almost there

Only 18 days to go until the start of the Euro 2008. Am I excited? No. But the press certainly wants me to be. The TV keeps playing ads related to football and the championship, all the supermarkets want me to pile up merchandise, there are innumerous tv and radio shows about the subject. They want to tell me what the players eat for breakfast, what games they play on their playstation, what deodorants they wear...

Enough!

But, in the meantime, there are some ads that are really clever, like this one. A bus that is powered by positive energy.

Do I sound repetitive?

How many fingers do you see there? Three?

Do I sound repetitive? It's because I am!!

I am repeating myself because Porto are champions for a third consecutive time! And this time we're still in the beginning of April. We are SO good, we are superb, we are the champions.

I'm 24 years old and I've seen my club as portuguese champions for 16 TIMES! Since I started watching football as a commited fan (1994), Porto were champions 10 TIMES! So if I'm not euphoric it's only because I'm so used to it. Almost every year there's a reason to celebrate and be proud. But winning is always great, especially when it's well deserved. I love my boys :)

devastated

We won the game, but just by 1-0. We lost in the penalties.
So unfair. The statistics are painfully evident of our dominance throughout the whole game, even playing with only 10 men.
My heart is still beating out of compass.

I can't tell you how sad I am. This fabulous goal wasn't enough:

porto 1-0 schalke04 lisandro
Colocado por milan2000

Now or never

Who knew ABBA had song that could be applied to a football game? I'm not kidding. Take this example:

People everywhere

Sense of expectation hanging in the air

(...)

And here we go again, we know the start, we know the end

[we know the rules, we know the game]

Masters of the scene

We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more

You know what I mean

(...)

Voulez-vous (ah-ha)

Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)

You know what to do (ah-ha)

La question c'est voulez-vous

Craziness explained: my club FC Porto is playing the 2nd leg of the 1/8 finals of the Champions' League tonight. [for people that aren't familiar with this, that's the most prestigious club competition in the World, it's BIG] But it's really complicated. We're one goal behind because we lost at Schalke. This means tonight we have to score at least 2 goals and not concede any.

I'm a nerve-wreck. This game can make or break the season. It doesn't really matter that we're 12 points clear at the top of the national table, it doesn't matter that will be champions for the 3rd consecutive year. The truth is we got an acessible team in this stage of the competition and if we lose it's embarrassing. And also a waste of a precious chance to reach the quarter-finals. But la question c'est voulez-vous: do these players and this staff really want to win? If they do, they'll have to do their very best tonight. Good luck!!!!

I'll tell you about the result tomorrow (if I survive...)

Where, Oh, where is he going?

Ah, I missed some shocking news on football, I have to say. Everything was so boring lately. Thankfully, Mourinho came to rescue me and everyone else that was bored to tears.

He left Chelsea FC and is, for now, my partner in unemployment (ha ha). To be honest, I can't understand how he stayed for so long. He is not a Ferguson or Wenger, he could never stay in a club until 2010 no matter how much they paid himm. He is unconventional and eccentric (very Aquarius), he needs change.

Now the entertainment is finding out where he is going to go next. Hmmm...over here there are people wanting to start petitions to get him to manage the national team, especially now that Scolari has been behaving badly. I find it very unlikely at the moment, but just the mere thought of it - of Mourinho being out there, free as a bird, while we keep Scolari - is like when you go to a shoe shop and try beautiful, fantastic, comfortable and shiny new shoes and then you get back to wearing your used, rough, smelly, old ones. (I'm sorry, but it's true).

So, all I have to do now is wait and see - until then one can dream of the old days of 2003 and 2004, the glory, the ambition, victory :)

[You may not have a clue of what I'm talking about. It's okay.]

champions!

all is...not so well

This may well be an unpopular post, but I've never been keen on popularity.
This is not a good day and I'll tell you why:

a) Nicholas Sarkozy has won the french elections. Thousands of people in the streets celebrating - all of them white and, most likely, wealthy, from what I could see on TV. I don't know much about him and his ideas - the pundits are saying he'll probably be softer as a President than he was as a candidate and I bloody well hope so. I know that he will put a stamp on immigration in France, which will probably be negative on all the foreign communities that live there, including the portuguese - and that's rich coming from someone that is an immigrant himself.

b) There was another (quite smaller) election in the portuguese island of Madeira, won by some kind of "democratic dictator" that has been ruling the island for almost 30 years. No good can come from such a long government, in any circumstance. But almost everyone loves him over there, so you can't argue with that. What you can argue with is the fact that all his opponents and their respective campaigns have been neglected and even impaired, in ways that may not be entirely democratic. Someone from the central government should check it out, everyone knows there must be some dodgy things going around there, but I suspect everyone in Lisbon is afraid of the mighty Alberto João.

c) Manchester United are the champions in England, after Chelsea drew with Arsenal. There's nothing wrong with that per se, I think Man Utd were a great team throughout the season, with a few ups and downs, but I've really enjoyed watching them play, particularly at the time when Larson was there, it was exciting all that attacking force! It was a bit ironic to watch how Ronaldo became enemy no.1 and then the most admired player...and after a while, the most hated man was Mourinho, particularly after he insulted...who? Ronaldo! Funny, it was funny.

So, in a week, Chelsea lost both the Champions' League and the Premiership. It wasn't surprising since their season has been a lot more shaky that the previous two. I understand why no-one would want to see Chelsea being champions again, their style of playing has been duller and duller throughout the seasons. Those long balls to Drogba...arghh, it's exasperating. Mourinho and attractive football don't often match but I wouldn't blame him (despite all of his infinite faults) for losing the quadruple. The injuries, particularly in the defense, but also Joe Cole and Robben...and a really limited squad for a team with such finantial capacity. And despite all of that, still the big Russian wouldn't get any player in January when it was obvious that they didn't have what it took to follow United. I was watching the match today and thinking that Mourinho must've been bitterly laughing inside when he saw that ludicrous penalty from Boulahrouz (it is said that he wasn't responsible for getting the player to Chelsea, but probably that guy Arnesend, or whatever...) - clearly he wasn't the man to substitute neither Terry nor Carvalho.

I don't know what will follow. It'll be hard for Mourinho to stay, either because they'll sack him and because he isn't the person to stay too long anywhere. People will be glad to see the back of them, but then will miss all the commotion. Some people are starting to talk about a curse that will never let Mourinho win the Champions' League with another team apart from Porto. (Meanwhile, and if you care, Porto are steadily heading for the second title in a row, but they're not doing any more than their duty).