Sunday, July 02, 2006

Alma Lusa

Downtown in Porto, thousands looking at the big screen

I thought it was better if I didn't write last night because I was feeling a little strange from all the commotion. The country went mad celebrating: flags, fireworks, party everywhere...
Portugal didn't play amazingly well, the attack was harmless but the defense was really solid. But we won again! Maybe it was Scolari's lucky star, maybe it was down to the best goalkeeper in the world defending penalties, maybe Gelsenkirchen is our sacred town (that's were Porto won the Champions League)...
It could have gone either way in the penalties, as it always does, and I really thought we were going to lose when two of our players missed it. But then Ricardo saved 3 penalties. It was brilliant.
Portugal, France, Italy and Germany - what a strange group of teams, neither of them playing excepcionally well (Germany probably the best so far) but maybe that's why they got to this stage. The results are the only thing that matters.
It's just amazing to me that we are such a small country compared to the other 3 (we're only 10 million) but we are still there and we seem to have a spirit that no one else does. It's the national spirit, our soul - alma lusa.

8 comments:

kimananda said...

A unica coisa para dizer agora é :-)!

fb said...

Were they all telling you to get out of the way of the screen when you took the picture?! ;)

Devil Mood said...

Kimananda: É isso mesmo! :)

FB: lol I'm sure they would, everyone was really hyper yesterday ;)

Cathy said...

Congratulations on your team winning! It must have been a very exciting game for you to watch.

(You know, I am still cheering for Germany to win the final...:)

I am supposed to work next Sunday; I need to figure out how to get out of it if Germany goes through!

Devil Mood said...

Cathy: Who works on a Sunday? No, no, no! I think germany will win the cup, with all their public cheering for them. Maybe if you lived in Europe people wouldn't want you to work during the world cup final, they would understand. But start a new football mania in Canada and tell everyone to watch the final ;)

Meow (aka Connie) said...

I hope the best team wins !!! (How unbiased is that ?!?!?)
I hope Portugal make it to the final ... a Portugal - German final would be good.
Good luck.
Take care, Meow

Christopher D. Bate said...

England crashed and burned as per usual!

Devil Mood said...

Meow: I'm not sure the best teams win, sometimes they're just lucky while others aren't. Let's see what the results are this week. Take care :)

Chris: Well, it has been frequent lately but it's not a curse. England can win again ;)

Maddy: hehe I hope you enjoy it. Sometimes the game gets ugly and other times the teams just defend, it can be somewhat dissappointing. But I hope you enjoy yourself watching :)