RIO DE JANEIRO — This botequim, as corner bars are called, in the shadow of Rio’s Maracanã stadium is as quintessentially Rio as the Sugarloaf Mountain and the Ipanema beach. Friends gather late into the evening over tall dewy glasses of draft beer while a couple digs into a plate of ribs and the evening soap opera concludes on the TVs around them.
Eduardo Tacto, a coach as enthusiastic as he is hard nose about women’s soccer, sits down with two of his athletes to watch what for Brazilians has flashed as a source of national pride at the Summer Olympics: their women’s national team.