Campeonato Gaúcho

The Campeonato Gaúcho Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Gaúcho, is the top flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The league is contested between 14 clubs and typically lasts from January to April. Rivalries amongst two of the most well-known Brazilian teams (Grêmio and Internacional) has marked the history of the competition. The "Gauchão", as the tournament is popularly known, had its first edition held in 1919.

The current champions are Internacional, who won their fifth consecutive title in the 2015 season, defeating their state rival Grêmio by 2-1 aggregate in the finals.

Format

Competition

There are 16 clubs in the Campeonato Gaúcho, divided into two groups. During the course of a season (from January to April), each club plays against teams from the other group and then against each other inside their groups. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then wins, goal difference and goals scored. The top four teams from each group qualified to the play-offs. Are held quarter-finals, where the first of a group faces the last of another group, and so on in single game at the home of best ranked, then semi-finals, also in single game, and finals with two games. The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Campeonato Gaúcho Série A2.

Novo Hamburgo

Novo Hamburgo (Portuguese for New Hamburg) (Neues Hamburg in German) is a municipality in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the Metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, the State Capital. As of 2010, its population was 237,044. The city covers an area of 217 square kilometers, and the average temperature is 19 °C, which is mild for the region. The Sinos River (Rio dos Sinos) runs through the urban area.

Consolidated by German immigrants, the city was named after Hamburg, Germany, and, to this day, Novo Hamburgo's population is still predominantly of German descent.

In the decade of 1980, Novo Hamburgo received the nickname of "National Capital of shoes", attracting many athletes, tracks and companies connected to the sport. Nowadays, the city is the industrial center of the Sinos River Valley, the economy of which is based mainly on the manufacture of shoes and the associated leather goods supply chain.

Novo Hamburgo displays a high HDI index and is considered a rich city by Brazilian standards, although many slums dot its outskirts and crime is rampant.

Sport Club Internacional

Sport Club Internacional (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˌĩteɾnɐsjɔˈnaw]) is a Brazilian multisport club based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Internacional is mostly known for its association football team. Internacional plays in the Campeonato Gaúcho, the state of Rio Grande do Sul's premier state league, as well as in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system. They play in red shirts and white shorts and socks, the first of which give the team its nickname of Colorado (The Red). The team's home stadium, known as "Gigante da Beira-Rio" (Riverside Giant), was one of the twelve 2014 FIFA World Cup venues and has a capacity of 50,128.

The club is one of only three teams that has competed in all the Brazilian National League's first division championships since its inception in 1971, and is one of the only five clubs to have never been relegated to the second division, along with Santos, São Paulo, Flamengo and Cruzeiro. Internacional is ranked first in Americas and sixth in the World in number of paying members, with more than 104,000. Internacional were South American champions in 2010, winning their second Copa Libertadores title. 2006 was the most successful year in Inter's history as they won the Copa Libertadores and the FIFA Club World Cup, defeating European champions FC Barcelona in the latter and South American reigning champions São Paulo FC in the former. Other international titles include the 2007 Recopa Sudamericana, the 2008 Copa Sudamericana and the 2011 Recopa Sudamericana.

Gaucho

Gaucho (Spanish: [ˈɡautʃo]) or gaúcho (Portuguese: [ɡaˈuʃu]) is a word with several meanings. In its historical sense a gaucho was "A mestizo who, in the 18th and 19th centuries, inhabited Argentina, Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil". Today, in Argentina and Uruguay, a gaucho is simply "A country person, experienced in traditional cattle ranching work". Because historical gauchos were reputed to be brave, if unruly, the word is also applied metaphorically to mean "Noble, brave and generous", but also "One who is skilful in subtle tricks, crafty". In Portuguese the word gaúcho (note the accent) means "An inhabitant of the plains of Rio Grande do Sul or the pampas of Argentina descended from European man and [Amer]Indian woman who devotes himself to lassoing and raising cattle and horses".

Gaucho is an equivalent of the North American "cowboy" (vaquero, in Spanish), the Chilean huaso, the Peruvian chalan, the Cuban guajiro, the Puerto Rican jibaro, the Venezuelan or Colombian llanero, the Ecuadorian chagra, the Hawaiian paniolo, and the Mexican charro, which are terms that often connote the 19th century more than the present day; then, gauchos made up the majority of the rural population, herding cattle on the vast estancias, and practicing hunting as their main economic activities.

Rede Globo

Rede Globo (Portuguese: [ˈʁedʒi ˈɡlobu], Globe Network), or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings. Globo is the largest commercial TV network in Latin America and the second-largest commercial TV network in annual revenue worldwide just behind the American ABC Television Network and the largest producer of telenovelas.

Globo is headquartered in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, where its news division is based. The network's main production studios are located at a complex dubbed Projac (short for "Jacarepaguá project"), located in Jacarepaguá. It is composed of 122 owned and affiliate television stations throughout Brazil plus its own international networks, Globo TV International and TV Globo Portugal. In 2007, Globo moved its analog operations to high-definition television production for digital broadcasting.