00:00As riot police stormed onto the pitch, the Nordico home crowd laughed and reveled in the chaos.
00:05After the torment they'd put their rivals through, they'd finally broken them.
00:09See, after being relegated from Brazil's top division, Grêmio Football Club had been on life
00:13support. They'd lost revenue, sponsors, and investors, and without that money to rely on,
00:18the club had quickly fallen into debt. And so, through the following season,
00:22they fought harder than they ever had before, knowing that if they could just claw their way
00:26back into the top division, the money would come back and they'd be able to save the team.
00:31So, as Grêmio entered Nordico's home ground for the final game of the season,
00:35all they needed was either a draw or a win to be promoted. However, for Nordico,
00:40only a win would secure promotion. And as Grêmio would soon find out,
00:44Nordico were willing to do anything to get it. As Grêmio entered their changing room,
00:49they discovered that the door to the pitch had been padlocked and welded shut, preventing them
00:53from warming up or getting familiar with the pitch. As a match began in the cramped stadium,
00:58where rabid Nordico fans held insults and threats only a few meters from the boundary lines,
01:03Grêmio tried to hold strong. They almost lost their cool towards the end of the first half,
01:08when Nordico were awarded a penalty kick after a dubious foul. But by halftime, with the score
01:13nil all, Grêmio was still on track for promotion. However, through the second half, that's when the
01:18Grêmio players started losing their cool. At one point, their left back stopped the ball with his hand.
01:23The referee believed it was intentional and sent him off with a red card, leaving Grêmio with 10
01:28players. Then, another handball by Grêmio. This time, it seemed clearly unintentional,
01:33but the ref wasn't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and he awarded another
01:37penalty to Nordico. The home crowd laughed and cheered. By now, there were only 10 minutes of
01:42play left, and this late in the game, a penalty would almost certainly decide the outcome.
01:47Grêmio knew that if this decision stood, it would likely mean certain death for the team.
01:52And so, in their frantic desperation, Grêmio stupidly started harassing the referee,
01:57demanding that he reverse the decision. The ref started predictably dishing out red cards to
02:02player after player, and the police were called in to prevent the match from falling into all-out
02:07violence. The Nordico fans reveled in the chaos, and by the time it had all finally settled down,
02:12Grêmio had received four red cards, and were left to play the final 10 minutes of the game,
02:17with only seven players against Nordico's 11. The penalty stood, Nordico took it, but incredibly,
02:23Grêmio's goalkeeper, Galato, saved it. The Nordico crowd gasped in disbelief. In the streets back home,
02:29Grêmio supporters erupted. The game wasn't over yet, they still had to hold Nordico off for another
02:3410 minutes, but remarkably, from this moment on, the entire game shifted. Grêmio gave up on playing
02:40defensively, and despite being severely outnumbered, they launched a completely unexpected counterattack.
02:4517-year-old Anderson dismantled the entire Nordico defence by himself, and he ended up scoring the
02:51first and only goal of the game. The jaded Nordico fans abandoned the stadium, Grêmio won the match,
02:57and they saved their team.
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