The Ball Blog - Football (Soccer) Museum - Brazil

South Africa'10 From A to Z, by Marcelo Duarte

2010-07-21T05:49:00.001-07:00

For those who still didn't came to visit the temporary expo Copas de A a Z (World Cups from A to Z) in the Football Museum, this is an invitation. For those who already came (and, sure, for those who will come), a sugestion: the Blog do Curioso (The Curious Blog - http://guiadoscuriosos.com.br/blog/2010/07/11/a-minha-copa-de-2010-de-a-a-z/), wrote by the curator of the expo himself, Marcelo Duarte.

If, in Copas de A a Z, the entry "L" is "Laranja Mecânica" ("Clockwork Orange"), in Duarte's text it's "Larissa" (Riquelme). In the expo, "R" is "Rituais" ("Rituals"); in the blog, it's "Rolling Stone pé-frio" ("Unlucky Rolling Stone")... and so on. The entry "M" is, inevitably, "Maradona" (a so rich character that would fit an entire "A to Z").

Note, also, that the focus of the text derives from the impressions of the last World Cup; the expo, in its turn, deals with the previous tournaments.

A sample: the entry "P" (that in Copas de A a Z is "Primeira Vez" - "First Time"):

"P - Paul, the Octopus

The mollusk, 2 years and a half old, that lives in the Oberhausen Aquarius, in Germany, was the World Cup oracle. His handlers put, in front of him, two acrilic boxes, each one with a flag of a country. Paul hit Germany's wins against Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina. Also hit the defeats to Servia and Spain. The choose of the champion was broadcasted live by 600 radio and TV stations. Paul didn't disappointed. Quivered Spain and hit it!"

Welcome, Palestine!

2010-07-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

.
The girls of the Palestine team at the Numbers & Curiosities room: learning and teaching

The Football Museum hosted, last wednesday, june 30th, a quite special visit: the Palestine Women's Team.

The 24 players are practicing at the Meninos da Vila Training, in the city of Santos (SP). The visit has the support of the Brazilian Federal Government, with Santos Futebol Clube. They will also visit the stadiums of Pacaembu (where the Football Museum is) and Morumbi, and play friendlies against Brazilian teams.

In fact, World Cups From A to Z

2010-06-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

.
The World Cup is in the half point of its month, and our Copas de A a Z (World Cups From A to Z), the current temporary expo of the Football Museum, has complete one month opened to the public, that toke part in many ways - like the original anagram below, wrote by Jaime Luiz Stabel:

Apaixonante (Passionate)
Brilhante (Brilliant)
Caprichada (Well done)
Divina (Divine)
Espetacular (Spectacular)
Fantástica (Fantastic)
Genial (Genial)
Honesta (Honest)
Imperdível (Unmissable)
Jóia (Jewerly)
Linda (Beautiful)
Maravilhosa (Marvelous)
Novidade (Novelty)
Ótima (Great)
Perfeita (Perfect)
Querida (Dear)
Rica (Rich)
Simpática (Sympathetic)
Tremenda (Tremendous)
Única (Unique)
Vitoriosa (Winner)
Xaveco (Xebec)
Zelosa (Zealous)
.

About Naranjitos and mices

2010-06-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

.
Zigg and the Where's Willie? room: the "This World is a Ball" Gang

“Imagine a thin and tall guy, with a hat, a suit and a suitcase. Now suppose that, in this suitcase, you’ll find crayons, painting, paper, a tambourine, a guitar… ok: right here this guy will start to tell tales, singing and painting stories.

Zygg by himself: this text came from the blog of Ivan Zigg, a “carioca” illustrator, writer, musician and actor, and defines pretty well the artist that, with crayons, painting, paper – and maybe a tambourine and a guitar – was the responsible for the illustration of the room W – Onde Está Willie? (Where’s Willie?), the temporary expo inaugurated by the Football Museum on may, 31st, Copas de A a Z (World Cups From A to Z).

Winner of the Jabuti Prize (the greatest Brazilian literature prize) on the category Children Book in 2004, Zigg is the author of more than one hundred books – among them O Segredo, O Elefante Caiu and Só Um Minutinho. His piece De A a Zigg (From A to Zigg) is present in book fairs, schools and cultural spaces in Brazil. If you want to know more about this very multimedia artist, go to his website, at http://blogdozigg.blogspot.com/.

Coming to Copas de A a Z, the visitor will discover the place where Willie, the 1966 WC is present (and also, perhaps, Zakumi’s grandpa). Anyway, the place where Zigg was last may, 31st, was the Football Museum, when the expo was opened. From Rio de Janeiro, where he lives, he conceded this interview to The Ball Blog:

THE BALL BLOG - Where’s Willie?

IVAN ZIGG - I worked one week to hide Willie and now you ask me to tell you easily? Go to the expo!

BB - What’s the meaning of cartoon in education, today? And, in a Museum?

ZIGG - Museum is life. You can’t oblige someone to take two buses to see only frames. The visitor gotta live something unforgettable there: emotion, cheers, art. This exploration and language moisture promoted by the “young” museums is rocking people.

BB - Among the 12 World Cup mascots, which one captured you most? Why?

ZIGG - Naranjito, the out-of-shape orange of Spain’12. He’s the ball itself.

BB - Are the characters – and mascots – disposed under any logic, or they appear randomly?

ZIGG - Randomly. But perhaps in five thousand years someone will discover, there, the secret map of Zigg’s pharaoh tomb, huh?

BB - Where’s Willie? is a room where all the World Cup mascots are among many characters, in the bleachers. How would you name them if they were an organized group of fans?

ZIGG - Well, there are animals, people outside the Earth, flags and different colors… what about “This World is a Ball”?

BB - Imagine a player as a mascot – who, and which one, would be?

ZIGG - Robinho, sure! Take a look at him: there’s nothing more cartoonly! What about a Robinho-mice cycling?

BB - Dunga, the original one, was a cartoon character (Disney Snow White’s Dopey). Is Dunga a very… Dunga?

ZIGG - He’s closer to Grumpy than Dopey, huh? Within a month, after the World Cup, we’ll know.

BB - How could be the mascot of Brazil’14?

BB - I guess he would be "Invisible-Fan". So it will be possible to find him in the next Where’s Willie?!

Zebras and Œuvres d'art

2010-05-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

If the World Cup will be ours, for the 6th time, nobody nows. If Africa will be the penultimate (there's no World Cup in Oceania yet) continent to be conquered by the Brazilian Team, it's still something nobody knows.

Certain is that, from the next tuesday, June 1st - only 11 days before the opening of the World Cup - the Football Museum will have a new temporary exposition, Copas de A a Z ("World Cups From A to Z"). This expo is a kind of football encyclopedia - or World Cup encyclopedia. With 26 rooms, related to the 26 letters of the alphabet, it will be possible to see "D" of Dribles ("Dribbles"), "F" of Figurinhas ("Stamps"), "G" of Granja ("Chicken Farm"; chickens - when a goalkeeper suffers a goal in an easy lance - are also part of the biggest event in the world football), "M" of Música ("Music") and "Z" of Zebra ("Zebra", the way we, Brazilians, call a score when the weakest team wins). We hope this kind of zebra will not be present - frequently - in Johannesbourg.

Or, if so, we hope with a lot of "O" - of Obras de Arte ("Œuvres d'art")

Below, a brief summary of CAZ rooms:

África do Sul (South Africa)

A panel about the first country of the African continent hosting a World Cup.

Bola Fora (Ball Out)

Even the greatest cracks stumble in field. Doubt it?

Chocolate (Chocolate - Big Scores)

In football, chocolate may have a bitter taste.

Dribles (Dribbles)

¡Olé! Or how to drive the opponent crazy...

Estilo (Style)

To shine in the field, you may use different hair, uniforms and shoes. Isn't it, Valderrama?

Figurinhas (Stamps)

In a time when collecting stamps became a fever, again... only in an album you would find two Maradonas or Pelés, huh?

Granja (Chicken Farm)

Mr. Goalkeeper, what a pity... and how many feathers...

If the door remains unlocked, a chicken may escape... or, in this case, enter.

Dar um agá (Ripping off)

"Dar um agá" (to rip off) isn't in dictionaries, but every goalkeeper knows what it is. Hand touching, saint-like face... every resource is used to deceive the referees. Even in a World Cup - using human and D10S hands...

Inimigos (Enemies)

When football is much more than a game... with countries changing rivalry into field (and even real!) wars!

Jardim Irene (Irene Garden)

Now everybody knows: a world champion was born here!

Kuwait

Sheik Fahid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah: a powerful man!

Laranja Mecânica (Clockwork Orange)

A tactical scheme that squeezed the opponents.

Música (Music)

The soundtracks of the World Cups.

Números (Numbers)

For the statistics lovers.

Obras de Arte (Œuvres d'art )

La donna è mobiiiileee...

Sometimes football looks just like an opera - or an orchestra. The most beautiful goals of the history of the World Cups must, sure, be in a museum.

Primeira Vez (First Time)

People say we never forget it. But it's always good to remember.

Quase (Almost)

Two Pelé's lances that didn't entered in the goal - but it was just a detail.

Rituais (Rituals)

When the faith of players and fans drives football...

Sofrimento (Suffering)

The defeat's pain is also a part of history.

Torcedor (Fans)

Hey! It's you!

Uniformes (Uniforms)

When players give their blood to their national side mantles.

Vitória (Victory)

Paulo Machado de Carvalho, the Marechal da Vitória (Marshall's Victory): for him, winning was common.

Willie e as Mascotes (Willie and the Pets)

Zakumi is the latest of a series of funny characters that will be forever remembered in the World Cups imaginary. Willie, in 1966, was the first, in a time when England was in love for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Xadrez (Chess)

Anyway... who never compared a football field to a chess table? Assembling winning teams is a work for strategists.

Yashin

The URSS legendary Black Spider, of the World Cups of 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970... a goalkeeper with only two hands would never make so many saves.

Zebra (Zebra)

Unexpected scores come in black and white stripes... will it appear in the World Cup, this year?

Never before, in the history of this country

2010-05-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Audience in the Armando Nogueira Theater, at the Football Museum: first steps

Flavio de Campos, Leonardo Pereira, Antonio Jorge Soares, Arlei Sander Dano and Simoni Guedes, in the debate Society and Identities: different approaches

DaMatta in the inauguration class: football, society and societies

The inauguration class: audience from 17 states

As soon as Neil Armstrong touched, for the first time with his right foot, the sandy floor of the Moon, july 21st, 1969, he said one of the most famous quotes ever: "a small step for a man, a gian leap for mankind".

This event has no link with the 1st Symposium of Football Studies. Or almost none: the duality of the meaning of Armstrong's step is, in a certain sense, present in this event, last week, from may 10th to may 14th, at the Football Museum, at USP (University of São Paulo) and PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo ). Small-big steps.

This first Simposyum inaugurates a new moment for the studies of football in Brazil. Close to South Africa'10, and already in the countdown to the second World Cup in Brazil, the Symposium joined about 200 works, an expressive figure that perhaps will grow more and more, due to the coming events - but, above all, to the Symposium itself, and its pioneerism.

The inaugural class, by the antropologist Roberto DaMatta, in the Theater of the Faculty of History of FFLCH-USP (Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences), was followed by debates, coordinated sessions and individual speeches, with a lot of themes, from group of organized fans 'till football and body expressions, passing through football-art and the footballer career.

***

There is, perhaps, another common point between Armstrong's pasito (present in the World Cups room, one of the main rooms of the Football Museum) and the Symposium: in the middle point of both you'll find feet, stepping the natural satellite, or kicking the ball, an artificial satellite that goes around, more and more, the Earth.

About encyclopedias, enhancers and pasitos

2010-05-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just like Aurélio in dictionaries, Nilton Santos became the owner of an expression, when we think about football: encyclopedia.

The mozartian style of the Botafogo defender (some people say it's similar to Santos Football Club' Paulo Henrique Ganso) was one of the first references, in Brazil, between art and football. Nilton was an opera character even when he made his "pasito" in Chile'62, against Spain. "Pasito" is an exclusive expression of Nilton Santos "Encyclopedia".

***

The Football Museum will present, soon, a new football encyclopedia - or a new World Cups Encyclopedia, in which Nilton is part of the enhancer "H" - when he stepped a little outside the big area, he deceived ("deu um H", in Portuguese) the Chilean referee Salvador Bustamante. "H" is one of the 26 rooms of the new temporary expo of the Football Museum, named "Copas de A a Z" ("World Cups from A to Z"), that shall be inaugurated in the end of May. "A" of África do Sul (South Africa), "C" of chocolate (big scores have always a good taste), "E" of estilo (style), "O" of obras de arte (masterpieces) et cetera. The 26 letters of the alphabet, 26 different angles to watch the greatest global event.

The visitors (of the enchancer "T" - torcedor/fan) will identify themselves with the enhancer "S", of sofrimento (suffering). And a lot of "R", of rituais (rituals) will be needed to resolve this.

The flame that never goes out

2010-03-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

***

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.

Contrabassoons - and comets in the horizon

2010-03-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

.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".

***

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.

.
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.

(Just like) Starting over

2010-03-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

.The original, and the version: start - and finish - in Germany
.

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).

***

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.
.

Soccer as a unifying factor - in the United States

2010-03-13T06:43:00.001-08:00

.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.
.

Procession of stars

2010-03-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

.A little bit of our flag, every night,

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

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.

***

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.

***

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.
.

The International Day of what is most beautiful in Creation

2010-03-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

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.

***

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.
.

The World Cup, in Cinema, isn't ours

2010-03-08T02:44:00.000-08:00

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

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

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

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

2010-03-08T02:43:00.006-08:00

. 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").

***

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.
.

Nelson Rodrigues bless us

2010-03-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

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

Porque nada tenemos, todo lo haremos

2010-02-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

;La Roja, in a commemorative LP released after Chile’62: national pride

Color images of the World Cup of 1962, by the National Chile Television: heroic reconstruction

After the cyclopean tragedy in Haiti, earthquakes come to South America . Drama takes place, now, in Chile.

***

Tragic not only because the earthquake was felt in Brazil – even in Paulista avenue, in São Paulo. But, above all, because that after the Haitian purgatory, earthquakes are now in another Latin American country. In casualties, the figures in Chile are (still) quite less than Haiti: only (?) 300 people (in the Caribbean country, there are statistics showing 300 thousand dead). With the detail that, in the Richter scale, the earthquake of one month ago had the intensity of 7 points – the another one, yesterday night, in Concepción, close to Santiago, was 8,8. The fifth ever.

The biggest ever, since Richter scale was adopted, occurred also in Chile, in 1960. A detail: a little more than two years before the World Cup the country was preparing to host. Concepción (then, too) and Talca, that would be headquarters of the tournament, were stricken. The Chilean Cup, briefly, had its viability in doubt. Carlos Ditborn, president of the Chilean Football Federation, told an epoch phase: “porque nada tenemos, todo lo haremos” (“because we have nothing, we'll do all”).

In 1962, predictably (and unlike many of the prognoses), a rebuilt Chile organized one of the most beautiful World Cups until then. The Nacional Stadium, in Santiago, was the stage of memorable encounters. The Chilean Team was the 4th, but after a tough match against Brazil, played until the end. La Roja narrowly didn’t won the Cup (if it had defeated Brazil, would hardly lose the final match against Czechoslovakia, in a packed Nacional Stadium).

***

In september 1985, Mexico City suffered, also, a mega-earthquake: 8.1 in the Richter scale, with about 10 thousand dead. In the following year, just like Chile in 62, Mexico organized a beautiful World Cup. Latin America resists.

The memory of the heroic reconstruction of 1962 remains – and the unfailing chant of the hinchas de la Selección: “Chi-Chi-Chi, le-le-le, ¡viva Chile!"

The "Seleção", Twist and Shout and Yellow Submarine

2010-02-27T03:27:00.000-08:00

Eleanor Rigby, in the movie Yellow Submarine:

England in cultural and sport booming in 1966

While the World Cup of 1966 was being played, The Beatles were closed at the Abbey Road Studios, finishing one of their greatest chefs d'œuvre, Revolver.

Despite the name, the disc doesn't advertises violence. Conversely, it's the first Fab Four's work to shift towards the nascent hippie strand - songs like Tomorrow Never Knows clearly show this: "turn off your mind".

***

The Seleção worship, sometimes, is enough to remember the (irreproducible) Beatlemania. It's curious that 1966, in this sense, is a rite of passage for the Liverpool quartet and also for the Canarinho Team.

Revolver is a disc that contains, still, elements of the first phase of the band, with platonic love songs, like Here, There and Everywhere, but already shows what, in the future, would become reality in Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road and Let it Be: the maturity and the swan song of the greatest pop band ever.

The Seleção played, then, close to the Abbey Road Studios, in London. And that World Cup was, also, a transition moment in its "work": many players of the "Twist and Shout" phase were still there - like Pelé, Garrincha and Bellini -, but also were present those of the "Yellow Submarine" phase - Tostão and Jairzinho -, that would be enshrined in the Azteca Stadium, four years later.

And that would spread their fame Across the Universe.
.

The Eighteenth Brumaire

2010-02-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

.Tostão and Pelé, in 1970, Maradona in 1986, both in the Azteca Stadium:

if it depended solely on the uniforms, a memorable South Africa'10

Hardly any team will emerge in this World Cup like Brazil in 1970. And it's also unlikely, at Johannesburg's Soccer City, to see a genious like Diego Maradona.

But, for all (visual) purposes, Argentina will play with a t-shirt that's almost a replica of its 86's - and Brazil, like announced yesterday, will be wearing an uniform quite similar to that of 1970.

***

Talking about Napoleon III's military coup against the French Parliament, in 1851, Marx wrote that "history repeats itself - first as tragedy, second as farce". That's it.
.

Catharsis

2010-02-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

.
Nada Além
Mário Lago/Custódio Mesquita

Nada além,
nada além de uma ilusão,
chega bem,
é demais para o meu coração.

Acreditando em tudo
que o amor mentindo sempre diz,
eu vou vivendo assim feliz,
na ilusão de ser feliz.

Se o amor
só nos causa sofrimento e dor
é melhor,
bem melhor a ilusão do amor.

Eu não quero e nem peço,
para o meu coração,
nada além
de uma linda ilusão

Orlando Silva: sad beautiful moment

One of the most beautifully sad stories of Brazil'50 talks about one famous Mário Lago & Custódio Mesquita song. The Maracanazo is subject for one thousand histories and stories - among them, one that happened in the night of that july 16th. Few hours after the tragedy Rio, just converted in a cemetery, was still wonderful. But, that night, the city needed to forget what had happened. Some came back home, another roamed around the city. Others, of course, went to the bars, looking for spirits - "spirits" do give some relief to the soul.

***

Orlando Silva, named "singer of the crowds" by the famous speaker Oduvaldo Cozzi, was singing, that night, in one of the bars of the seafront. A group of - justly - triumphant uruguayans was drinking to celebrate the Cup, when Silva announced that would interpret Nada Além, by the double of carioca composers - The song was alusive to the score of hours before. As sang, many of the brazilians there started to cry, and the uruguayans, listening to the lirics, understood it was. Then, they would joined the Brazilian catarsis.

Nada Além don't talks about football, but about an unfulfilled love, big enough to be worth by itself. It's one song of a time when suffering didn't needed to be avoided at all costs. Maybe Brazil'50 is so huge just because it failed to become reality - nothing more than a beautiful illusion.

The Bachianas

2010-02-23T07:29:00.000-08:00

The maestro: not Beethoven, but Bach

Yesterday, on Roda Viva, a Cultura TV program, the pianist and maestro Joã Carlos Martins talked about the ocasion when, traveling with Pelé, heard from Him the phrase "God created only one Beethoven, only one Pelé".

The maestro says that, quickly, he "corrected" the King: "so, so... Bach is Pelé... Beethoven... well... is a kind of Maradona... the second ever, but not so much...".

Detail: Martins is a disciple (and one of the greatest players) of Johann Sebastian Bach's opera.

Old continent, old wars

2010-02-21T06:46:00.000-08:00

The italian goal, that defeated Germany,

in Dortmund: this time, Italien über alles

In the German TV, the best match of the World Cup, with two goals in the four

last minutes and, just like the last meeting in WCs (Spain'82), Italy defeats Germany

Since immemorial times we name stars. When Uhr and Uruk, in Mesopotamia, didn’t existed yet, even as projects, we enjoyed to look for the sky e name the Astros, fixed stars, mobile planets. Astronomy comes from this moments, perhaps the most ancient human science – for the Ancient Egiptians, important enough, at the pinnacle of their civilization, to attribute Nilo’s River fertility (and, thus, their own civilization) to the star we call nowadays Sirius, for them Isis. Nilo’s floods, then, were taken as a consequence of Osiris weeping, god of nature and Isis husband. When she dies, provoked his weeping, that fertilized, every year, the river’s margins.

***

Stellar cataloging... football... well...

One of the five stars (1962) in the Brazilian Team t-shirt could be called as “Elza Soares”. Still, Ruy Castro’s Garrincha, a Estrela Solitária (Garrincha, the Lonely Star), describes it well. Because of opposite reasons, one of the four stars in the Italian t-shirt could be called as… Achim Achilles.

It’s accountable. Anyone who take a look at a wristwatch, in the diurnal lecture of the hours yields, unwitting, an ode to the roman glory. Until today the roman numerals are on clocks, law numbers, Rambo movies et caetera. A certain deference to Italy (and to any country and people, sure) is fair enough.

Der Spiegel's cover: diplomatic incident

It’s not what happened with Der Spiegel. In the editorial (editorial…) of the magazine, the columnist Achim Achilles wrote the text, entitled “Eingeölt und angeschmiert”, referring, amazingly, to the Italian people. Spiegel is, in Germany, as big as Time in the U.S., and Veja in Brazil. It’s not a place to write as a teenager, with teletubbie matureness. But that’s what happened.

Those ideas are pretty suitable – for the nazi-fascism rise period.

Or, then:

“The Italian man, let's call him Luigi is a parasitic life form. It cannot live without a host animal from which it sucks all it can. Luigi, is perennially engaged in demonstrating his need for help.

His primary objective in life is the continuous ostentation of exhaustion, and his preferred host is ‘La Mama’, his big breasted wet-nurse who washes his socks and cooks him pasta every day with a nice thick sauce. He goes on to describe the Italian mama's boy who stays at home, but then he marries a pretty girl who he then transforms in another big breasted Mamma to whom he pays no attention, busy as he is polishing his Fiat and talking about cars
".

***

The unbeliaveble unhappiness of that editorial (editorial) by Achilles became a diplomatic incident, motto for debates around the world, between italian and german colonies in New York newspapers, for articles at Corriere Della Sera and La Repubblica, and for an embarrassing apology from Der Spiegel – the original page with the editorial was replaced, exactly, for this apology (in German, Italian and English), at:

http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/0,1518,423809,00.html

The original article, that isn’t at Spiegel website anymore, is:

“Eingeölt und angeschmiert

Der italienische Mann, nennen wir in Luigi Forello, ist eine parasitäre Lebensform. Er ist nicht in der Lage, ohne fremde Hilfe zu überleben. Irgendwo saugt er sich immer fest. Und dann lässt er sich fallen. Gern auch auf dem Fußballplatz. Luigi Forello ist fortgesetzt damit beschäftigt, seine Hilflosigkeit zu zeigen. Das fängt schon beim Namen an. Wer nicht Luigi heißt, hört auf “Andrea” oder “Luca”.
Luigis vorrangiges Lebensziel ist das Vermeiden von Anstrengung. Liebstes Wirtstier ist “La Mama”, seine großbrüstige Erzeugerin, die ihm seine halbseidenen Socken wäscht und jeden Tag Nudeln kocht, mit dick Soße drauf. Wenn er ungefähr 30 Jahre alt ist, wechselt der italienische Mann die Köchin. Er heiratet, um sich fortzupflanzen. Die Folgen sind grausam. Eine ehemals strahlend schöne Italienerin verwandelt sich binnen weniger Monate in eine breithüftige Küchenmaschine - eine neue Mama. Das ist ihm aber egal, denn Luigi ist mit der Teilnahme an einem Autokorso beschäftigt, sofern sein klappriger Fiat es bis dahin schafft.

Zum Essen ist er aber wieder da.

Beim Sport ist unser Luigi besonders tückisch, wie man jedes Jahr millionenfach an den Stränden der Adria beobachten kann. Er braucht Stunden, um seinen schmächtigen Körper und das Haupthaar einzuölen, seinen Rücken von Fellresten zu befreien und sein wenig spektakuläres Gemächt in eine viel zu enge Badehose zu stopfen. Dann stolziert er stundenlang umher, um schließlich maximal fünf Minuten beim Strandfußball mitzumachen. Er springt wie ein Wahnsinniger umher, imitiert brüllend Gesten, die er im Fernsehen gesehen hat, trifft den Ball höchst selten, die Knochen der anderen dafür umso härter.

Weil er schnell erschöpft ist, genügt ihm die leiseste Berührung eines Gegners, um melodramatisch zu Boden zu gehen. Noch im Stürzen wirft er einen Blick ringsum, ob im Publikum genügend Menschen sind, insbesondere Frauen, die ihn bemitleiden und wieder aufpäppeln. Schmachtende Blicke deutscher Urlauberinnen sind die Lebensgrundlage des italienischen Mannes.

Insofern geschah gestern nicht Ungewöhnliches. Fabio Grosso fiel im Strafraum und grinste noch im Fallen. Der nicht minder ölige

Francesco Totti verwandelte dann den Elfmeter gegen Australien. Danach lutschte er am Daumen. Das ist normal bei italienischen Männern. Es war wie immer.Am Freitag werden die kickenden Holzfäller aus der Ukraine eingeölt und angeschmiert. So schlawinern sich die Italiener mal wieder bis ins Halbfinale. Dann, liebe Luigis, ist allerdings Feierabend. Wir haben da noch ein paar Rechnungen vom letzten Italien-Urlaub offen."

The discomfort caused is shown in a BBC report, at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5141074.stm

Bild's front page: to make matters worse

To make matters worse, Bild released, simultaneously, a front page with the suggestive headline, “Pizza Arrivederci”: (at http://www.bild.de/BTO/sport/wm2006/aktuell/07/04/pizza-arrivederci/pizza-arrivederci.html) From Bild, well... it’s expected... but from Spiegel is, in a certain sense, one of the biggest political gafes in the post-war Europe. The way Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero celebrated their goals in the end of the extra time of the semifinal, in that july 4th against Germany, in Dortmund, shows the outburst meaning it had.

***

Fussing a little in the geopolitical analogies... again… respect Rome. Considering that Palmeiras is the old Palestra Itália, the “Pig Goal” by Viola, in 1993, in the first match of the São Paulo Championship of that year, was the motto for the “palmeirense” reaction, embodied in the 4x0 of the second match. Viola’s post-modern “pig” is the same used in the First and Second World Wars, as (jocular) reference to the same italians (with the non-official encouragement even from Vargas).

Rome, eternal city.

***

Garrincha and the star Elza, still: the man who never falled in love for a woman in a losing mind way, read the available researches, to understand it. Search, in Psychoanalysis literature, for “sublimation”. This is it.

Chiliad poems

2010-02-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

.The cover of Quando é Dia de Futebol: top Drummond pearls

There's plenty of things written, debated, gaping, about Pelé, and it's almost impossible choose the best commentary about Him. But it's possible to endeavour.

***

"É fácil fazer mil gols como Pelé.
Difícil é fazer um gol como Pelé"

("It's easy to score one thousand goals like Pelé.
Hard is scoring once as Pelé")

This is one one excerpt of the amazing Quando é Dia de Futebol (When it's Soccer Time), that joins chronicles of the gauche mineiro. By the way... it's easy writing one thousand poems like Drummond - hard is writing one like, for instance, A Máquina do Mundo (The World's Machine):

E como eu palmilhasse vagamente
uma estrada de Minas, pedregosa,
e no fecho da tarde um sino rouco

se misturasse ao som de meus sapatos
que era pausado e seco; e aves pairassem
no céu de chumbo, e suas formas pretas

lentamente se fossem diluindo
na escuridão maior, vinda dos montes
e de meu próprio ser desenganado,

a máquina do mundo se entreabriu
para quem de a romper já se esquivava
e só de o ter pensado se carpia.

In common, the Minas Gerais state (both are born there) and the fact that the city of Itabira (and Três Corações) are just portraits on the wall.
.

Big Apple, great idea

2010-02-14T11:10:00.001-08:00

. Annie Sommers with a page of her book and a picture of the final match

of 1970, at World Cups room: publication focused on the young American public

The presence of Robinho at Pacaembu Stadium this sunday, february 14th, was foreseeable. What we didn't waited for was the visit, to the Football Museum, of someone who makes us very proud: Annie Leah Sommers. Nowadays living in New York, she's graduated in English Literature at McGill University, Montreal, with specialization in Children's Literature at the Simmons College, Boston.

Sommers is the author of Great National Soccer Teams, a book about the history of the nations and football, focused on the young American public - maybe one of the most promising for the future of football (football as soccer, huh?) in the World. Writing for these readers, maybe, is one of the next steps for the transformation of this public - and perhaps for the creation of a strong rival for the Brazilian Team. One day, maybe.
.

Lives, modus-vivendi

2010-02-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

Saldanha in Canal 100: flawless originality

Pelé is so young, of body and soul, that sometimes doesn't even works as a reference of that football of the past, which we like to call it "rhythmic", "subtle" and "spetacular" (though it was, certainly). Pelé is the player who was born modern, that made a deal with the Sputnik, in which they would rise almost together, and would provide mutual reasons for keep on brighting, up there. Garrincha quickly became past, the cracks of 70 and 82 today rarely approach a ball, and the Simca-Chambord is gone. Only Pelé, a statistical aberration, continues (at 70) looking like a boy. At 70, the hero of 1970 almost has no white hair - the contrary of this scribe that, with less than half the age of the King, mas more than the triple, the quadruple, the quintuple, whatever. Pelé is one of the possible projections of what better youth has: the force and the provision.

***

Someteimes, however, our idyllic portion requires we keep ourselves away from the present, the enough distance to reach another temporality, with another caracthers and modus-vivendi. Like (again in this space), João Saldanha.

Trying to explain this sudden banzo for a character that doesn't dwells today's imaginaries is possible. Journalist, Saldanha seems never had embedded, totally, the DT persona. Continued to be a chronicler of good resources, even when had the task of scheduling the "Canarinho" Team (and unpleasant questions, like choosing Pelé or/and Tostão). Garrastazu, in a chiclet passage, was invited to schedule his ministery, while him, Saldanha, would schedule the Seleção. After that, with Zagallo in the helm (of the ship), the team, in a certain way, would be "scheduled" by Médici: Dadá, that wasn't better than Eto'o, was there.

Saldanha, quickly,returned to his natural habitat, the press cabinet, and due to this was in Mexico'70 - and in all other following World Cups, until 1990. Saldanha's finitude was accomplished in the Eternal City, days after watching, in the Olympic Stadium, the Final Match of one of the one of the most boring tournaments ever.

We have, almost, 20 years without Saldanha. We'll miss him for ever. On the other hand, he is not exactly a man of these times - Saldanha is a man of a time when the Berlin Wall was still standing, with all the good and bad meanings this has. Ideas desert wasn't, certainly, the case.

From the holds of Dunguism... Saldanha

2010-02-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Saldanha being interviewed as the

Seleção's coach, in 1969: few material resources... material...

Chico Buarque says, reaffirms and undersigns that the military regime of 1964 did nothing to the cultural effervescence of that time - it would be more a spirit of the age, a zeitgeist, than a reflex of the political moment.

Ok. Chico, sure, knows a lot what he talks about. But some events rumble in memory on the other hand. As when we parallelize the marketing paraphernalia of today's Technical Committee of the Seleção, and the frugality of the "chats" with DT's in João Saldanha's time. His constant originality during the AI-5 (the dictatorship's Institutional Act Number 5, released on december 1968, that restricted civil rights) contrasts with nowaday's ditty. For both, in common, only the origin, in Rio Grande do Sul state.

Nowadays, it's pressing "play" and, literally, let the tape roll.
.

Time, time...

2010-02-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

Compositor de destinos,

tambor de todos os ritmos,

tempo tempo tempo tempo.

Entro num acordo contigo,

tempo tempo tempo tempo...

Orlando, comforting a "58's Neymar", and in a recent photo: another dimension

Almost at the same time that Neymar leaves the egg, looming himself to his first World Cup when he just got his legal majority, one more of the superb cracks of the Tricampeonato leaves this dimension.

This time, this wednesday, it was Orlando, titular defender of the 1958 Team. It's true that the strong point of those three Seleções was attacking, it's true. But the defense - Gilmar above all - when called, didn't disappoint. The defense, composed by Bellini and Orlando, shone a lot in Vasco da Gama.

***

It's impressive time's pace. Still yesterday, Cafu appeared as a promise of versatility for Brazilian football. And still yesterday (literally, yesterday as tuesday), Cafu was in the Football Museum Hearer, to talk as an ex-player. Time flew, and we didn't realize. Ronaldo Nazário, in his turn, still carries a nick that usually is linked to teenagers: "Phenomenom". Only the nick remains, however. The braces and the spines are gone, aren't in his layout anymore. It's impressive how time flies in life, in a general way, and how football is emblematic of that. The Brazilian players of the 1950'World Cup no longer belong to this dimension, none. Those from 58, though many still alive, are mostly with age health troubles (Pelé is out of this equation; "supernaturals", like he was called by L'Equipe that time, don't count on that).

Orlando, at 74, is gone. Perhaps, also, to remember us that they, super-athletes, in the end are caught by the death's sickle, too. What to say about us, mere (and sedentary) mortals? Even Neymar, one day, will have to talk to her (though it's a very strange idea, definitely).
.

If Muhammad won't go to the Rushmore Mount...

2010-02-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

.Washington and Lincoln: their glories come from the past

With the arriving of Lincoln at Palmeiras, begins for the first time a very suggestive classic, in poll's year: Washington against Lincoln (or São Paulo x Palmeiras).

We hope this will be a meeting at democracy strictu sensu; due to this logic, perhaps the next arriving players in São Paulo state's football will be Roosevelt and Jefferson. And God bless America (from the city of São José do Rio Preto, state of São Paulo).
.

Everyone has a good story to tell

2010-02-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

. The educator Marcelo Continelli, acting in the Elderly Day: stories

Everyone has a good story to tell. It may be tales, thrillers and even fisher stories

Thinking about this oral memory, in the Elderly Day, october 1st, we made special activities with two groups - the Convivence Nucleus for Elderly Dom Hélder Câmara and Convivence Nucleus for Elderly Felicidade Não Tem Idade/Gotas de Prata. The members of the groups made us emotioned with beautiful stories.

***

In Brazil, the Elderly Day was celebrated on september 27th since 1999, but, since national law 11.433 of december 28th, 2006, it was changed into october 1st. A date created by the UN to celebrate the International Elderly Day, due to a World Comitee about the third age in Austria in 1982.

“Não sei se a vida é curta ou longa demais para nós,

mas sei que nada do que vivemos

tem sentido, se não tocarmos o coração das pessoas”

Cora Coralina, that released her 1st book at 75.

¡Hala Madrid!

2010-01-28T03:42:00.001-08:00

. Giselle and Antonio, besides some of the many

cracks that played in Spanish fields: old story, new plot

Yesterday night, january 20th, happened, in fact, the first match of Roberto Carlos for Corinthians - that defeated Bragantino, 2x1. For the first time the partners RoRo (Roberto and Ronaldo), that became famous witth the madrileño white uniform, played togheter again, wearing the white (and black) Corinthians uniform. Something new for the Brazilian audience. Brazilian.

Not for the Spanish. Like happened with Antonio Sanchez Garcia, born in Madrid, and his wife, Giselle Tridade. When visitig the Football Museum, some hours after the match, Sanchez showed a certain dejà-vu feeling. Anyway, Roro, Part I, toke part in the Santiago Bernabeu's field, and lasted 5 years. From Part II, that begins now, we hope that it will be as spetacular as the first one. God bless.
.

Haiti, still

2010-01-21T18:15:00.000-08:00

Parts of O Dia em que...: Peace Match

There's nothing better to understand (quickly) a historical event than a (well-done) documentary. That's how O Dia em que o Brasil Esteve Aqui, by Caio Ortiz and João Dornelas, is. Released in 2006, World Cup year, the movie, 72 minutes long, shows what happened two years before - the visit of the Brazilian Team to Port-au-Prince. The images are epic and are similar, in a certain way, to the Santos voyage to the Congo, in 1968 - the famous occasion when a civil war ceased only for allowing soldiers to watch Pelé and Cia. The movie doesn't reach this level of dramacity but is foundamental to understand what happened before the natural bomb that "exploded" in the island.

Emotions

2010-01-20T06:20:00.000-08:00

It will be tonight, tuesday, Roberto Carlos first match for Corinthians.

The original one celebrated, last year, his 50th career aniversary - 14 more than the Corinthians player has, of age. Otherwise, the popularity of both, is quite different: the famous son of Cachoeiro do Itapemirim, state of Espírito Santo is, still, a without-adversary idol among Brazilian women 50 years or older. The another one, born in Araras, state of São Paulo, is a reference in left-wing for football fans between 20 and 40 years around the globe. There's, otherwise, a lot of people that take part from both - post-modernity neologisms aside - tribes. Anyway, there are a lot of Corinthians fans that, if cried or smiled, felt emotions. There's nothing more appropriated.

***

The most sublime meeting moment of these two nations, the Corinthians fans and singer and composer followers, happened in the end of 2008, when the black-and-white team came back to the series A of the Brazilian Tournament. It was october 25th and, after the triumph, 2x0 against Ceará, in this Pacaembu Stadium, the club had confirmed, 6 rounds before the end (a record in the era of all-teams-against-all formula) its comeback to the main series. In the middle of the celebration, the sound of A Volta, a song by the "King" Roberto Carlos, gave the relief the fans waited for.

Think about Haiti, pray for Haiti

2010-01-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

In the UN convoy, the Brazilian players in the streets of Port-au-Prince: ephifany

In the last thirty years we saw something worst, in death toll, than the cyclopic earthquake in Haiti: the tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, 2004. That's all.

The estimated death toll - about one hundred thousand people feared dead - provides a notion of what happened. Before the catastrophe the country already had the worst social and economic figures of the Americas. After it, dives in an incertain future.

***

It's good, by any means, to remember an occasion when hope was predominant. In august 18th, 2004, the Brazilian Team was host by the Haitian squad, in Port-au-Prince. The score, 0x6 for Brazil, was taken less in history than the reception the Brazilian players had in the streets of the capital, in the UN convoy that carried them to the Sylvio Cator Stadium. It looked like Haiti was here. Haiti isn't here.

Martha, my Dear

2009-12-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

Brazil and Mexico, in a sunny afternoon at the Pacaembu Stadium, last sunday: recital

One of the funniest Beatles songs was Martha my Dear. Released in the White Album, 1968, it talks about some "Martha", "silly girl... look what you've done...".

"Silly" became the 25 thousand people at the Pacaembu Stadium this sunday, in the final match of the City of São Paulo International Tournament of Women's Football. "Silly" became the mexican girls, who opened the score but, in the final, suffered a classic 2 x 5 - three by Marta. Who was chosen, in the following day (and four-in-a-row, an unpublished fact in this award - Ronaldo and Zidane won it three times each), FIFA World Player of the Year. One of the characteristics of "post"-modernity on football is the obsession with the reproduction of the past, copy on copy, what often isn't so handsome. Sure, watching Marta today isn't like watching Pelé's boom - the circumstances are quite different. But it's worth it.

In one of the last verses of Martha my Dear, McCartney sings "Martha, my love / don't forget me...". She, sure, will never be forgot.

"Incensed" players

2009-12-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

Arup, Pereira and Subhashis at Numbers and Curiosities room:

strong green-and-yellow presence

From Bangalore - the World capital of incense sticks - came to the Football Museum last saturday, december 19th, Subhashis Das and Arup Deb, with their Brazilian friend Rodrigo Pereira.

Football fan, Arup talks about the (strong) presence of Brazilian footballers in India - and those who play in Bangalore are, probably, incensed - in the Portuguese form.
.

Musical inclusion

2009-12-19T02:47:00.000-08:00

Wonder in 1972: wonderful music

One of the main objectives of the Football Museum is, as known, acessibility. Inviting all publics is one of the main targets of the FM - above all those with special needs. And, for those, was developed a structure for receiving them, and educators are trained for it.

Otherwise, it may occour that inclusion happens from this public to the others. Just like happened with funk (the very one) and soul - the American black music, in its varieties. Many were included, and were introduced to this world through musicians like Stevie Wonder - in shows like the same of John and Yoko in 1972, in the Madison Square Garden, New York. The interpretation of Superstition by Wonder and band is famous because of the twisted funk, a lot of times copied. A real musical inclusion.

Mandela Day

2009-12-17T20:11:00.001-08:00

. Raneshri, Malin, Thaneshri and Vanitha Chetty,
and the smile of Mandela, in the background: citizen of the World

From the country of the World Cup (and one of the most beautiful of the World) came the Chetty family. Living in Durban, the city that will host one of the semifinals of the tournament in the next year, the Chetties saw, in the time tunnel of the 20th century, the World Cups room, Nelson Mandela, quite famous and important to South Africa, and to the World.

"Mandela is free" was a phrase of one of the most popular songs of that time, Mandela Day, by the Simple Minds. And the World became more free than before, too.

Mandela's speech in his inauguration, 1994: crucial moment and person

Rare Harare

2009-12-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

.The students from Harare in the World Cups room: learning and teaching

One day after the visit of the Nigerian students, the Football Museum now hosts (proudly) about 12 visitors from Harare, Zimbabwe's capital.

There's nothing better in a year that will certainly be a year of the African football, of the Africa World Cup. The africaincentrism of june that emerges is healthy, nice. Mamma nostra, mamma Africa.

.
We hope the next visitors will come from the Ivory Coast - our "enemies" (but brothers) of our second match in the World Cup.
.

Lagos - of football

2009-12-17T19:56:00.004-08:00

Lifeforte International School students playing fussball...

...and, just like a squad, at Numbers and Curiosities room: unmeasurable honour.

The Football Museum - 0r Brazil itself - had the honour on hosting, in this wednesday afternoon, dec. 9th, the visit of the students of the Lifeforte International School, from Ibadan, Nigeria.

Almost in the year of the first World Cup in the African continent, the LIS visit is more than welcomed - it's a honour for a football (and a country) that learned and learned with the African tradition. From Origins to the World Cups.