Origin of the singing of the ‘team of the turn and the team of love’ turns into a debate between fans

The sambista Neguinho da Beija-Flor, 72, says that he still regretted from the sofa at home, last Sunday (3), the draw between Flamengo and Fluminense, which resulted in the loss of the Campeonato Carioca to the team directed by Paulo Sousa, when he was surprised to change the channel and hear coach Abel Ferreira, from Palmeiras, praising the song that had rocked the conquest of the 24th São Paulo title.

“I talked to my wife: ‘wow, but Palmeiras also sings the team of the turn? I thought it was just Vasco'”, said Neguinho to sheet.

Abel’s speech that Palmeiras rediscovered an old choir from the stands opened discussions about the authorship of the cry “team of the turn, team of love” on social networks. Vascaínos asked for recognition, while others disagreed about the actual date of its creation.

“I didn’t know there was this song: ‘The turning team, the love team’. I thank all the people who worked to create a song, but it already existed in the history of our club. Grab it, that’s what we need”, declared the coach minutes after the game.

“She was forgotten, maybe in 1942, when we won 3-0 [3 a 1 sobre o São Paulo, em 20 de setembro daquele ano]”, said the coach, alluding to the episode known as Arrancada Heroica. At the time, Palestra Itália tied for 1 to 1 when they scored two more goals and won the state title. There is, however, no historical record about the choir.

“In 1942 there were no songs as elaborate or rhythmic as those of today. The most that existed at the time were charangas and marchinhas bands. [torcedores do Vasco] must be the authors, but I’ve been going to the stands since 1980 and I’ve heard it being sung by almost all the fans. It’s a general cry”, explains Fernando Galuppo, historian of Palmeiras.

The exact origin of the chant is a mystery. The samba-enredo “The creation of the world in the Nagô tradition”, from 1978, composed by Neguinho himself, is considered the great inspiration.

The song gave Beija-Flor the third title of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and is considered by experts as one of the most iconic sambas in the school’s history. “It’s something inexplicable because I wasn’t even going to run. I did everything at dawn from Saturday to Sunday”, remembers Neguinho.

The final passage “iererê, ierê, ierê, ô ô ô ô. They fight a love duel. And life emerges with its splendor” was what inspired fans to create the chorus “team of the turn, team of love”.

“The samba-enredo reverberated a lot among the fans, they were a reference for the creation of songs. The LPs of the samba schools competed with those of Roberto Carlos. writer, professor and historian Luiz Antônio Simas.

In an interview with Globoesporte, in 2015, members of Torcida Organizada do Vasco assured that the creation is by a former member, a resident of Nova Iguaçu, who curiously was never seen again in the stands.

According to this version, the song was sung for the first time on May 29, 1988, in a 2-1 comeback by Vasco over Fluminense. The team lost until the 35 minutes of the second half.

“I believe a lot in the version that comes from them, it makes perfect sense, but I’ve been from Mancha since 1988 and I’ve always heard the choir in the stands at Palmeiras. exactly where it came from”, explains Reginaldo Pereira, director of allegory of Mancha Verde and former vice president of the main organization of Palmeiras.

“Everyone sings ‘it’s the champion, of the champions’ and then we discovered that it was based on a samba-plot by Torcida Jovem do Santos, our rival, back in the 1970s. That happens”, he adds.

There is yet another version of when the choir was first sung. One of them realizes that the adaptation of samba took place in 1979, in a 4-2 comeback between Vasco and Flamengo for the state.

Of all

‘It’s the turnaround team, it’s the love team’ is also sung by other fans, such as Santos, a direct rival of Palmeiras.

And it has even been used against the current team of Abel Ferreira. In 2000, the choir served to motivate Vasco against Palmeiras, in the final of the extinct Mercosur Cup.

The team from Rio lost 3-0 at half-time, but, lulled by the chorus of the crowd, turned to 4-3. “I well remember that we heard that at half-time and we laughed, but that’s football,” says Pereira.

More recently, in 2017, a similar reaction was etched in the memory of Palmeiras after losing 3-0 to Cruzeiro, in a confrontation for the quarterfinals of the Copa do Brasil. The team tied the game with just 20 minutes in the second half, but couldn’t turn around.

Despite the discussion about authorship on social networks, Palmeiras and Vasco maintain a good relationship between their organized supporters.

There are no scheduled meetings between the teams for this season. The only chance, for the Copa do Brasil, was dissipated by the early elimination of Vasco for Juazeirense-BA in the second phase of the competition.

The 1978 success was not the only one for Neguinho to pack bleachers. The song “O champion”, which starts saying “Sunday, I’m going to Maracanã, I’m going to cheer for the team I’m a fan…” adopted and adapted by other teams in the country.

Another samba-plot, “Peguei um Ita no Norte”, by Salgueiro, from 1993, was also broadcast based on the excerpt “explode Coração in the Greater Happiness”. Similar path to the “Festa profana”, by União da Ilha do Governador, which became a Flamengo choir in the 1990s.