Whatever Paul the octopus predicts for the FIFA World Cup final, in Spain, people have faith and want to believe in victory. We face serious political and economic issues. We are not sure of what the future will hold, we don’t know if we can trust our politicians and when and if the economic crisis will end. But we are sure we want to win. There are many mottos in Spain for this final football cup. One of them is “¡Podemos!”, which reminds me of Obama’s “Yes, we can”.
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6th of July, 2010.
Tuesday evening, around 10.20pm Netherlands time.
The whistle blew signalling the end of a thrilling, high adrenaline semi-final encounter between The Netherlands and Uruguay.
And the Oranje fever gripped the nation!!
We were exhilarating. Confidence of a winner. Positive bets. Brazilians had been breathless, now they became speechless. No words will ever describe the faces of dismay I experienced during the fatal game Brazil x the Netherlands. We had it all, great individual talents, guts, a tough coach. We missed it all when the emotional balance came into play. Robinho, our inspired player, scored first. The first half of the game was ours. However, the Netherlands started their moment of glory when Wesley Sneijder’s free kick turned our samba into dramatic, sad tunes of “oh, no”, “I can’t believe it”, “what are they doing?”, plus all the irresistible swearing coming from desperate fans’ mouths.
It seemed two different games, two different Brazilian teams, a haughty, self-confident one in the first half, a totally lost, zombie-like in the other. Hopelessness for us. The Dutch took control, more pragmatic, less emotional, they showed self-control; they deserved to win.
Bets made. The awaited game started. We were cautiously optimistic. Though we had been successful in the last encounters with the Chileans, we respected their team and their attack. Not a defensive team at all, one that was not afraid of moving forward.
In the beginning, I was still uneasy. Chile started fast forward and dangerous. However, as we progressed, it seemed our old Brazilian Team was back on track. People say that gradually improving one’s game in the World Cup is part of the deal. However, we are always in the look for a kind of samba soccer, full of dribbles and skillfully played game. (more…)
An odd start to the day. It was not sunny, as it always is in Brasilia at this time of the year. Cloudy morning. For many government workers, no work. For me, it started early. We were all anxious for a game, which we had no clue what to expect. Portugal didn’t start at its best, but had just scored 7 goals over North Korea. We knew it wouldn’t be an easy game.
This was the first game of Brazil in the morning. As my apartment was half way for my friends and family, it was just natural to invite them all to my place. Before going to work, I had already decorated the tables, prepared some yellow and green dessert, and gone to a local food store for some mouth-watering pies.
This time we did it more elegantly, with swing and vivacity. The Brazilian Team was a different one with a powerful defensive opponent, Côte D’Ivoire – Drogba’s team. I had a bet that the score would be 3×1, and got it right. Luis Fabiano, whom we call the Fabulous One, had the ball in the net twice (though one of those was unquestionably done with the help of his arm). Another goal by Elano. We cheered, we felt that Brazil was calmer, more structured. We were disappointed to see so many violent fouls and we felt that Kaká’s expelling was unfair. Anyhow, we were successful in one more game.
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