It was not my intention to post here anything about 2010 FIFA World Cup and, in particular, about the national team of my country, Portugal. However, a score like this (Portugal 7 – 0 North Korea) it is not usual in football(1), no matter what Cup we are talking about. I am feeling, then, like leaving here a singular notice about this day when, despite not many Portuguese were believing in their own national team, the red/green team of ours has beaten bad, very bad, another team coming from a country about what I feel no sympathy at all: North Korea.
As I am not a football analyst, I thought I should put in this post a little touch of myself and make it then something more sociological or, who knows, more philosophical. Football moves mountains. Football is still a phenomenon even after 200 years after it was invented. But football is, definitely, a sport for men. I know there is national and international tournaments for female teams but, guys, female football could be the same thing but… it is not.
When a team, like the Portuguese one, reaches the final phase of a World Cup without knowing how to read or to write(2) I do believe we really need to mark this luxurious football score as an awesome event in our life’s history. Even knowing that the national Portuguese team is number three (3) in FIFA ranking while North Korea is only number one hundred five (105). But… who cares? Football it is not (never was) particularly profuse in logics or even, more often, rationality.
What does a man (a normal one) love most? Within European reality, I could say: “alcohol, football and women”. Let us not discuss the order under what I should place those three most important men pleasures because that depends on what kind of man we are talking about. For this reason, the order I have followed here has been submitted to an alphabetical criteria. Additionally, in a humble trial of putting some salt and pepper on this post, a honest thing I can do then, without wanting to generate polemics, is to show here my own favorite order:
- alcohol
- women
- football (soccer)
How about that? I suck, right? I already know how much I suck since years! Anyhow, because this post is about Portugal spanking the (too much) communist North Korea, I have tried to find a picture which could join all those three top male’s pleasures or, let us be honest with ourselves, the main things which drive forward many men in this world. Unfortunately, I was not able to get an image which could philosophically gather alcohol, women and football with a Portuguese touch. That has forced me to compose one, specially for this post, by putting together a couple of other pics I have found in Google(3). I guess the image you can see here it is not that bad, from a point of view of an “old, conservative, sluggish and barbarian” man, who, according to a kid I got to know recently, happens to be me…
Will Portugal be a success in this 2010 FIFA World Cup? I really don’t give a damn because we are, since 1966(4), insisting always on the same mistake: we are not able to reasonably match (or tune in) our ambition (football wise) with a mindful knowledge of what we are made of.
Nevertheless, may the gods be with Carlos Queiroz and his boys…
- Well, I do hate this but I need to translate the word football from English-UK to English-USA: football=soccer. Anyhow, have a look at the match summary in the video here by (sorry for the low quality). ↩
- Ancient Portuguese saying applied to those who succeed to get something without knowing at all how they really do it. In Portuguese, “sem saber ler nem escrever“. ↩
- If you put together lupini beans or “tremoços“, beer (or any other alcoholic drink), the logo of the Portuguese Football Federation and a gorgeous Portuguese female wearing the Portuguese colors, then you may start having an idea of how Portuguese male brain is made of… ↩
- When Portugal, including the famous Portuguese player Eusébio, achieved the best score in 1966 FIFA World Cup, in England. ↩
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