The way things work

Way back in March, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro state who was convicted of a series of criminal charges yet was allowed to assume his position as a federal deputy after the October 2010 elections and whose  base is a massive and flexible horde of evangelicals began what is known as a CPI (comissão parlamentar de inquérito) to look into the dealings of the CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) and its notoriously slippery president Ricardo Teixeira.

For those who don't read EVERY post or follow the developments 2014 World Cup with the maniacal passion of a star-crossed lover, this CPI process smacked of the bizarre, but gave hope that there could be a peek inside the black box. A question for my Brazilian readers: how is it that the former governor, convicted on charges of forming a criminal gang as recently as August 2010 and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, begin to think about processing Teixiera? Neither here nor there I reckon, but it might take one to know one. As a reminder, Teixeira is the former son in law of the former FIFA president and is not only the president of the CBF but of the WC organizing committee.

Garotinho was able to get 183 of the required 171 deputies to sign onto his CPI but did not publish their names because he knew that Ricardo Teixeira was in Brasilia making the rounds in Brasilia. But, Garotinho had published partial lists along the way, so it wasn't very hard to find out the names of at least some of them. Only needing to eliminate 13 names from that list was what Teixeira was in Brasilia to do. The result:

On April 14, OGlobo reported a very, very small celebratory piece on the inside of the front page with a picture of a Brazilian National Team shirt and a copy of a letter from the CBF. The text: The creation of the CPI in the Deputies' chamber to investigate the CBF didn't take off. Dozens of deputies removed their signatures, making the iniciative more difficult. They received an official shirt of the national team accompanied by a letter from the CBF president that said: Receive, illustrious deputy, my thanks for the hospitality with which I was received during my visit to Brasilia on the 29th of March. 

Contrary to the celebratory announcement in OGlobo and The Folha de São Paulo, the CPI hasn't completely died. Many deputies did take their names off the CPI list, but some others have apparently signed on. On Garotinho's blog, he insists that the CPI is still going on and he has decided to publish a list of all the deputies who have signed. Let's hope that this thing has not lost its legs.

This is not the first CPI that Texiera and the CBF have confronted. Following the 1994 World Cup there was an investigation into the two plane loads of "stuff" that the World Cup winners brought back from the United States. When the customs agents had the nerve to suggest that Teixeira and the Brazilian Team pay import taxes, they refused, saying that they would not participate in a public parade if they were made to obey the law. A CPI was opened into that case, but nothing came of it.

Following the strange events of the 1998 World Cup when Ronaldo Fenomeno was mysteriously ill before the final and then Brazil had their arses handed to them by Zidane's head, a CPI was opened into the relationships and contracts between the CBF, Nike, and Traffic. Some day I'll hve time to read through all of this stuff, but then again, it doesn't seem to do much good as the more one knows the angrier one gets.

In sum, in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup convicted criminals are pursuing suspected criminals who spend their days hopping back and forth between cities and offices, distributing hundred dollar soccer jerseys as a way of escaping legal proceedings.

As if to add insult to injury, in the conclusion to a paper comparing the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, Luiz Martins de Melo from the Economics Institute at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, after pages of critical insight justifies the estimated R$30 billion public expenditure in the World Cup by suggesting: "Perhaps, given the cultural importance of football for Brazilians, the most outstanding result of hosting the World Cup will be to overcome the trauma of the 1950 World Cup defeat to Uruguay. This intangible outcome is priceless."  And if they don't win? The intangible outcome will be what?

This is the way things work. I'm getting used to it. You?

Looking back, looking forward, going nowhere

The 2010 World Cup is history. Spain were deserving winners over a preternaturally violent Dutch side that should have been sent to Robben Island for a week of rock breaking. The juxtaposition of the villainous anti-football of Van Bommel and De Jong to the heroic jogo bonito of Xavi and Iniesta gave Spain well-deserved moral and sporting triumphs.

By most popular accounts, the 2010 tournament was a success: relatively safe streets, beautiful stadiums, decent organization, and incredible hospitality on the part of South Africans. FIFA agrees: the South Africans really were wonderful hosts, spending public money freely so that the Swiss-based monolith could rake in a record profit. It won’t take long for FIFA to count their US$3.3 billion in revenues (for the month); it will take South Africa many decades to pay off the party. The tourists have gone; the hotels, stadiums, airports, communications facilities, transportation lines, cultural attractions, and debt remain.

In order to make sense of what has happened in South Africa one has to get rid of the idea of the 2010 World Cup as a month long football tournament. A mega-event is not an “event” but a multi-year process that has residual effects that most people can’t, don’t want to, or refuse to acknowledge. In reading the responses to a recent article that draws attention to Brazil’s poor state of preparedness for the 2014 World Cup, one is struck by the degree of ignorance, short-sightedness, and willful disregard about the way the World Cup functions in the local context. While we distract ourselves about notions of “Fair Play” and contribution to cultures of deceit (i.e. the Suarez handball against Ghana), the dirtiest, cheating-est, most dishonest game is in the very production of the World Cup itself – where the laws that govern society are changed, violated, and ignored so that “we” can consume the inherent drama of sport in safety and comfort.

     1)   FIFA is a corrupt institution of organized criminals that bullies national and local governments into financing a private party. FIFA is very explicit about the private nature of the event. Everything within an x-kilometer radius of a World Cup stadium is FIFA’s private domain: a sanitized and securitized world of private accumulation where only certain signs, symbols, and behaviors are permitted. Worse, this FIFA-world is controlled by public and private security forces that act to ensure the smooth production of a global spectacle.

     2)     The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) has little or no public accountability even though they receive and direct all public funding for the event. This closed organization is neither elected nor subject to public regulatory agencies. In South Africa, one of the 23 SA2010 LOC  members was shot dead outside his home on his way to a whistle-blowing deposition. Once the event is over the LOC will dissolve, forever eliminating the possibility of legal action or public accountability.

   

      Brazil 2014 is a story of corruption foretold. The Brazilian LOC only has 6 members. For the first time in the history of the event the head of the national football federation (Ricardo Teixeira) will head the LOC. His daughter is the Secretary-general. Her grandfather is João Havelange, president of FIFA from 1974-1998. 

     3) Transportation infrastructures are constructed with only short term mobility and use in mind. FIFA does not employ urban planners. A LOC does not hold public meetings. In Johannesburg, for example, the construction of BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) lines linking the tourist zones with the stadium had two effects. One, it eliminated employment for thousands of informal and formal transportation providers, who later opened fire on the BRT. Secondly, the BRT will be almost completely unused after the World Cup, draining public coffers to maintain the linkages between the five star hotels and the Ellis Park Coca Cola Park Stadium (itself a totally unnecessary construction).

In Rio de Janeiro, the construction of BRTs linking the Zona Sul and the International Airport with the Olympic Zone in Barra de Tijuca is underway. There is also much talk of a bullet train linking Campinas-São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro (at a cost of R$45 billion). Presently, there is no passenger train service at all! Fala serio.

     4)   Most World Cup stadiums are isolated from the urban and cultural contexts, have no programmed post-cup use, and are very expensive to maintain. The anticipated maintenance costs for Soccer City are R1.5 million per month. That is R18 million a year (US$2.5 million) just to keep the thing standing. The average attendance at South African football games in 2009 was around 8,000. Who will pay to keep these stadiums standing?

In Brazil, the idea is that ticket prices are going to increase from an average of R$20 in 2010 to R$60 in 2014. This is seen as part of a necessary and inevitable process of “elitization” of Brazilian stadiums. There are no plans for multi-use stadiums. There are no plans to integrate stadiums into the urban fabric (partially as a result of FIFA’s requirement that there be one parking space for every 6 spectators which creates dead space around the stadiums). There are, in short, no plans that will make the stadiums anything but a perpetual drain on the public coffers.

     5)     While there are short –term employment benefits and increases in civil engineering projects (with corollary booms in commodities like concrete and steel), there is no evidence that mega-events bring economic benefits. While there is a boom in construction jobs, the haste to build the South African stadiums resulted in labor law violations, forceful strike breaking,  and the civil engineering companies responsible for the projects (at least in the South African case) brought in their skilled labor from abroad. Stadiums bring no medium to long-term economic gain anywhere in the world, much less in a country with 20% unemployment.

     6)     The restructuring of urban space and culture for tourism creates a dependency on a tourist economy. The current debt crisis in Greece can be traced, in part, to the massive borrowing for the Olympics plus the global financial meltdown that killed the tourist economy. This begs the question about why public funds are directed to hosting international tourists instead of providing basic necessities for the national population. 2010 World Cup spending equaled what is spent on public housing over a decade. Will more tourists arrive in South Africa? Maybe. Would they have arrived without the World Cup? Maybe. Will the South African housing and public health crises continue? Definitely.   

     7)     The way in which the world outside of the World Cup stadiums perceives and experiences the World Cup has become completely homogenized and controlled by the FIFA production crew. Everyone sees the same thing at more or less the same time in more or less the same way. From replays, to close-ups, to wide angle shots, FIFA controls the narrative. Granted, this narrative is delivered in HD with 36 cameras and super slo-mo, etc, etc, but what is presented to the world as reality is a simulacra of what is happening in the stadiums: an incomplete and fragmented narrative of events that only gives us limited insight into reality.

     8)      It is not only tele-spectators, but also live spectators that are crushed into a hegemonic, homogenous box. FIFA’s stadiums are basically the same. They all have to follow the same “manual”, meet the same “requirements”.  The worst example that comes to mind is the Maracanã. The architectural project submitted to FIFA in March was not approved because the architects did not take into account that the advertizing boards that surround the field for a FIFA World Cup (and occupy our field of vision for the 128 hours of football) are 30cm higher than those commonly used in Brazil. Therefore, the slope of the lower tier of stands had to be readjusted, which necessitated the complete revamping of the stadium project.

     9)     Is there any doubt that mega-events widen the gap between rich and poor? The South African government pail hundreds of millions in advertising to attract people, and then paid hundreds of millions more to control them once they arrived. The South African debt from the World Cup is roughly equivalent to FIFA profit.

    10)   If there is so much money to be spent on public works projects, why not do it anyway? (The event tends to unify coalitions that are usually at odds). By building on a massive scale for a month-long event, governments opt for a strategy of maximizing capital accumulation in the shortest possible time frame. That the public will continue to pay the bills for decades to come is not of much interest to the political power de jure as they will be remembered more for the successful hosting of the event than for the unfulfilled promises of economic and social development.

    11)   This table reflects the current state of the stadium projects for the 2014 World Cup. One year ago, the estimated cost for all of the stadiums was R$ 4,411,000,000. This has jumped by 31.6% - without actually building anything! Stadiums in Cuiaba and Manaus have begun to be demolished, but none of the remaining ten projects have begun.

Cidade-sede      Construção        R$xMilhões        Gestão       Atual (13.7.10)

Belo Horizonte	renovação	657,4	pub/ppp?	não contratada
Brasilia	demolição	702	publico	edital publicada
Cuiaba	demolição	342	publico	contratada
Curitiba	renovação	200	privado	Em duvida
Fortaleza	novo	452	publico	na justiça
Manaus	demolição	499,5	publico	contratada
Natal	novo	400	publico	Licitação pendente
Porto Alegre	renovação	150	privado	procurando dinheiro
Recife	novo	464	ppp	contratada
Rio de Janeiro	renovação	720	publico	não tem licitação
Salvador	demolição	591,7	publico	Contratada ; suspensa
São Paulo	renovação	630	publico	Fora
		5808,6

São Paulo has no stadium project, as the Morumbi has been excluded. Rio de Janeiro has not yet published the Novo Maracanã project (to which we should add the R$430 million in reforms undertaken for the 2007 Pan American Games). Several other projects are held up in the courts. And…the national government just passed a law that will make it more, not less, difficult to track how public money is spent for the World Cup and Olympics.

    12) Mega-events as a model of social and economic development are inherently flawed. These events are promoted by local and national economic and political elites who erect autonomous agencies to direct billions from the public coffers. The restructuring of urban space for capital accumulation is exacerbated by the use of public and private security forces to ensure its unimpeded flow into the hands of multi-national corporations and international sport governing agencies. Once the “event” has passed, there is no public accountability, frequently nothing left in terms of a “legacy”, and massive sporting, transportation and tourist infrastructures that have little to no local context but need to be maintained with even more public money.

    13)  Is a mega-event completely horrible? No. Was the World Cup an unmitigated disaster? No. I nearly died from emotional overload on a number of occasions. Does a mega-event bring intangible benefits to the hosts? Yes. A mega-event is a global party during which a host city or nation is able to welcome the world. The emotions and drama of global sport are captivating and important and form part of our collective human consciousness (especially post-WWII). However, the form, function, processes, and lasting effects of the World Cup and Olympics are, on balance, terrible, nefarious, and destructive. The World Cup and Olympics need to be massively reconfigured, re-scaled, and re-thought, or they will continue to destroy environments, economies, communities, and lives around the globe. 

Germany 4 x Argentina 0

The last time Argentina were so convincingly beaten in the World Cup was when they suffered a 6-1 thrashing at the feet of Czechoslovakia in 1958. Argentina had refused to participate in the World Cups of 1938, 1950, and 1954. Their rude re-introduction to international football was a national embarrassment, the defeat figuring heavily in the national consciousness for decades. The utter thrashing that Maradona's side suffered today will never be forgotten and has permanently altered the historical trajectory of El Pibe de Oro.

Argentina never came together as a whole team during the reign of Don Diego. The attack had nothing to do with the defense and vice versa. His team selections were based as much on personality as capability, and those who didn't fit in with Diego's worldview (Riquelme, Camibasso, Zanetti) were dropped or refused to play for him. Their absences were cruical to today's result. There was no one to distribute the ball through the center of midfield as Mascherano was busy trying to catch Schweinsteiger. The initial dependence on Veron for creative attacking gave way to...nothing. Riquelme!

Otamendi had performed better than Gutierrez on at right back, but today, all four goals came from Germany's left flank, where Zanetti (captain of Inter Milan) would have shut down the same Germans he faced in the Champions League final. Otamendi caused the first foul, then was beaten on the goal after TWO MINUTES! The injury to Samuel didn't solidify an already shaky defense, but Heinze? Come on. Two of the goals resulted from his reckless tackling. Zanetti must have been chewing his own liver in disgust.

Even as they were getting taught a lesson in tactical (spatial) awareness, Argentina had chances. Higuain ruined almost all of them. By my count, there were seven times when he had the ball at his feet, going forward and either gave it away easily on a dribble, made the wrong pass, or was too slow in making a decision. Diego Milito must have been beside himself with frustration. Higuain may be the worst player in the history of the World Cup to score four goals. A shocking performance.

From a tactical perspective, Argentina never had a chance. The only way to restore some of the balance in midfield was to have Messi or Tevez (or both) retreat into midfield to relieve the overwhelmed Mascherano. Messi played as well as possible when there is someone else in your shorts, another person in your shirt, and two others on your shins. When he received the ball (sometimes 55 yards from goal), there was nowhere to go but into two rows of Germans. Diego Maradona is the only person capable of ruining Messi's genius.

As I was watching the game in relative isolation with an Argentina jacket on, the room began to fill with Brazilians. By the end, they were celebrating as much as if Brazil had been winning. I hung my head, and left the restaurant as quickly as possible to the chants of "Auf Weider Zehen!"

It will take some time for the dust to settle in Argentina. The Diego Experiment is hopefully over. The confidence of the albiceleste, and the public confidence in the AFA, must be wearing thin as the team has not won a senior-level international tournament since the Copa America in 1993. Fortunately for the Argentines, the less one wins and the more one suffers, the more valuable your passion becomes.

Brasil 1 x Holanda 2

Brazil were brilliant for 53 minutes. Holland were terrible for 75. For about an hour, Brazil had constant midfield pressure, were recovering the ball with ease, winning the tactical battle, attacking with fluidity and pace. Kaká was playing well, looking comfortable on the ball. Robinho was running hard, Dani Alvez and Maicon were causing problems for the Dutch, there was no beating of Lúcio and Juan in the air. The orange defense struggled to cope with blue movement. Robinho’s goal was all too easy, exposing the total confusion in the Dutch ranks. Brazil deserved to be winning by two, but a flying Stekelenburg spectacularly denied Kaká.

Brazil played beautiful football for the first time in the tournament. Really. The sequences that began the second half and the attacking moves that defined the first, made me doubt that Brazil could be beaten. What team was capable of competing with them technically and physically?  I had just started to re-think my anti-seleção stance, was starting to want them to win, primarily because Brazil were not playing futebol de resultados, and they were winning convincingly. How could they lose when their football was SO MUCH BETTER than the dour Dutch. Dunga’s tactical structure combined with an insane technical skill set to produce a team that looked the business. They were putting on a show de bola. Everything was working. 1-0 at halftime.

Brazil dominated the first ten minutes of the second half. Juan was always finding himself with free headers on set pieces. Holland wandered around the pitch, replacing the divots they made chasing Maicon. Dunga screamed on the sidelines, happy as ever. Despite his general mal-estar, Brazil’s 1994 captain had made sure that Brazil were one of the tournament’s better organized teams. Robben rode his one trick pony, then dived onto the crappy grass, again, looking for pasture. Holland were going out. Brazil were going through.

Then it fell apart. Julio César, considered by many to be the best goalie in the world, collides with Felipe Melo and misses a relatively harmless cross. The ball skims off Melo’s head and into the net.  Um frango monumental.  1-1. No worries, these things happen. Even to the best goalie in the world on a relatively simple cross. Felipe Melo got in his way, didn’t mean to. Everything under control.

Even after the gift of a goal, Holland didn’t threaten. They were terrible, and had been up to absurd tricks throughout. For example, in the 34^th minute, Robben took a corner kick. Instead of kicking it towards the goal, he rolled it just a little bit forward and then ran away as if he hadn’t touched it. Danny Alvez saw what happened and cleared the ball off a Dutch player and Brazil regained possession. It was beyond absurd. Did no one inform the Dutch that they were playing in the quarter-finals of the world cup, down 1-0. That was their set-piece? WTF? In the 46^th minute, Dutch midfielder Weil was booked for diving. One minute after the kickoff, diving in lieu of playing football? Horrible. Clueless. Disorganized. Going out of the Cup. Definitely.

Before I could really figure out whether I was going to want Brazil to win through footballing virtue, Robben won a free kick in midfield. Sneijder’s quick ball played in Van Persie, who won a corner. The in-swinging ball  was flicked on by Kuyt to THREE UNMARKED DUTCH PLAYERS INSIDE THE 6 YARD BOX! Sneijder heads home, 2-1.  From there, Brazil looked crestfallen and had no way back into the game, although they still created some chances. That was until Felipe Melo was sent off in the 73^rd minute for stomping on Robben. Then it was really over. What happened? Brazil had defended free kicks very well throughout the tournament. Julio César looked comfortable on nearly every other ball that came into the box. Why did he miss that one (with Felipe Melo’s help)? Were these lapses in concentration? Or was something more sinister at work? Were Brazil simply comfortable with a 1-0 lead and decided to muck about? How did a team that was so completely dominating the game in every category lose so pathetically? Why wasn’t Marc Van Bommel cautioned or expelled for his hacking every Brazilian as they tried to go by him on their way to the semi-final?

Theory #1

The CBF sold the game to FIFA/ FIFA bought the game from the CBF.

Let’s say that Brazil beats Holland convincingly, as they had been doing up until J.C.’s frango, progressing to the semi-final against Ghana or Uruguay. Uruguay or Ghana in the final? I don’t think so. Once in the final, the chance for the 6^th (hexa) World Cup is pretty high. With the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the expectations for a trophy on home soil will be enormous, and from there what nation could ever catch Brazil in the trophy count? Better to lose in Africa with a coach that is generally hated by the Brazilian media. It’s hard to crucify J.C. because he’s clearly one of the best players in the world, having just won the Champions League and the Scudetto with Inter Milan. It’s easy to crucify Felipe Melo because he’s a bit violent, caused an own goal, and saw red. It’s easy to pillory Dunga because the seleção  needs a new coach, no one liked his brand of football, and he’s already at odds with the Brazilian press. Kaká? He’s so pure and handsome, even if he didn’t score a goal

The dirty dealings between the CBF (Confederação Brasilieira de Futebol) and FIFA are notorious, as are those between the AFA (Associación de Fútbol Argentino).CBF president Ricardo Teixeria is the son in law of former FIFA president João Havelange, and may be in line for the FIFA presidency after the 2014 World Cup. AFA president Julio Grondona is also the treasury secretary of FIFA, privy to all of the ways in which money flows in and out. He also has an eye on the FIFA presidency, should Herr Blatter start behaving like the Jabulani. Something went down behind closed doors to get Brazil to stop playing football in the second half. Will something similar happen to get Argentina to the semi-final against Spain/Paraguay?

As I was walking home there was a very drunk woman sitting on a very dirty wall, moaning “Foi comprado! Foi comprado!” (It was bought.) Many of my co-spectators felt the same way. Many other people I have talked to were convinced long before the Cup started that Brazil were not going to be allowed to win so that they could win in 2014, in the R$1.4 billion Nova Maracanã.

Theory #2

Julio César’s frangão destabilized the Brazilians psychologically. 

The lack of concentration was something that was evident against North Korea. The goal disrupted the delicate balance that made for such attractive football for the first hour. From there, the Dutch took more control. Scoring the second goal fifteen minutes later.

Theory #3

Holland out-played Brazil. 

This is the least likely of the conspiracy theories. Even at the end of the game when Brazil had completely given up and the Dutch had Robben, Kuyt, and Sneijder with only Juan and J.C. to beat, they blew it. The result could have easily been 4-1, but the orange machine couldn’t count that high.

Theory #4

FIFA’s eugenic plan for the world includes a Holland v. Germany final as a symbolic and functional European dominance of Africa. (Thanks to my friend Kaká (not the player) for this theory).  

Theory #5

Add your own. 

USA x Ghana; Argentina x Mexico; Brasil x Chile

20 million people suffered because Bob Bradley didn't get his tactics right. The same sorry scene from 2006 repeated itself. USAmerican defensive central midfielder gets caught in possession with a crunching tackle from a bigger, faster, stronger player (Reyna, 2006; Clark 2010), goal for Ghana. From there, Bradley was forced to change Clark for Edu and the game turned in favor of the Yanks. The second change, Feilhaber for Findley, should have happened the day before, not at halftime. The third change, Gomes for Altidore, was completely absurd as the USA lost physical presence in the box. Oh well. The Yanks earned a lot of respect here in Brazil for their raça e garra. Look for the USA to be based in the north of Brazil for the 2014 WC, probably Manaus or Fortaleza, places that have direct flights from the East Coast. 

At the FFF, the Mexican fans outnumbered the Argentines.Geographically, that didn't make any dang sense at all. Following more general football logic, the vast majority of the 10,000 strong crowd were pulling for Mexico. Every time Maradona's face showed on the screen the guy next to me would scream "Pelé". He would also scream "Maricón" at every opporutnity, the equivalent of yelling "faggot". His probably learned the word from watching this commercial for Skol, one of Brazil's many interpretations of Bud Light. 

Everyone agrees that Tevez's first goal was offside. But what about that pass from Messi? As the ball was floating ever so gently on to Carlitos' offside head, Messi was indicating with his own head that Tevez should head it home. It was as if Messi was passing the ball to himself. Even playing poorly, Messi is a destabilizing factor. The same could be said for Higuain, who continues to destabilize me because he is so out of form. Yet he continues to score goals. Unfortunately for Argentina his continued inclusion (and the whirling dervish defending of Heinze, plus getting overwhelmed in a three man midfield) will not cut it against Germany. Pity that.

When Brazil plays in the World Cup, everyone in the country takes the afternoon or morning off. They should take the whole day because going to work dressed in yellow and getting back home with everyone else at the same time causes an incredible amount of traffic chaos. Heading north from the center yesterday on the Metro was not for the claustrophobic. Within three stops, a totally empty train filled to the point where I literally could not move my arms. The air conditioning had no effect. There was no point in holding on to anything because there was nowhere to move. Were there an accident, everyone would die. With so much extra weight, do the brakes still work? The train lurched around curves. In order to get out of the car,  I had to slither and push and squirm before being shot onto the platform like a watermelon seed out of a slippery mouth. Many tens of thousands listened to the first half in their cars, paralyzed. 

Kaká's first involvement in the game was positive, so I settled in for a Chilean loss. The pace of the game was extraordinary. Brazil did not leave any time on the ball for the Chilean midfield and the technical superiority of Alves, Ramirez, Kaká, and Robinho won the day. It's hard to take a football off a Brazilian, which in turn makes for very few opportunities to counterattack, which contributes to defensive stability. Forced to chase the game after a well-taken corner, Chile opened up, leaving a 3v3 situation with Robinho, Kaká, and Luis Fabiano running at speed. Game over. 

3-0 was a fair result. Unfair were the interviews with Kaká's mom and grandmother during halftime and after the game. A perpetual state of forced ignorance of what actually happened during the game is shoved down the collective throat by OGlobo. The presentation perpetuation of Kaká as some kind of capital-religious-footballing superhero that embodies the best virtues of Brazilian-ness continues to make me sick. There's some dirty, dirty stuff going on with that lad with very open fights between him and Juca Kfuri in the Brazilian media. 

My general sense of Brazilian fandom in relation to the national team is that people would much rather see their club teams win than the seleção. The CBF has done a wonderful job of distancing the team from the people. The vast majority of people I know have never seen the seleção play in person, nor are they likely to see them. 20 of the 23 Brazilian players in the World Cup ply their trade abroad, so there's no identification with them as local or even national figures. Of course, everyone is happy to see the team win, but it's kind of like cheering for the USA Basketball team in the Olympics. The win is expected, there's low emotional investment because of the general lack of tension, so why not use the opportunity of the game to party with friends and family? The social role of the seleção and the World Cup is much more profound than I had imagined, full of the contradictions and coherencies that make this such a fascinating place to live. 

Previewing Brasil x Portugal, debunking some other things

These photos and captions are taken from the back page of the sports section of Brazil's biggest paper, OGlobo, during the first week of the World Cup.

(caption 1: After Dunga began to show his fashion at the World Cup, the coach for Ivory Coast resolved to show the world what he is going to wear against Brazil)

It’s pretty amazing that Brasil, year after year, cup after cup, is always the team to beat. It’s hard for Brasil not to be in the group of death, because they are death to opponents. Not only has Brasil won more cups than any other nation, they have more victories and the highest points per game average, the most goals, the most everything. It’s hard to think of Brasil as a place without thinking about how many times they’ve won the World Cup. Even with the crappy team Dunga has assembled, they’re going to finish top of their group.

(caption 2: Not everything is well at the World Cup. The Bafana Bafana, poor guys, return home.)

Brasil x Portugal stirs up a Luso-world of geographic, historical, and cultural associations. In 1808 the Portuguese court fled Napoleon’s marauding army, brining the entire imperial apparatus to Rio de Janeiro. Brasil was the only colony to have ruled over its metropole. It’s pointless to point out all of the connections, but interesting to note that the Portuguese flag hangs in abundance in Rio de Janeiro.

(caption 3: The miserable North Korean players that go hungry in their homeland asked FIFA for the chicken that [the English keeper] Green came up with [chicken is a goalie gaff] so they can make a stew.)

There isn’t too much riding on this game, other than a strategic positioning for the second round. I would be shocked and amazed to see anything but a draw here. The first place in Group G will cross with the second place in Group H, which is very much up in the air, could be Chile or Spain. Portugal will qualify in second place with one point, and Brasil will qualify regardless, so it would be an act of fratricide for Brasil to win. It's not going to happen.  1-1. Dunga will get to experiment with some other players and rest a few stars in the middle of the second half (Robinho, Maicon, Luis Fabiano). If an equalizer doesn’t happen “naturally”,  look for the referee to balance the scales.

(caption 4: The World Cup also has a social function. The goalies' chickens are going to do away with hunger for the miserable Africans.)

Dunga will replace the suspended Kaká with Julio Batista. Today’s (24.6) headline in the OGlobo sports section:  “The beast in the place of the crack: someone who Dunga trusts, Julio Baptista is the only bachelor on the team but has a wedding planned with a Spanish model after the World Cup.” Nothing but high quality reporting here.

The coverage of the World Cup in OGlobo and on OGlobo networks has been horrible. There is a total überload of information, none of which actually says anything that provides deeper insight into what is going on. To the contrary, in the lead up to the Ivory Coast match, OGlobo continued to publish photos that were very explicit in their portrayal of Africans. I have included the photos and captions with translations. I am not sure what to say about them but wow, the animalization, orientalization, generalization, and blatant classism combine to make a powerful broth of racism that you can sip one day at time. Delicious!

(Caption 5: Brazil plays today and even here in South Africa we can see people preparing their cookout with music and a lot of beer.)

I do hope you foreign correspondents out there will publish similar things about Brasil four years from now. Some indigenous folk with bows and arrows, lip discs, painted faces, headdresses, the symbiotic nature-culture-Avatar thing will be a good start.

(caption 6: Today is a festive day in Johannescheesburger: the Ivory Coast fans promise to throw their weight behind their team in Soccer City to cheer for the Elephants.)

Mais uma coisa para o Zé Ninguém. Os times Africanos não correm tanto assim. Os primeiros cinco colocados em distância ate hoje são: Australia, Japão, México, Inglaterra, e os EUA. Quantas vezes eu ouvi gente falar que os times Africanos não tem técnica, só correm, não tem técnica, só bate com sua força física. A verdade é que Australia e Nova Zelanda tinham cometido mas faltas que qualquer outro time. Vamos falar que os Oceânicos são tipos violentos? Cala a boca Galvão.

(Caption 7: Furious with the unpredictable Jabulani ball, the  Ivory Coast is training with balls that they brought from home.)