💛💚 A piece of home

For a few days in this Australian city in northern Queensland, Portuguese was easier to find. Brazil jerseys, flags, music and capoeira filled the streets ahead of Friday's friendly against Australia, as supporters gathered across town before the match.

For Roni Reed, a Brazilian who has lived in Townsville since 2014 and a lifelong fan of Corinthians, the São Paulo club, the weekend felt familiar. "For the Brazilian community here in Townsville, it was so good for us to have a little piece of home right here," Reed said.

Part of the significance, she said, was where the game was played. "Obviously with all the big events that happen, it always goes to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane," she said. "But when it came to Townsville, it was so important for us."

Brazil's Foreign Ministry estimates that about 46,000 Brazilians live in Australia. Figures from the government in Canberra put the number closer to 72,000, making it one of the country's fastest-growing immigrant communities.

The celebrations began well before the players took the field. A Brazilian band played and capoeira groups performed as fans moved through the city toward the stadium. For Reed, simply hearing Portuguese around her mattered. "When you're so far away from your country, we are a very family- and friend-centered culture," she said. "It felt like a big embrace from our culture here in Townsville."

She has watched the city's Brazilian community grow over more than a decade. There was a time when she knew almost everyone, and friends took to calling her Townsville's Brazilian "mayor." Now, she says, she knows only about half of the community.

Inside Queensland Country Bank Stadium, yellow and green filled the stands, and Brazilian flags rippled above the crowd. One of the most emotional moments for Reed came before a ball was kicked. It was the national anthem. "For us, when we sing our national anthem, that is really emotional," she said. "Because it's a piece of Brazil. It's a piece of home."

The football that followed was far less stirring. Carlo Ancelotti used the match to look at a heavily rotated lineup, and it showed. Brazil kept the ball without doing much with it, passing sideways in front of a compact Australian defense and rarely testing the goalkeeper. Six substitutions changed the faces on the field but not the pattern.

Brazil's closest chance in the first half ended in frustration. Just before the break, Brazil won the ball high up the field and Estêvão, the teenage winger who has become one of the country's brightest hopes, finished the move. The celebrations were cut short when video review showed Bruno Guimarães had fouled Australian defender Harry Souttar at the start of the play.

Australia, playing with more purpose, took the lead in the 67th minute. Nestory Irankunda struck a free kick that Hugo Souza should have handled, and the ball slipped past the Brazilian goalkeeper. For most of the next half-hour, Brazil appeared headed for defeat until the final play of the match, four minutes into stoppage time, when Bournemouth forward Rayan headed in a corner from Raphinha to make it 1-1.

It was a disappointing night for a team that is supposed to be building toward the 2028 Copa América and the 2030 World Cup. The two sides meet again on Tuesday at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, and Brazil then travels to Kolkata to face India on Oct. 3, the first meeting between the two countries. But for the Brazilians in Townsville, the score was never really the point.

Being surrounded by Brazilian fans, Reed said, reminded her of watching soccer back home. "Talking in Portuguese to everyone, it felt like right at home," she said. Asked what she might remember 10 years from now, she settled on one image. "I think it would be being there with the supporters and just watching, looking behind me and seeing that wave of Brazil," she said. "The Brazilian supporters chanting."

For one weekend, that wave reached Townsville.

Katherine Butler is an independent Australian journalist, documentary photographer and researcher working across sport, culture and community stories. Based in Central Queensland, her reporting increasingly focuses on the connections between Australia and Brazil.

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