COPINHA: A CHANCE TO DREAM - The tournament of future Brazilian stars.

The game is played in fast pace. Full of fouls and chances for both sides. The home team scores a goal after a bizarre fault from the defenders. In need of a goal to advance in the competition, the visitors launch a counter attack. The players are very young, so they run fast, all the time. The second chance arrives. The draw. The goal that gives the qualification. Now, they are focused on defense. Last minute. Ball in the visitors area. Head shot. Out. Relief.

The referee whistles and the team that traveled 18 hours to play the tournament, is now celebrate in ecstasy. Even with cramps and pain all over the body, the players go towards the crowd. The affection is huge. For youth players, that’s probably the top of their career. Everything is before them, and they are excited.

Copinha - What is it All About?

On January 2, the "Copa SP de futebol júnior 2017" kick started in Brazil. This is the biggest football competition for youth players in the country and began to be played in 1969. This year, the tournament has 120 teams, with representatives from all Brazilian states and 1 representative from Haiti, the “Pérolas Negras”.

Pérolas Negras celebrating in 2016 (Photo: Leonardo Benassatto/Futura Press/Estadao Conteúdo)

In its First phase, the tournament has 30 groups. Each of these groupsis based in one city in the state of São Paulo. This is one of the peculiarities of the tournament: it is only played in the state of São Paulo and its final takes place every January 25, at the anniversary of the city of São Paulo, the state capital. Traditionally, the final is Always played in the “Pacaembu” stadium.

This year, the tournament will feature more than 3,000 youth athletes. The small teams usually use this tournament to present their good players to bigger teams. The big teams usually hire some players from the smaller clubs. And that’s why “Copa SP” is so cool. It gives the opportunity for good players that maybe never would have been discovered, to show off their football skills.

At the "Copinha", one can ran into world class players at the beginning of their careers.

Neymar, who played the tournament for the first time in 2008 for Santos, or Deco, former Barcelona player who played the competition in 1997 for Corinthians, are great examples.

Brazilian mega clubs have already won the tournament in the past. Corinthians, has won it nine times and Fluminense five times. However, there are teams like Palmeiras, Grêmio and Botafogo who have never won the title and will look for it again this year.

Palmeiras youth after scoring vs Paranoá (Photo: Joao Moura/FotoArena/Estadao Conteúdo)

From Haiti’s Earthquake to Brazil

A team you must consider to follow is Pérolas Negras-HAI. The Haitian team will play in group 24 at the 1st phase in the city of São Paulo. They were drawn to a group with Goiás, Nacional-SP and Cori-Sabbá.

Their first match was against Goiás. They lost 4-0 and missed a penalty.

In their second match, against Cori-Sabbá, they lost 1-0. In their last match, against Nacional-SP, they won their first match in the Copinha history - 2-0. This was a huge result for Pérolas, which was eliminated from the competition, but showed a great evolution to Pérolas Negras, that maybenext year will come to the competition with bigger goals.

Pérolas is a team created after the earthquake that devastated Haiti and is sponsored by a the NGO “Viva Rio”. In 2017, they will compete in the 3rd division of the Carioca championship.

From Dust to Dawn

Another team who will attract a lot of interest is Chapecoense.

The team that united the entire world of football will participate in the tournament too. They have great chances to qualify from their group, as they will compete with Desportivo Brasil, Sampaio Corrêa and Nova Iguaçu. The group’s host city is Porto Feliz and Chape qualified for the next step of the tournament. They began the competition by losing 2:0 to Nova Iguaçu, but they recovered in the next match, and won 4:2 versus Sampaio Correa.

In order to qualify, Chapecoense needed a simple draw against Desportivo Brasil at the last match, due to Nova Iguaçu’s qualification and Sampaio Correa’s elimination. Guess that Chape are Chape, no matter the age limit. The Verdainhos tied 1:1 with Desportivo Brasil, in a difficult match that they started bad, but came back and scored the goal that led them to the next phase. Now they will face São Paulo. A hard match for Chape boys by all means.

Chape will put its trust in Luquinhas. He played very well against Desportivo, showed a lot of strength, skill and intelligence in his game. He is a good name for the future of the team.

Chapecoense first team will play a lot of tournaments this year, don’t be surprised if we wiil see him orsome other players that are in Copinha along the season.

The Copinha is the time to support Chape. Those young players has in important role in the future of this club, and emphasizing the club’s road from devastation to creation. A respectable achievement at the Copinha will honor all the heroes who passed away in the team’s plane disaster. Vamo vamo Chape!

Chape is on to the next round (Photo: Vitor Buratini Mendes)

More than soccer, the Copinha represents the dreams of many boys.

It represents the dreams of the Haitians, who use football as a way to have fun, forget the troubles and honor their country, which was destroyed in a tragedy.

The Copniha reflects the dreams of the Chapecoense boys, who try to put their names in their club’s history, which already contain tragic stories of a sudden interrupted success.

Copinha simply represents dreams.

Many of those kids will never become professionals, unfortunately. But at least they will always have a story to tell for their friends, their children or their grandchildren, about a football tournament that they took part at.

More than the story to tell, the Copinha has a lesson for us. Dream. As impossible as it is, dream. This is what life, and football, is made for.

Vitor Buratini Mendes is a 16 years old Brazilian student, a die hard Palmeiras fan and a passionate follower of South American football. You can follow him on twitter.

Vitor Buratini Mendes - South America