Me on the BBC forum

I posted the following comment on a BBC Sport forum on "Who are the best players NOT going to the World Cup":

I have two sit-out starting 11s, one entirely made of Brazilian players, and the other, international. Notice how strong Brazil C would be:

Gomes (PSV)
Belletti (Barcelona)
Caçapa (Lyon)
Alex (PSV)
Fábio Aurélio (Valencia)

Rochemback (Middlesbrough)
Elano (Shakhtar Donetsk)
Daniel Carvalho (CSKA Moscow)
Diego (Porto)

Alex (Fenerbahce)
Mancini (Roma)

My international sit-out team:
Given (IRL)
Zanetti (ARG)
Samuel (ARG)
Hyppia (FIN)
Wome (CMR)

Veron (ARG)
Scholl (GER)
Recoba (URU)

Makaay (HOL)
Martins (NIG)
Etoo (CMR)

For the record, BBC's sit-out starting 11 is Given; Lauren, Jorge Andrade, Maldini, Pernía; Baraja, Pires, Quaresma; Giuly, Vieri, Etoo.

At war with the mystics

Tinha um crédito na Livraria Cultura do Shopping Iguatemi aqui em Porto Alegre, e no fim de semana queria passar lá e comprar um CD. Estava em dúvida entre Tim Maia Racional, o novo do Pearl Jam (com um abacate na capa), o novo do Chico ou algum dos novos da Marisa Monte.

Acabei comprando o novo do Flaming Lips - sim, novamente Flaming Lips. At War With The Mystics. Pink Floyd meets Beck meets Mutantes meets Moby meets Ziggy Stardust meets Sgt Peppers meets Pet Sounds --- peraí, já estou começando a achar que Flaming Lips é Flaming Lips e ponto! Se for começar a comparar fica louco.

Confesso que ainda não ouvi inteiro - assim como Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots tem um tempinho de adaptação antes de julgar, é um disco muito denso, com muitas mensagens e musicalidades. Não é como disco novo do U2 que dá pra gostar automaticamente.

Por enquanto gostei de "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" e "Vein of Stars". Ah, também lembra u pouco Stone Temple Pilots. Ok, ok, essa foi a última comparação.

song on my mind

you're an accident
waiting to happen

you're a piece of glass
left there on the beach

well you tell me things
i know you're not supposed to

then you leave me
just out of reach.

(u2, "who's gonna ride your wild horses", achtung baby!, 1991)

My Stevie Wonder tracks

Não consigo parar de ouvir o CD customizado do Stevie Wonder que ganhei do meu amigo Tomas em dezembro.

Faixas:
"Love's In Need Of Love Today"
"Have A Talk With God"
"Village Ghetto Land"
"Sir Duke"
"I Wish"
"Knocks Me Off My Feet"
"Pastime Paradise"
"Summer Soft"
"Ordinary Pain"
"Saturn"
"Ebony Eyes"
"Joy Inside My Tears"
"Ngicuelela / Es Una Historia / I Am Singing"
"As"
"Another Star"

Toooooodas são ótimas! Ultimamente estou ouvindo muito "Summer Soft", mas já tive fases de ouvir no repeat "As" (que já mereceu post isolado no blog), "Another Star", "Knocks Me Off My Feet", "Love's In Need Of Love Today"...

thanks Tom!

composition

i'm actually really cheery tonight.

Two Englands

Possible starting line-up
























Counter-attacking option for the second half

Bold Sven

Oh yes. Sven was bold.

England's call up for the cup is shocking, to say the least. Especially considering their coach's historic conservativeness.

Theo Walcott and Aaron Lennon in. Both below 20, none capped.

Shaun Wright-Philips and Jermain Defoe out. Both with several starts to their name.

Downing, Jenas and Hargreaves could be questioned but were hinted. The two teenagers, nay.

I thought about his selection for most of my day today - yes I did, I'm totally in World Cup mode these days - and I guess I got onto his thought process after all.

1. No Rooney or anything like him. So no useless heavy lads, let me take a smart kid.

There are several strong English strikers around these days - Andy Johnson, James Beattie, Dean Ashton, Marlon Harewood, Darren Bent - and they're not bad at all, but, let's face it, none gets the ball deep and creates space like Rooney does. They're all standing strikers, and they would neither start a game or be a good option during a match, for two reasons:

• they wouldn't start because that kind of striker needs a team built around them, feeding them, and Eriksson wouldn't play such tactics when, in absence of Rooney, he could build the team around Gerrard and Lampard. Besides, the plays are already directioned towards Owen who's a much better finisher.
  
• they wouldn't come as second-half options because Crouch does the same thing but is taller and holds the ball better. Full-stop.
  

So Eriksson realized he needed a sharp finisher, with good balance, and pace, to partner Owen in moments of need or even replace him. The Jermain Defoe of last season would be excellent, but not this one with a certain confidence crisis.

Walcott, on the other hand, I've never seen play (and neither has Sven) but is apparently a smart, cool finisher, with balance and pace, and with a career in Under-17s. If he's got the mind that Wenger says he does, he can enter and make a difference.

It is not uncommon for managers to select teens with potential to join World Cup squads - Brazil 94 had Ronaldo, and Brazil 02 had Kaká. However, those two were highly unlikely to feature (only the latter did, a couple of minutes against Costa Rica in a worthless game), whereas in a team with three forwards in which one hasn't played for six months and the other gives such limited options as Crouch, Walcott's chances of featuring increase a lot.

2. England's midfield might be great, but it is not wide. Let the width join in then.

I will assume that Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard and Joe Cole are starters. These are four of the best midfielders in the planet, four men with skill and drive, who finish superbly and dedicate themselves to every second of the match (well, maybe Beckham not every minute). So how to best use them to counter the loss of Rooney?

Simple answer, to me, would be to put a holding midfielder behind Gerrard and Lampard and let them push forward and shoot from the outside the same way Rooney would. That way he'd use the best out of them without putting them running into each other. Carrick has proven that, today, he is the best man to be in that holding role. Carrick, to us Brazilians unused to watching Tottenham matches, is like a blend of Gilberto Silva's marking with Juninho's passing.

That way, Beckham and Cole would right and left. But, let's face two facts:

• Beckham is still a great passer and crosser, but has never been famous for running a lot - and now he is older.
  
• Joe Cole is quick, skillful and decisive - but will cut inside 2 out of three plays.
  

So picture Sven, in a semifinal against Brazil in Munich, on the 7th of July, in a tough 0-0 game and with Peter Crouch as "the" option to turn the game in the second half. Brazil is pressing and England should try counter-attacking. What can he do?

He could send in Shaun Wright-Philips instead of Beckham for sure. But what would be the gain? It'd be dribbling mostly, since SWP is not that much faster than Becks. But counter-attacking is much more about pace than dribbling, especially against Brazilian 30-plus full-backs. Who could he send in?

Stewart Downing on the left has had an impressive season. Runs a lot and is precise on the crosses. Tick.

On the right, Aaron Lennon is definitely faster and arguably as skillful as Wright-Philips. Lack of international caps is surely compensated by a much steadier season at White Hart Lane. Tick.

Wright-Philips could still join in as a direct replacement for Beckham, should the captain be unfit and Lennon be deemed to fresh to start a match, right? Totally right. But then so would Jermaine Jenas, with the plus that the Tottenham midfielder also fits in as reserve right-back (saving a precious spot) and centre-midfielder. Not to mention his great season, while SWP sometimes warmed the bench, and other times warmed the Stamford Bridge stands. So my favorite player of the 2004-2005 season (while in Man City) misses out and hopes his portion of transfer fee pays for the disappointment.

Hargreaves, then, covers for Carrick, Gerrard or Lampard, maybe because Scott Parker is unfit, and that is it for the England midfield.

The sheer number of players with the capability of playing high-quality football in central midfield, together with the trying character of the wingers, indicates that Sven plans to use direct passing and midfield approximation as first tactics, leaving the crosses for after the sixtieth minute, when opposition would be tired.

Watch out for some quality passing then.

And let's hope, here in Brazil, that our coach could be 10% as bold. At least at reserve left-back.

(why is it that I was more anxious on the England call-up than I am in the Brazilian one?)

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination

"Procrastination is the deferment or avoidance of an action or task which requires completion by focusing on some other action or task. For the person procrastinating, this can result in a loss of productivity, stress and a sense of guilt. While it is normal for individuals to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder."

"Traditionally, procrastination has been associated with perfectionism, a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood, and workaholism. Slaney (1996) found that adaptive perfectionists were less likely to procrastinate than non-perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists (people who saw their perfectionism as a problem) had high levels of procrastination (and also of anxiety)."

(...)
(...)

Acho que vou no médico.

Não vou mentir

Tá bom.

Não vou falar que, quando o juiz mandou voltar o primeiro pênalti do Rogério, eu não pensei "agora fudeu".

Isso depois do gol do Palmeiras e da expulsão do Leandro. E do Palmeiras surpreendentemente jogando melhor.

Mas não era pra ter sido tão sofrido assim, hein. E tomando chuveirinho na pequena área aos 49. Maior prova que "clássico é clássico e vice-versa".

Estava eu pensando se uma derrota do São Paulo hoje seria mais bizarra que a derrota do Corinthians pro Palmeiras em 2000. Acho que sim. Aquele Corinthians era melhor que este São Paulo, mas este Palmeiras é velho e tosco. Aquele Palmeiras pelo menos tinha Marcos, Alex e Júnior, que são craques incontestáveis e estavam no auge. Este, minha nossa, acudam.

"... war is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate...."

It may not have come to the attention of the foreigners to Latin America that, yesterday, Labor Day Holiday 2006, witnessed what was maybe the fiercest unexpected unilateral action of one South American country against another since 1865. For South Americans, used to repression from their own governments, but oblivious to threats right across their borders, it was a shock.

I am talking about the announcement from the Bolivian president, hard-hat on, parading in a Brazil-owned gas refinery, that he was 'nationalizing' the country's gas reserves - i.e., taking over. Moreover, he demanded that all installations be handed over within 180 days, or else - - - or else? Well it was not that clear, but apparently it was left open that force could be used.

There's a lot of political background to that annoncement that I will not delve into here - Bolivia's past, Venezuela's rise, President Morales's campaign, President Lula's support, and a lot else - and the right-or-wrong discussion of whether the investments belong to the investors or to the country also deserves a lot more discussion than this blog entry might provide. This being a mere account of my personal thoughts, though, leaves me the space to talk about what has struck me most in all this soap-opera: talk of military action.

First of all let me compliment the handling of the situation by the Brazilian government so far - they recognized sovereignty of Bolivia, opened for talks, and at the same time assured Brazilian citizens that we would not run out of gas. Bear in mind that this is a country that has invested heavily in gas-powered automobiles, especially for people who drive a lot like taxi drivers. Ruling out the possibility of shortages is not only the only statement that REALLY matters to the people - it also gives Bolivia a sign that we're not desperate (for the fact that Bolivia is our main supplier) , but they should be (because we're their main customers, and can apparently find gas elsewhere).

But the most shocking news of the day, to me, was a poll on iG (a Brazilian news portal) that asked people of what kind should the Brazilian reaction to President Morales's act should be - diplomacy, economic sanctions, or military action. And it was even! Roughly a third of respondents chose each option.

It makes me think that Brazilians are a bit bloodthirsty, and too fond of reality shows to start 'dreaming' of televised attacks by our Army to the coca fields of Bolivia, going to the rescue of "our refineries".... Well I swear I haven't dreamed of that, but truth is we have never had a reason to wage war on a neighboring country - maybe the 1978 world cup - and this could be a reason for a more beligerant leader to be keen on pushing the button.

Luckily it seems that such a thing won't happen. Lula and Evo are too good buddies to even have sanctions declared, talk about war. But Evo shouldn't expect the same consideration (paternalization, maybe?) from private investors. Or American-owned businesses in Bolivia. Allende would know better.

Anyway, we chickened out on a war - either military or economic. Maybe the path chosen is worse for some (like Petrobras) in the short run but better for all in perspective. Let's see what happens next.

I wonder what Santiago De La Mora makes of this whole thing.