bahia's History of Goal Nets, native Brazilian L-supports were the method of choice for supporting the nets at Fonte Nova.




Monday, April 28, 2014

SC Internacional - Brasileiro 2014



SC Internacional's home stadium, Estadio Beira-Rio, is a FIFA World Cup 2014 venue.

Though you may not be amazed to see FIFA's customary box nets installed for Inter's opening game of the 2014 season against Vitoria...




Inter have such a proud tradition of native Brazilian L-supports that our friend Gustavo Garcia at papanapa.com portrayed Beira-Rio with these nets in his illustration.




And you only have to look back as far as qualifying for the 2010 World Cup to see the Selecao playing at Beira-Rio and the L-supports there.









Saturday, April 26, 2014

Fluminense FC - Brasileiro 2014



With FIFA World Cup 2014 almost upon us, The History of Goalnets celebrates the start of the new Brazilian Serie A season by visiting the Serie A stadia and checking out the on-field architecture at each.

Until recently, Brazil was one of the only countries left in world football which rebelled against this era of uniform and homogenous box-nets,  and where the native system deployed to support the nets - L-supports, in Brazil's case - could still be seen.

As the World Cup has crept closer, and the focus of the game's global policeman FIFA has sharpened, so the native L-supports have largely been replaced. But not all...

When the World Cup final is played at Estadio do Maracana on 13 July, you can be sure the nets will be firmly tied back and hang like square tents that can't be differentiated from those in Munich 1974, Mexico City 1986, and the last four, utterly uniform, World Cup finals.

However, when Fluminense kicked off their 2014 season at Maracana last weekend, the nets were hanging in the shape of L-supports. OK, the hardware has been shorn of the actual L-supports, so the nets are still tied to stanchions, like box nets. Interestingly the ground staff have chosen to tie the nets so they're shaped like classic L-supports.




Might this be because of complaints during last year's Confederations Cup that the nets at the renovated Maracana had been changed and the spirit of the old stadium lost?