Estádio Romário de Souza Faria (Marrentão)

The Estádio Romário de Souza Faria is located on the Estrada de Ferro Xerém in the district that gives it its working name.

It opened on 4 October 2007, and the fixture chosen for that first whistle said something about the ambitions attached to the naming: Duque de Caxias against Vasco da Gama, one of Rio's grandest clubs, finishing 1-1. Pairing a modest home side with a giant of Brazilian football on a brand-new pitch was a statement in itself, even if the stadium's everyday life since has stayed far removed from that scale.

The name honours Romário de Souza Faria, one of Brazil's defining forwards, though it's the nickname that has stuck in daily use around Xerém. Capacity is modest, the pitch is natural grass, and nothing about the ground suggests it was built with continental ambitions — it reads as a local fixture point, a place a district holds onto rather than a venue built to impress visitors.