Too Good to Be True?

I don’t believe in that conspiracy theory Massimo. The World Cup would not be fun at all. As far as I know only 1978 was fixed.

Its not easy to be in my position Walt. Here in Brazil second place is the same as nothing, which is absurd. There are 31 other teams fighting for the title so we shouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get it, but we breath football. We will suffocate with a loss. That’s why we are that nervous. Your flag is not showing! Where are you from?

What happened in 1978?

Posted from  Switzerland

i like massimo, he’s an entertaining guy, very funny. but anyway, even people who don’t understand football watch the world cup, so why bother.

on another note, euler, i know exactly what you mean when things finally work well … our human nature kicks in and paranoia ensues: we must have overlooked something, there’s a catch! i’ve made that experience more often than not — but the team/individual needs to get rid of that. quite on the contrary, one should appreciate that everything is as expected (or even better), because good things never last.

as to the croatian match yesterday, i don’t worry too much. i have to admit that it irritates me to read how everything is supershitty because the croats haven’t won by at least a three-goal margin, and that it’s always niko kranjčar’s (and naturally, his father’s) fault. the victories against australia and argentina, as sweet as they may be, were friendlies, too and should have been taken with the same grain of salt: austria in particular has a young team that is supposed to shine at the european championship in 2008, hence they are not on a level where they would pose a genuine threat during the game — too many (too) young players that need match experience.

iran has been underrated for a longer time now (which is typical for western media). i’ll just say this much: croatia tied during the qualifications against bulgaria and conceded two goals against a dominant away team — only to win the following four qualification games, including a 3:1 win in bulgaria. then they tied with malta 1:1 and everybody was spewing shit on them again — sweden lost 1:0 in zagreb.

everything is good only as long as they win (and even then it’s not good *enough*). fuck that shit. sorry for venting here, but what can you do — i take a look at the other friendlies and see spain play 0:0, france barely takes away the game against cameroon with 1:0, england loses 2:1 to belarus and i could go on and on. all of a sudden the australians wake up and say they have a very good chance of beating the croat side … well, they certainly do, but only if they shoot more goals.

overall play was below par, but still pršo and klasnić play extremely well together, srna was back on track and babić played an excellent game. the only thing apart from the bad hair day the defense suffered from that was missing was the clinical finish, i.e. turning the chances into goals — but there are two games and a few training sessions left to work on.

Posted from  Germany

besides, the iranians have a croat coach. hehe.

Posted from  Germany

Akbar,

Argentina advanced in that tournament by beating a Peruvian team, with a nationlised Argentinian goalie, 6-0 when they needed to win by at least 4-0. Rumor was that there was a big payoff involved so the hosts could continue.

As for Brasil, they clearly have the best players but it remains to be seen if they have the best team during every match of this tournament. Croatia will play them tight, Australia may surprise them, but I would be stunned if they didn’t advance. I see them winning their group and being challenged by Iran in the quarters and Sweden in the semis before…LOSING…to Netherlands in the final. Just a hunch…

Posted from  United States

Knock on wood, Rod Stuart!!!

Let’s have a reality check, fixing results is not so easy. What we may see is referee incompetence and mistakes like we saw on Korea (some of it even helping Brazil, for example against Turkey), but conspiracy theories are a far cry from that. Some nudge may occur, but it’s not enough for a superior team playing at its best to lose.

I’ll add to Euler opinion - to Brazil supporters, second place is the same as the last place. Nobody is even considering we may lose, and the pure thought of that happening is too difficult to digest.

Posted from  Brazil

Euler> So here I am on YouYube looking at some videos and I came accross a video of the ‘chubby’ woman running to Ronaldinho. I watch. Nice video. Then I decide to click on the name of the person who uploaded it to see what other videos are there…..wanna see what I found? Euscos, it can only be you. Looooove the video and song and the girl is FANTASTIC!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIh8y7RtWnk

If we consider what South Korea went through to reach the semis in 2002, I’d agree with some of the conspiracy theories. Just to many coincidences benefitting them for it to be pure chance (referee incompetency). So, I guess we may see a new champion here, just like we will see an African semifinalist in 2010.

Posted from  Canada

conspiracies are conspiracies, they are just conspiracies untill we can prove that they are real..nyway its understandable that massimo came up woth that…italian football just got rocked with something like that this season..so maybe the fever still got a hold on him…lets just hope something like that doesn’t happen during the world cup..cos if theres gonna be some fixing, i’ve got a feeling that it will gonna be against the team going for their ‘hexa’

Posted from  Fiji

Hey Soze! You found the Mané Sagaz video! The image is really bad, but it was that TV appearance we did. He, he… Euscos is really me. I don’t have TV video card in my computer, so I recorded the Sheila video with my digital camera. The Mané Sagaz video was made by a friend, from a bad VHS tape. I’m the one with the big blue guitar.

I agree with Zharga. If any conspiracy may take place, it will be against Brazil. I don’t believe it can happen, anyway.

I think if any conspiracies happen, they will be in favour of Germany, not against Brazil. Many players and ref’s in Germany have been implicated in a match fixing scandal and I can see it happening for their NT. Again, I agree with Euler, I do not think it can happen, but look at Korea/Japan…you can’t say some of those matches can be written off to just bad officiating.

Euler> What does Mane Sagaz mean?..I wen’t on your web site and listened to some music, it’s good. I like the rock/samba combination.

I think what happens is that, when in doubt, referees tend to decide in favor of the ’sure’ side - that means either the big favorite (Brazil) or the hosts (Korea). The Korea matches’ referees were absurd for the most part, but I still think it was just human incompetence.

Posted from  Brazil

But those same ref’s just came off their respective seasons and I do not remember there being these awful calls in CL/UEFA/League play. I still say that Korea/Japan WC organizers sweetened the purse to the ref’s to make Korea shine and push other ’sure’ teams through.

‘Mané’ means the ordinary sucker, a naive fool that people usually walk over.

‘Sagaz’ means clever, fast witted, smart and streetwise.

Mané Sagaz is an expression we created to describe the everyday (common) man that is regularly fooled by corrupt politicians and wild capitalist corporations, but still manages to go on living a meaningfull life, dribling the dificulties that the lack of money can bring.

You know Brazil is a strugling country with strugling people when it comes to economy, right? So we are the clever idiots, the stupid streetwise, the honest workers that are forced to buy pirate CDs because of it’s ludicrus price.

I hope you can get the feel of the meaning. It’s not easy to explain it in Portuguese and it’s a little harder to explain it in English.

What would be the motivation for FIFA to see that the ’sure’ teams go far in the competition? I would think that the success of non-traditional teams would increase the number of soccer fans in the region where the team is from, therefore, expanding FIFA’s influence and reach which brings them more $$$.

Posted from  United States

Felipe> How many people you know would watch a Saudi Arabia:Tunisia final. Same thing with 2002. How many people would watch a South Korea:Turkey final?..I have no proof of payoffs, but the amount of bad calls in those games were a joke and what other explanation is there.

Euler> TX for the explanation, I get it. CD’s are very expensive. I bought 3 Chill Brazil CD’s in Rio Sul and paid R$150,00 for them. On Nossa Senhora de Copacabana I found them later for R$20,00 each. Oh well.

I think your explanation is right on the money, Euler.

My favorite story about the WC ‘78 have to do with my father. After watching Arg vs Peru game, he went to a near by hole-in-the-wall (aka boteco) bar with friends to curse out the soccer “Gods” for letting that happened. After drinking away his sorrows, he came home and snuck into his 3 DAYS old son(ME) room. Later, my mother found him next to my crib lecturing me on how I should never follow soccer because it will ultimately break your heart.

Posted from  United States

Good example Soze! Of course it is not only about CD prices. The senators are always voting raises for their own salaries while we must continue living without this right. Even with their maharajah income they still are corrupt. Our taxes are among the highest in the world, but public health and education are terrible.

One must be very ’sagaz’ to keep smiling, to keep living an honest life. Our number one criminals are running the country, unfortunately. And they won’t dare to give the people better education, otherwise they won’t get elected again. Only a miracle will fix our system. And only football makes us smile so much.

Felipe, Nice story. I bet alot of fathers in Brazil that day cursed the beautiful game and gave their sons advice.

Too true, Euler, too true. Seems the same everywhere, heading the same direction in the mighty United States. It’s hardest to look in a poverty-stricken child’s eyes. They ask “why”. Made me think of “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copeland, later recorded excellently by Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Posted from  United States

Ahh, as ABC Sports said it, the thrill of Victory and the agony of Defeat.

Posted from  United States

i think Euler posts the most informative and stimulating blogs..so deserves a visit often .
In many cases favourites did not win..Argentina 78 and germany 74 won being favourites an hosts..even if in different ways were both helped ..Argentina in a more scandalous way …but Corea 02 has been very helped too ..let’s hope that Germany will not get much more than a very easy group would be really disgraceful otherwise …..

Posted from  United States

Wow, thanks Rescorpione! I agree that after JAP/KOR 02 the referees must be dealt in a more agressive manner. I believe FIFA is imposing new punishments to bad referees. Let’s hope the best team wins without that much controversy!

[...] My band is called ‘Mané Sagaz’ and we will be performing our own material plus some football traditional songs. My friend and blogger for Croatia, Soze, found our You Tube video from the day we performed in the ‘Domingão do Faustão’ TV show reaching 30 million viewers on a Sunday afternoon, and he asked me what does ‘Mané Sagaz’ means. [...]

Posted from  United States