So, it's Over for Brazil

I'll post soon about my gorgeous newborn nephew, but I wanted to get to the bad news first... Oh, and if you are sick of me writing about the World Cup, don't worry, I promise I'll shut up after today.

Obviously I'm very sad that Brazil lost (1 X 0 to France). I kind of saw it coming, the bitter taste of 1986 and 1998 still in my mouth. Right now I can't even feel happy about the irony of that I could have been French thing (see 100 things part II #13)... it's always so depressing.

The brilliant Portuguese blogger Lioness (of Which Surprised Her) just wrote a very moving post that explains quite well why soccer is or becomes so important for countries such as Brazil and Portugal, even more for Portugal right now. I cried when I read her post, not only because I relate so completely to the subject because that's why we Brazilians get so devastated when Brazil looses (soccer is really important to our self-esteem as a struggling "developing country" - how I despise these sad labels!), but also because I was so happy for Portugal and at the same time sad about the things that she wrote about her country. Portugal won today, in the penalty kicks against England -- I'm really happy for them, and relieved that we won't be playing against them in the semi-finals . Their coach is the former coach of the Brazilian team, and I truly hope that they can send France home and even win the world cup. I support them 100%.

Two more things before I go: 1) Soccer and the U.S.; 2) Soccer and "conspiracy theories"

1) One thing that I forgot to add to my previous post about soccer and the U.S. I actually thought of one more reason for soccer's unpopularity with Americans. As we watched the games, sometimes we got mad at a goal that wasn't supposed to have been a valid goal because of a player who was off place, or a penalty that was given but that hadn't actually been a foul. Then I thought - oh... all right, soccer is a very "inexact" sport, or "art" if you will. There's no instant replay, the game can't be stopped for breaks (like basketball and football), and when an arbiter decides something, the decision is generally final. If it's a gross error, the arbiter may be suspended or punished, but results aren't actually changed. I don't think that Americans, who are generally keen on rules, regulations, exactness, etc, would enjoy a game like that. What do you think? It's just a thought... I haven't really reflected on this for long.

2) Juca Kfouri, a brilliant Brazilian soccer commentator, has a blog and two nights ago, at my brother-in-law's house, my husband told me flat that Brazil wouldn't win the world cup and asked me to read a post by Kfouri titled "Conspiracy Theories" (if you read Portuguese, click here and scroll down for the post from 26/6/06 titled "A 'teoria da conspiração' "). He argues that he thinks Brazil lost to France in 1998 not because there was a conspiracy theory for it to lose (there are many, several involving Nike and Ronaldo, etc), but because Brazil didn't play well. Regardless, he wrote, he had strong reasons to believe that Brazil wouldn't be sixth time world champion this, because, among other things, it's not in FIFA's interest (FIFA is the international soccer association). If Brazil won, there would be good chance it would win again in South Africa and the 2014 world cup, which may be in Brazil. They don't want to have 6, 7 or 8 time winners because that would make the world cup boring, and people wouldn't watch anymore, which I suppose it's true. Very interesting argument.
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So now... in four more years, if I'm still blogging, you'll hear me talk about soccer again. For now, I'm done. I've gotta move on, throw all those yellow t-shirts in the washer and put them away after they dry. If Juca Kfouri is right, I don't think we'll win the world championship anytime soon, 'cause it's all about marketing ($ rules the world) and keeping the masses entertained. Whatever. I'm also glad we DIDN'T get cable to watch the world cup, as we usually do (with the Olympics too) - so we didn't waste one cent of our tight budget on this (we have an antenna and watched on Univision). All right, that's all folks.

Now back to regularly scheduled programming, with cute pictures to boot.