Beautiful Game

Brazilians worried that 2014 World Cup will be a massive fiasco

beautifulgame1958 — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:37:41 +0000

: How will fans get from city to city in 2014?

 
By Thelma

Last September, Brazilian authorities celebrated a milestone: 1000 days to go for the opening date of the Brazil World Cup, June 12, 2014. Many of us have been asking ourselves if we’re really ready to host hundreds of thousands of visitors from all around the world.We know the world’s interest in Brazil has risen recently, due to the growth of its economy – and as a consequence, interest in its culture and people has increased as well. All of this means that Brazil expects many tourists to visit the country for the first time during the tournament.
But the fact is that Brazilians in general seem to be pessimistic about the 2014 World Cup. Many of us are afraid that the tournament’s organization may turn out to be a massive fiasco – death for the image of the country. Especially disillusioned will be those who come for the first time and are not yet familiar with our improvisation: the famous Brazilian way!
Anyone who lives here knows what a nightmare it is to get around within the big Brazilian cities, which all lack efficient public transportation. Considering that 12 cities were chosen to host the games from north to south and east to west, travelling around the country will not be any easier… It’s bad enough that when smart people I know have to make a domestic flight, they adopt a “Zen mood”: relax and let all the anxiety go! But we’re not sure that visitors will feel the same way.
The general feeling is that the infrastructure necessary for an event as momentous as the World Cup will be not ready in time. Even the stadiums in the 12 chosen cities are still under construction.According to the press, the relationship between FIFA and the Brazilian government is critical. There have been difficulties…and now FIFA intends to confirm the tournament schedule among the 12 chosen cities, lock in the city in which the opening and the closing games will take place – and start selling the tickets on the 20th of this month. Yes, that was yesterday!

The only sure thing so far is the site of the closing game: Rio de Janeiro! There is no doubt about that. But even the ticket price has not yet been set, because FIFA and our government have not reached an agreement…
Despite this scenario, we know there are those who want to come to Brazil in 2014 for the World Cup. We guess that besides coming for the football, visitors will want to learn about and explore the country and its culture. So – if this is you – in future articles, we will try to give you some tips for arranging your trip!

Video: 1958 – The year the world discovered Brazil (Part 1 / 5)

beautifulgame1958 — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:45:11 +0000

This five part series was aired in Brazil during the 2010 World Cup. It recalls Brazil’s first World Cup victory in 1958. Naturally, it’s in Brazilian Portuguese. Time to brush up on the language of the 2014 World Cup!

Writer Eduardo Galeano happy with the way Uruguay won the Copa America

beautifulgame1958 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:38:58 +0000

Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Galeano – who has also done some “serious” writing – is famous for writing one of the best soccer books ever, “Soccer in Sun and Shadow“. In that book he provides a thorough and poetic explanation of what is beautiful about the “Beautiful Game”. But Eduardo Galeano is not Brazilian. Eduardo Galeano is Uruguayan.

We don’t intend to offend devotees of this site who are looking for a complete focus on Brazilian futebol and the highly anticipated 2014 Brazil World Cup but we may from time to time step out a bit and try to bring perspective to this project by introducing other ideas of what exactly the “Beautiful Game” is.

And so for today we draw your attention to Galeano’s joy at seeing his Uruguay once again triumphant.

Uruguay was once a major soccer power, having won the World Cup twice in the early days of the competition. In recent years there has not been much to speak of on the international stage. That is until the 2011 Copa America.

With Brazil and Argentina surprisingly knocked out early in the tournament for Supremacy of the Americas, Uruguay managed to win the whole damn thing, doing so in fine style and with superb individual performances from Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan. it was Uruguay’s record 15th title, putting them ahead of – well everyone – and to emphasize the point – ahead of Argentina and – yes – beautiful Brazil – who incidentally were not beautiful in this tournament.

No it was Uruguay which was beautiful, in the way it played.

The “way” – that’s what brings us back to Galeano, the great artist, who knows a thing or two about beauty. Here’s what he said about the Uruguay Copa win (via Google Translatlor):

MONTEVIDEO, 25 (ANSA) – “I’m very, very happy. For the victory and the cup number fifteen, but even more for the way they won,” wrote the writer Eduardo Galeano today about the triumph of Uruguay in Copa America .”The Uruguayan football is practicing solidarity, all for one, one for all, which retrieves the joy of playing, and playing together,” Galeano said on his Facebook page.

Ah yes – the way they won.

That’s important to us here.

The “way” is important in understanding what the “Beautiful Game” means.

And today we learn about the way of beauty from a Uruguayan.

We can do that for a day, can’t we?

Penalty spot to blame for Brazil’s early exit from 2011 Copa America?

beautifulgame1958 — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:32:53 +0000

In what was their last major competition before the 2014 World Cup, Brazil where knocked out of the 2011 Copa America at the quarter-final stage on penalty kicks by Paraguay.

Brazil were the better team in the match but could not score a decisive goal in regular time.

Even Paraguay’s goalkeeper Justo Villar admitted as much about the game, saying “It is difficult to analyse, Brazil were much better and we had to defend ourselves.”

The same could not be said of Brazil’s performance in the penalty shootout stage, as they missed all 4 spot-kicks, including a disastrous first shot by Elano that sailed so high over the bar that it may have escaped the stadium and ended up on the streets of La Plata, if not finding a trajectory which saw the ball exit the earth’s atmosphere.

People expect much better than that from Brazil on penalties. But if you look closely at the third shot by Andre Santos you will see the penalty spot almost explode as the player’s planted foot makes contact with the turf. The divot produced is huge and it serves as a nice launching pad for the skyward ball. Not to make excuses for Brazil and their early exit from the tournament, but that is not ideal for penalty taking.

I guess one lesson for Brazil is to not let a game reach penalties because as we saw, in penalties, anything can happen – including the explosion of the penalty spot.

Brazil will have to play with more resolve in three years time in order to do what they want to do more than anything – and that is to win a record sixth World Cup at home.

Young stars Pato and Neymar advance Brazil in Copa America with two goals apiece

beautifulgame1958 — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:08:47 +0000

Pato and Neymar lead Brazil's new generation

With Brazil facing elimination in the 2011 Copa America, two of it’s youngest stars came through in the clutch. AC MIlan’s Alexandre Pato and Santos’ Neymar, each scored two goals in a hard fought 4-2 over Ecuador, to put Brazil into the next round.