Two Goals!!

While his brother's team didn't do too well on the West Coast, my youngest son played very very hard in his incomplete soccer team and scored TWO goals!

For a long time in the game they were losing 4 X 2, then tied 5 X 5 for a while, that means his last two goals granted their 7 X 5 victory! He was so proud of himself and I screamed and jumped up and down as a really proud mama!

He's one of the smallest kids (and certainly the skinniest one), so I kept screaming that he was a tiny titan, no I think it was tiny wonder, or some such silly thing. ;-)

I'll try to edit to include a photo of him from earlier in the season (haven't transfered those to computer yet!).

Good thing we had at least one great victory to celebrate today!

I Missed the World Cup Final Game Because...

... we had to be at our friends' wedding that started at the same time as the game!! :-(

Well, maybe you wouldn't care, but for me, and for many people around the world who really love and enjoy watching the World Cup this is/was extremely exasperating!

When I found out the date of their wedding (the day after missing the engagement party which my family attended last December) I immediately texted both the bride and groom and told them that they should be aware that they had scheduled it for the day of the final!! How could they do that?

But they didn't care!! :-( And then, they got really, really lucky because Brasil (sorry, I will follow my practice on FB & will use the Portuguese spelling here) was not in the final after that devastating loss.*

We love these friends dearly, though, and because of some complex circumstances (her dad being against their relationship & marriage and not providing any financial support), they needed all of their friends to come together to help them, her mom, and his parents and family so they could have the wedding of their dreams. (she's in her first year of medical school and really wanted/needed to get marry this summer, precisely in the middle of her 4 week break)

So... yeah, not only were we at the wedding, but we and three other families (including my only local Brazilian friend) were "honorary families" and we were actually honored in the ceremony by being escorted by the groom and walking in (and then, immediately going to the cafeteria adjacent to the church to finish preparing the food -- we didn't even get to take photos with the bride & groom! ;-( ).

Sigh... I'm writing all this because I'm really, really exhausted after we edited their reception video until 3 am last night after I'd gone to four stores to buy ingredients to make punch. I was responsible for all the drinks of the reception and I didn't stop spooning sherbet into lemon-lime soda for about 3-4 hours. Sigh...

And I want to sleep, but my husband is watching the game online. An excellent game, a CLASSIC final with Argentina vs. Germany, so of course I'm blogging!

In case you're not aware of it, most if not ALL people in Brasil were rooting for Germany and against Argentina -- isn't that crazy? Brazilians are so "anti-Argentina" that it's almost annoying. The BBC published/posted an article explaining this phenomenon.

OK, I'm all over the place, as always! I want to try to post some photos of the wedding as well as more commentary on the world cup (interesting links), I hope I can do that!

P.S. It was a beautiful wedding and reception (though it was positively exhausting!)...


* I wanted to write more about that, at least share a bunch of links. For now I will just say that during our drive back on Thursday I thought more about the game, felt very very sad and shed a few tears. But my husband told me to stop and said I could only cry SEVEN tears, one for each goal, ha ha ha :-( really dark humor! In any case, I probably did cry only about seven tears, it was a pretty short-lived outpouring of grief!

The Most Shocking Result Ever!

Or "the worst day in the World Cup ever" or something like that. Not my words at all, but those of ESPN's announcers.

Today experienced announcers who have been covering World Cups for years and years lost their voices, had no words, were momentarily speechless. There was no way to explain what happened -- it had never happened before quite like that! It defied World Cup history and peoples expectations, all at the same time!

And what could we say to our boys? Particularly the 10 year old who really likes soccer? "Son, this has never happened before, they've never played so badly!" "Don't be upset, there will be other World Cups, maybe they'll do better in the future!"

I was ten years old as well back in 1982, the first World Cup I remember watching. We cried and felt traumatized when Brasil lost to Italy in the quarterfinals. My little brother was inconsolable, poor thing! But there was a crucial difference! (Many, in fact) That team was absolutely wonderful! They played marvelously, artistically, beautifully and reminded he country of he team from the 70s. Zico, Eder, Sócrates, Falcão, Cerezo, were great!!!

This year we had no team, really. A few good players, but they were not a cohesive unit, with technique as well as talent. Utterly frustrating! Add to that a coach who prized emotion above all and used really bad techniques to try and motivate the team (like playing videos of poor orphaned children and saying that they were going to "save" the country and it's people). The pressure of playing at home was too great and they were ill prepared!

Yeah... They'd barely made it to the semifinals, that's the truth, but that still doesn't explain he humiliating defeat 7 X 1. My personal explanation has to do with lack of training and, particularly, nerves! I kept joking that While the German have nerves made of "titanium" Brasil has nerves of tissue paper! 

My brother thinks it was a sinister fluke that led them to suffer 4 goals in literally SIX minutes!! Fluke or no fluke, it was pretty embarrassing!!

And I hope that it never happens again!

South American, European or Mixed World Cup Final?

I love the World Cup, but some negative interactions I had on the Facebook chat (messenger) on the eve of my birthday left a bitter taste in my mouth (it was this childish 60 year old guy from Church married to a Colombian lady who knows nothing about soccer and yet took upon himself to harass & annoy me insisting that Brazil had "robbed" Colombia... Sigh... I should just block this guy!).

Brazil, Germany, Argentina & the Netherlands are the four teams left in the World Cup, so there are three options for a final: all-European: Germany vs. Netherlands; all-South American: Brazil vs. Argentina or a mixed final with either of them. 

We'll see how Brasil (that's the Portuguese spelling) will do today! I'm pretty nervous! And I'm also leery of watching games on a hotel room! Back in 2010 we were in a hotel in Atlanta & Brasil lost to the Netherlands! :-( I hope it won't happen again today! It's not the same hotel chain, let's see if that helps!!

I don't know if I can enjoy posting on Facebook during this game if I don't block that guy... Sigh...

Wish us luck! ;-)

Why the World Cup is Cool, but FIFA is Evil -- thanks John Oliver!!

And also, to those of you who know about the turmoil and protests that the World Cup has been eliciting in Brazil, this explains why:
And John Oliver is hilarious, I'll try to watch his program every week from now on!!

First Game, First Goal!

Soccer or, as we call it here at home, futebol, is the new family obsession. Even Kelvin has regretted not signing up and most certainly will next season/school year.

Linton still doesn't know much of how to play the game (and you can blame it on his dad who didn't get him started earlier) and he had only one practice last Thursday (since he was sick on the first practice of the season the week before) -- but that didn't keep him from scoring on his very first game! I didn't capture the actual kick, but here's the goal:


K is already thinking of keeping count of our "artilheiro mirim" (mini scorer)'s goals, no doubt hoping he'll reach Pelé's 1000 goals! ;)