The flame that never goes out

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The iate column, in O Estado de S.Paulo: football and poetry.

What a pity.

In this monday, mars 29th, disembodied one of the greatest journalists (and specialists on football history) that Brazil ever had. And that gives us the honour of having his name in the auditorium of this museum.

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Armando Nogueira, 83, died, less than three months to another World Cup. He was present in all, since 1950, and would watch one more. Even absent, he would contemplate, perhaps, a symphony of Messi or Robinho. But he won't - not in this Earth. Armando will watch the World Cup in heaven, besides his old friend Garrincha. And was about Garrincha one of the most famous Nogueira's sentences: that, for him, a bit of field was a landlordism.

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One of his books was A Chama que Não se Apaga (The Flame That Never Goes Out, 2000). There's nothing better to define him.

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Contrabassoons - and comets in the horizon

.In the periodicos deportivos, the hat-trick: upline

As occours in every World Cup (in the post-war, it didn't happened only in 1962) in the final stretch until the tournament, the biorhythm lines start their curves. Usually, the favourite starts a downline, that will cross, in the midway, with an irresistibly upward line of non-favorites in the sportsbook.

This hustle seems already started. As in 1998 and 2006 (and not in 1994 and 2006), the Brazilian Team arrives as favourite - just like Mendes de Moraes, Rio de Janeiro's mayor in 1950, before the Brazil and Uruguay, the final match - "our part is done - now, do you".

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There's no downline in Dunga's team - what occours, for now, is the almost general fail of all players in their clubs. Even Kaká, almost German in his style and perfeccionism, is struggling in Madrid. Robinho, Adriano (and why not, Ronaldo) went into exile (¿?) in Brazil. Even Luiz Fabiano, lately a violin in C major, has experienced days of contrabassoon in B flat - his Sevilla was eliminated of the Champions. About Ronaldinho Gaúcho, well... the explanation for his absence is a little more complicated.

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Withal, the contrary seems to be happening in Argentina - after the fantastic triumph in Munich against the hosts, the Albiceleste's basis has been performing recitals across Europe. The last was in Spain, when Messi and Higuán scored, in Barcelona and Madrid, tripletas - or hat-tricks - ususual in a final stretch for a World Cup that, in the horizon, is already visible. And, there, a comet is coming.

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(Just like) Starting over

.The original, and the version: start - and finish - in Germany
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Germany was the starting point - and finishing -, for two of those groups for who God pointed and didn't said "go, be gauche in life". He said, more probably, "go - and write your names in History".

One came from Liverpool, calling at Hamburg, coming back to England and after to the United States, and so on, forever - giving, even, their names to true stars in sky. The another, from many points in Brazil. Almost all went to Europe (none exactly to Hamburg, though some to German cities; some even passed by Liverpool).

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One of the most famous phrases by John Lennon made some liverpoolians upset: he used to say that he was grown in Hamburg, not in Liverpool. It makes sense - The Beatles were formed in the port city, but became a very band, a musicians groups, indeed, in the German city, playing all night long, non-stop, until exhaustion. In the case of the Brazilian Team, in the WC'06, it arrived in Germany when almost all players had left behind their "Hamburgs", their clubs and troubles in the beginning of their carreers. The iminent consacration would be the conquest of that tournament, considered almost unavoidable even by the adversaries.

The Beatlemania - specially what ensued after the first step of one of the Fab Four in the JFK Airport, in New York - was the fuse of the biggest pop phenomenom ever; what cames after, if it's not literally a copy, has something of. The very Beatlemania launched over the four (just like the players of the "Seleção", decades after) humble English guys a celebrity (and wealthy) to which they coped well with for a lot of time - until the Seventies, a certain general disbelief, the oil crisis and Lennon writing, in God, that "the dream is over". The "Beatlemania" with the Brazilian Team in 2006 - not exactly in Germany, but in the Swiss city of Weggis, totally, thought, incorpored to the event in the neighbour Germania - had reverse effect. From the early Rock and Roll Music, it went to Help!, to finally finish with the same "the dream is over", from God. The scene of the groupie, hallucinated, rolling over Ronaldinho Gaúcho, during a coaching, gives a notion of this revisited version of the youth fever of the Sixties.

One of the last Lennon's songs, the beautiful Starting Over, talks about restart: "we have grown". We hope so.
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Soccer as a unifying factor - in the United States

.Great National Soccer Teams: for passionate (and future lovers) of soccer

Last february 14th, the Football Museum was visited by someone who speaks - or rather writes - with property: Annie Leah Sommers.

She is the author of an interesting book, Great National Soccer Teams. Considering the phenomenon of football in the United States, her work - focused on young people - may perhaps contribute to a change in the profile of soccer players in the United States where, according to Sommers, football is already a unifying factor, but still quite different from the characteristics of Brazilian football. And whether for political, cultural or those quarrels of brothers with almost the same age, differences between Brazil and the United States are sometimes highlighted. They exist, of course, but it is also true that there are many common points (besides being "young" countries, when compared with Europe and Asia). One of them is sport - mixing is present, either in our football, whether in basketball there.

Since the Eighties, at times, we have comparisons between Pelé and Michael Jordan - sometimes even to redo the poll of the French newspaper L'Equipe, to decide who is the athlete of the century. Pelé and Jordan are black, both with an absurdly unusual fitness, had broken all possible records in their careers and are no longer mere athletes, to be converted to, as shown by the very Annie Sommers, legends and stars. The author, however, imposes the first adjective to Pelé, and the second to Jordan. This shows not only His uniqueness but also how soccer, due to its popularity around the world, turned into something like music - a universal language.

Annie Sommers, in her work, breaks through the main features of football in different countries. A conversation with her, however, shows that we face a specialist. She hardly believe the future of soccer in the United States (as much is preached) is connected to the Latins: "in the U.S., elite level soccer at a youth level is and has been for the most part, 'pay to play'", says the author. A similar process has occurred in Brazil - the urbanization and proliferation of soccer schools transformed, from the mid-'90s, money in a determining factor in the success (or not) of a player. The difference perhaps lies in the fact that, in Brazil, soccer is seen by many of these boys as a gold mine, while in the United States the same is true with other sports, such as basketball, football and baseball.

Sommers believes that Brazil will win the next World Cup, but does so as an "emotional hunch". From New York, where she lives, granted this interview for The Ball Blog.

THE BALL BLOG - The U.S. people enjoy sports, not exactly soccer but basketball, football, baseball et cetera. Do you think that the sports phenomenon in the U.S. and Brazil are similar?
ANNIE LEAH SOMMERS - While soccer is catching on in popularity on the national level in the United States, it's far more common to find fans who have a favourite national team abroad — Italy, Brazil, England, Mexico, etc. The motivation for these choices is either due to the desire to support their ‘home’ country (ex: Mexican-americans support Mexico) or because of their affinity towards a club team outside the United States — immigrants who followed a particular club team when they were kids, or when their dads were kids. Or city team in the US Soccer League (both natural born citizens and immigrants will follow these teams), as opposed to simply wanting the American National Team to win. In other words, soccer in Brazil is much more of a 24-hour a day, heart and soul equalizer than in the United States, where other sports reign supreme.

TBB - Before writing Great National Soccer Teams, what was your involvement with soccer?
SOMMERS - I was in Paris for the World Cup in 1998, and it was then that soccer and the mania for it caught my attention. After that, it stayed in my peripheral vision as something that was of interest because of its power to move people to such emotional depths. Later on in my career, it caught my interest once again as I was examining cultural phenomena that were of a particular interest to young adults living in the United States — regardless of their nationality. Soccer intrigued me because it is a unifying factor, especially in multicultural city such as New York, where I live. Coincidentally, around this time, Rosen Publishing in New York, publisher of high quality non-fiction for young readers, and for whom I have worked as an editor and author, commissioned me to write this book. Through this, I was able to further immerse myself in the fascinating world of soccer. Seeing the growing interest in the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, Rosen put together a whole series on soccer aimed at teen readers (all the books of the series are at http://www.rosenpublishing.com/).

TBB - How similar (or different) are Pelé and Michael Jordan?
SOMMERS - Pelé is a legend, whereas Jordan is a star.

TBB - What are the "soccer moms"? How important they were for Bill Clinton's campaign, in 1996?
SOMMERS - In reality, a soccer mom is a euphemism for a woman (in the United States, most probably white and at least middle class) whose maternal instincts are largely applied toward the practical logistics of raising a child-athlete. In terms of Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign, the term being coined was the result of an article in The New York Times — published the day of the first televised presidential debate — stipulating that Clinton's victory was dependent on support from this “soccer mom” demographic.

TBB - Why soccer, in the U.S., is still more practiced by women?
SOMMERS - Because male athletes at the high school and college level are more apt to choose sports where there is a chance to earn high salaries — football, basketball and baseball. Female athletes do not have money as a motivator, so they play basketball, volleyball and soccer (the top 3 for women in college athletics).

TBB - The American sports culture, quite different compared to Europe's, is a form of national affirmation towards England? "Refusing" to take part on soccer and, for instance, in Formula 1, effectively, the U.S. are reinforcing, in a certain way, its independence towards the British mainland?
SOMMERS - America does not go out of its way to ally itself with England. On a cultural level, those ties have long been broken.

TBB - Do you believe that the future of soccer in the United States is linked to latin players?
SOMMERS - Actually, no. I believe that, unfortunately, it all has to do with money. As noted by the president of the United States Soccer Federation, Sunil Gilati, "One of the issues . . . in the United States is that elite level soccer at a youth level is and has been for the most part, 'pay to play'". Inner city kids in the United States are not playing soccer and those with the aim of going pro tend to go with the sports where the money is — still football and basketball.

TBB - In your opinion, who will win the next World Cup?
SOMMERS - I have to say Brazil. But to be honest, I must admit that to be a response based on an emotional desire as opposed to a statistical prophecy.
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Procession of stars

.A little bit of our flag, every night,

in the winter sky: Antares (center - and 600 light-years away)

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If you, when children, could choose your nationality based only on national flags, probably would choose Brazil. Children are attuned to nature, to dogs and ants. For the sky, then, are quite wise - while we, adults, look at the heaven vault to check if it will rain, children ask themselves why that enormity of stars, and if the Moon and the Sun are close to us, believing that it is even possible to get there by helicopter. When we discover that the Sun, so large upstairs, is 150 million quilômeters away, we discover but we don't understand. And when we learn that many of those tiny points in the night sky are quite larger than our Sun, so contemplation goes beyond Delta Orion. Stars begin to captivate the mind, and we begin to suspect that our existence (the entire planet, mankind, the six billons and two hundred millions) is frivolous.

One issue that quickly arise, for children, is if stars have, indeed, pentagonal (or hexagonal) shape. Everywhere we look, here on Earth, they are, sharp. Is in this moment that we understand that they are not only distant, but are spherical, like Earth. The allure increases - it's one of the first times in life, that we're sure we're facing something that goes beyond our knowledge.

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The Brazilian flag, in this sense, is odd. It's the only national flag, in the entire World, whose design is seen at night in the sky. A pretty sky map, that extrapolates the image of the Southern Cross, that shines in the midst of other 22 stars, from the constellations of Greater Dog, Hydra, Lesser Dog, Octant, Scorpio and Virgin. The white banner (with the positivist slogan "Order and Progress") would be the eliptical, as if marking the passage of Sun and Moon, during the day. The stars would represent Rio de Janeiro's sky, at 8h30m am of november 15th, 1889, when our young Republic was proclaimed - it is 121 years old. Some of those stars are billions years old.

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When we discover that those constellations are visible in the night sky about six months a year, allure increases - specially when we see the Scorpio, easily identifiable around 10pm, in the winter night sky. In adittion to the Southern Cross, closed to the horizon, lurking, the procession of stars.

The World Cup is coming - South Africa is right there, more and more - begins to spread, day after day, this image of sky, in the night azure. The South-African stadiums (and streets and houses, here) will be subdued by this sky map of the Southern Hemisphere, with a simple sky blue, adorned with earth elements, from forests and gems.

Five stars in the t-shirt aside (perhaps six after july) - precious, yea, is the sky.
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The International Day of what is most beautiful in Creation

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Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar, 1940

Today is the International Women's Day.

We may quote the poet Vinícius de Moraes and his beautiful poem Receita de Mulher (Recipe of Woman); talk about Marta and her feats; Mia Hamm, the women that are players, fans, workers on football, the referee's mothers - those who like (and those who doesn't) football.

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A poem that tells a lot about what is most complex, most beautiful in Creation, was written by Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet and musician. The stanzas below were taken from The Gardener (1913):


Woman

Woman, you are not merely the
handwork of God,
but also of men;
these are ever endowing you with
beauty from your hearts.

Poets are weaving for you a web
with threads of golden imagery;
painters are giving your form ever
new immortality.

The sea gives its pearls,
the mines their gold, the summer gardens
their flowers to deck you,
to cover you, to make you
more precious.

The desire of men's hearts has shed
its glory over your youth.

You are half woman,
half dream.
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The World Cup, in Cinema, isn't ours

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The impressive take in the Globo's stadium: revisited platinism

The Muylaert and Geneton's lecture, still, last saturday.

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The theme, as said, was the painful "stray complex". Yes, it is - in a very smaller scale, something similar is ocurring in... cinema. If until the end of the Fifties the Brazilian Team, almost always, trembled before Uruguayans and Argentinians (paúra also known as "platinism"), on cinema screens, from time to time, the Brazilian cinema reaches the Oscar cerimony always almost and... loses it. So it was with O Quatrilho, Central do Brasil (Central Station - with the nomination of Fernanda Torres for best actress) and Cidade de Deus (City of God - with four nominations). None came.

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The validity of Oscar as a reference to mesure which are the good films is relative. It's possible to refuse it, as did Marlon Brando in 1973, when he was chosen the best actor. In the Brazilian case, otherwise, there's an intense lobby to won it, always unsucessfully. There's a big desire for this trophy, almost an obsession.

In 2005, the Uruguayan Jorge Drexler won the best soundtrack prize for Al Otro Lado Del Río, in Los Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries), a multinational production, directed by Walter Salles. And today the Argentinian film El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), by Juan José Campanella, won the statue for best foreign film (many times almost won by Brazilian films). And it's not the first time this occours: in 1986, La Historia Oficial (The Official Story), by the also Argentinian director Luiz Puenzo, won the same prize.

One of the film scenes (a drama about the investigation of a homicide, 30 years ago) is entitled to the prize: one persecution in the Huracán Stadium, called Tomás Adolfo Ducó, in Buenos Aires, a story that ends, literally, in a penalty. The initial sequence in the Globo's stadium, aerial, is impressive.

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Not to say that no Brazilian film never won an Oscar, in 1986 O Beijo da Mulher Aranha (The Kiss of the Spider Woman), directed by Héctor Babenco, won the best actor's prize, with William Hurt. A small-huge detail: Babenco was born in Mar del Plata.

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Stories of the time when Brazil was, almost, the country of football

. Geneton and Muylaert, in the Armando Nogueira Auditorium:

sweat t-shirts and jackfruit tree in Nova Iguaçu city (photo by Flavio D'Avanzo)

Last saturday, mars 6th, the Armando Nogueira Auditorium hosted the second edition of Brasil nas Copas (Brazil in the FIFA World Cups), a series of debates about the Brazilian participation in WCs, organized by the Football Museum and Memofut - The Group for Literature and Memory of Football.

The journalists Roberto Muylaert and Geneton Moraes Neto talked, for two hours, about the World Cups of 1950 and 1954 - and about the "stray complex", created by Nelson Rodrigues. Geneton, born in 1956, spoke about what he didn't see; Muylaert watched the matches in loco in Maracanã and Berna.

The first talked about stories of players that, soon after playing for the Brazilian Team in the megalomaniac Brazil x Uruguay, went home on train and... sitting on the floor (like Zizinho), because there was no place anymore. And Friaça, the scorer of the Brazilian (vain) goal, that went to the São Januário Stadium, where he roamed until he became aware he was under a jackfuit tree, in the city of Nova Iguaçu. Muylaert, eyewitness of the "Berna Battle", in 1954, spoke on hungarians, that entered the field, strangely, with sweat t-shirts (an innovation called "heating").

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From july 16th, 1950, in Maracanã, Muylaert told that he met, then, for the first time his future wife - they're still married, today. The Brazilian Team lost the Cup but they won, that day (unawaring) the greatest conquest of their lives.
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Nelson Rodrigues bless us

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Gehringer's speech last saturday: stories about World Cups broadcasted on telegraph

Since last saturday the Football Museum, with Memofut - Group of Literature and Memory of Football - organizes a series of meetings, saturday mornings, with debates on the participation of Brazil in the FIFA World Cups. The event, called Brasil nas Copas (Brazil in the World Cups), will consist of 8 lectures, with free entry.

Last february 27th, Max Gehringer spoke about the World Cups of the pre-Second World War. Next saturday, mars 06th, 10 am, the journalists Geneton Moraes Neto, author of Dossiê 50, and Roberto Muylaert, author of A Copa que Ninguém Viu e a que Não Queremos Lembrar and Barbosa, um Gol Faz Cinquenta Anos, will adress Nelson Rodrigues' "stray complex" - that one, nailed in the Seleção's soul and, in a sense, in the people's soul, between 1950 and 1954.

O BRASIL NAS COPAS (BRAZIL IN THE WORLD CUPS)

Football Museum - Pacaembu Stadium

Armando Nogueira Auditorium

Charles Miller Square, unnumbered

Free entry

http://www.museudofutebol.org.br/ (11) 3663-3848