66. The Curse of Béla Guttmann…

I am just back from a visit to the disappointingly half-empty Stadium of Light last night with a group of wonderful tourists. We were behind the goal to see Benfica, currently struggling in the league, dominate and achieve a well-deserved (if unbelievably stressful) 2-1 Champions League victory of Galatasaray. This puts us on the edge of qualification for the knockout rounds of this years tournament, and seems like a good time to discuss The Curse which has been on the club for over half a century.

In 1962, Benfica won their second consecutive European Cup, and may well have been the best team in the world. So, naturally, they refused to give their Hungarian manager, Béla Guttmann, a bonus. He quit in fury, allegedly leaving a curse that the team wouldn’t win another European Cup for 100 years. Luckily I don’t believe in curses…

…but if I did, Benfica could be the reason. The penalty shootout against Sevilla in 2014 which I was (un)lucky enough to be present at was our 8th successive European Cup Final loss since then, and second in a row after an injury-time defeat to a Chelsea team we had outplayed even more than we had Sevilla.

Will we get a chance to cast the curse aside this year?

Either way, luckily for me I will still be a Benfica fan in 2052, when the curse officially runs out…

BOOK UPDATE:

Writing has finished on ‘Benfica to Brazil‘ and I am currently editing the book. If you guys have half as much fun reading it as I am having re-reading it, (and remember, I already know what’s in it!), it should be worth the wait.

A month of editing, a few weeks of proof-reading, and then the logistics of turning the digital word into the physical form, and I hope to have the book flying around the world to you within a few months.

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, contact me through this blog to reserve your book now!

65. Benfica to Brazil the Book: UPDATE!

Over a year has passed since the glory days of Brazil 2014, and with FIFA falling apart around our ears, (although not quite enough yet); Benfica falling apart around the League, (although not in the Champions League); and José Mourinho and Chelsea falling apart in pretty much everything, I have been keeping busy turning my experiences in Brazil, and across the world and through the years, into a book.

This week, I finished the first draft of ‘Benfica to Brazil,’ and for the next few weeks I will be editing, polishing, cutting and extending it to make it the best book you have ever read about football, travel, sports, Benfica, and life.

Check out the update here, and if you haven’t signed up for a copy in advance, there will be copies available when it is published, in physical and e-book form, in a few months: just drop me an email to reserve yours!

62. Benfica to Brazil: the book is ready to launch!

A happy 2015 to all of you out there, wherever you are.

Whether you are a Brazilian football fan trying to forget that game, a Benfica fan trying to remember all of those trophies from last season (but forget that final, and that curse), or a follower of another team, or even another sport, (or none at all!), I hope 2015 brings you everything you hope for.

(Unless you hope for your team to beat one of my teams, of course.)

 

One thing it may bring you is a copy of the Sports Book of the Year™ – ‘Benfica to Brazil.’ My first published work is now fully funded thanks to the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, and over a hundred lovely people who want to read more of my adventures following football (and other sports, and fun, and languages…), around the globe.

If you read this before January 7th, you can join them in ordering the book and even having your name added to the back of it. Just go to the Kickstarter page, choose your reward, and sit back until March!

If you’re reading this at a later date, there should be details of how and where to buy your copy of the book on the Kickstarter page…but you will have wait for my next book to get your name in the Thank You’s!

More football news in future blogs, but probably not as regularly as they used to be, as I may be a little busy writing in the coming weeks…

58. Benfica to Brazil…THE BOOK!

Sports-lovers, Benfica fans, travel addicts and readers,

Some of you may have heard the exciting news, but for others this is the first you will be hearing about the biggest literature and sports project of the year:

BENFICA TO BRAZIL IS FINALLY AVAILABLE AS A BOOK!

Featuring travel, adventure, politics, danger, and of course football; from Europe to the Americas, from Africa to Asia.

Come enjoy the video, share with friends and family, and make sure to order your copy now!

Just kick on the K of the video below to visit the project’s home page!

56. Brazil’s Second Broken Heart…

We all know that Brazil had their hearts broken in the semi-final against Germany.

Well, more like they had their hearts swiftly removed, stomped on, kicked around and fired into the net seven times.

Brazil’s worst nightmare…

It could even have been worse, with German defender Matt Hummels admitting in an interview that they decided at half-time to take it easy on the hosts after racing to a 5-0 lead.

How bad was the match? It was so shocking to the world that it became the most discussed sports match ever on Twitter, with 35.6 million tweets, and local newspaper Globo gave all of the Brazilian players, and the coach, 0/10 in their match ratings.

Ouch…

This was the second time Brazilian football had found itself ripped to shreds, the first being the infamous loss to neighbours Uruguay in 1950. As the Guardian said of the Germany semi-final:

The Mineiraço, as it is already being called in an echo of the deep impact of the 1950 Maracanazo when Uruguay defeated Brazil in the final the last time the tournament was held here, was variously described as “the disgrace of all disgraces” and “a historic humiliation”. The sports paper Lance called it “the biggest shame in history”.

What most people don’t know, but I learned from Alex Bellos’s book: ‘Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life,’ is that the match in 1950 wasn’t actually the World Cup Final. The tournament in those days ended in a group phase, and it just so happened that Uruguay and Brazil were the only two teams left with a chance to top the group, and were playing each-other in the last game. That’s why even a draw would have handed the cup to Brazil, as they had won both of their games, (against Sweden and Spain), whereas Uruguay had only drawn with Spain.

The lasting impression that match left on the Brazilian footballing mentality, (until being supplanted on 8th July 2014), has been beautifully  explained in cartoon format in this incredible New York Times feature.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to sign up for details of ‘Benfica to Brazil – the book’!

55. The Aftermath…

So it’s been over a week since the World Cup ended.

Bye bye Fureco…

The streets of Salvador are back to normal, (mostly empty, rain-covered, and half-finished), although

54. They think it’s all over…

The adventure is (kind of) over; the signs have been ripped down by fans eager for souvenirs; the fake Brazil shirts are on sale ridiculously cheap in the streets of Salvador; and the 2014 World Cup is, officially, done.

As seems to happen so often, it was a game of twenty-two men, ninety minutes (and thirty more this time), and then Germany won.

If this guy wasn’t actually German, it would have made it all the more amazing…

And Argentina lost.

And Messi didn’t

52. And then there were two…

Brazil has almost certainly never had a worse 24-hours of football.

After yesterday’s German spanking, their arch-rivals Argentina won the right to challenge for the title Brazil thought would be theirs, in the theatre of Brazilian dreams, the Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

Suddenly, there are a lot of Brazilian Germany fans.

Not everyone at the Fanfest was cheering for the Dutch…

After the excitement and sheer jaw-dropping nature of the first semi-final many feared the second may not live up to expectations, and boy were they right. This was ninety-minutes of extraordinarily dull, often average football, with three minutes of play by Holland in injury time, some thrills in extra time, and two fantastic saves from albiceleste keeper Sergio Romero to create a Euro-American Final which could be a fascinating encounter.

Highlights of the game included a couple of accidental injuries to Argentina players, (Pablo Zabaleta appeared to lose a tooth in a head collision and staggered around like a Brazilian playing against Germany before soldiering on, his face stuffed full of cotton wool); Arjen Robben barely diving all match and having a last minute shot blocked heroically by Javier Mascherano; and half of the stadium thinking Gonzalo Higuain had scored when he poked a beautiful cross into the side netting.

Two Spaniards and a Brit, believe it or not from the jerseys…

Lio Messi, whilst still being industrious and tough to tackle, disappeared for large swathes of the game. In fact, he failed to touch the ball in the Dutch penalty area for the complete two hours of the game. On the other side, The Netherlands didn’t manage a shot on target until shortly before the 100 minute mark!

The over-all standard of play was pretty poor all round, (prompting some at the Fanfest to wish they had just shown a re-run of the other semi-final…although not Brazilians), leading to the first ever 0-0 in a World Cup semi-final.

Germany must have been rubbing their hands with Teutonic glee.

Germany and Argentina have samba’d into the final…well, limped in, in the latter’s case…

Which probably means they’ll lose, which would be the ultimate humiliation for Brazil: their enemies not only winning the title, on their turf, but doing so against a team which had trousered the hosts so thoroughly in the previous match.

Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that Dutch coach Van Gaal’s mind games in the previous round against Costa Rica may have cost his side in the shoot-out? Not having a spare substitution to make at the end of the 120 minutes, his regular goalie was forced to stop the penalties after having been essentially told last time out that he wasn’t good enough.

And he wasn’t, (despite the fairly despicable practice he shares with Tim Krul of trash wasting time and trash talking penalty takers before each spot kick). At least this proves that Van Gaal was probably right first time round, as Argentina won the lottery of penalties™ 4-2.

Brazilians were praying for the Dutch to win the shoot-out…to no avail…

So, with my last evening at the (half empty) Fanfest spent explaining to random Argentines that I wasn’t actually from Argentina, just a fan of Buenos Aires club Racing and hence wearing their jersey, my World Cup time in Salvador has come to an end: tomorrow begins the final leg, a flight to Rio, and 72-hours to fight as many Argentines as I need to in order to get hold of a ticket to Sunday’s final.

Stay tuned for updates from the South!

And don’t forget to sign up for news of the Benfica to Brazil book!

51. Brazil on their way home…

In a World Cup full of unbelievable matches, (Holland vs Spain, Costa Rica vs Italy, Germany vs Portugal), yesterday’s 7-1 thrashing/spanking/sausaging/humiliation of Brazil by Germany has to rank as the most stunning of all.

This was both the best I have ever seen a team play in a World Cup, and the worst, and possibly in any football match.

To call Brazil’s play ‘Sunday League‘ is an insult to hard-working Sunday League teams across the world.

My allegiances were torn…

Germany were so (I hate to use the stereotype, but it’s true) ruthless that

50. World Cup Semi-Final Preview: Brazil vs Germany…

So it’s come to this.

After all of the (c)upsets, near-knockouts and fun and games, there are four teams left, two from Europe, two from South America, three former World Cup winners who are in the top five ranked teams in the world, and one almost-team hoping to be the second successive first-time winner.

Brazil face Germany today, and Argentina take on Holland tomorrow to decide whether or not there is any chance whatsoever of me getting a ticket to Sunday’s final.

These Mexicans haven’t forgotten how Holland got to the final…

(If Brazil make it, I give myself a 0.01% chance: if they don’t, but Argentina do, it won’t be much better, except that maybe the suicidal Brazilians would rather sell/give their ticket to me than to

48. The Semi-Finals Await…

It’s time for another two-day break, and a chance to catch your breath before the semi-finals.

.

After Friday saw the first semi-final decided, with hosts Brazil taking on the ever-consistent Germans, yesterday was the turn of Argentina and Holland to set up the other mouth-watering Euro-American last four.

A meeting of minds…

It was a day of mixed feelings for me, as I was heading to possibly my last game of the tournament, and definitely the final one here in Salvador.

47. Quarter Finals Reviews and Previews…

So Brazil are one step from actually getting to the final, which is either totally predictable or a complete miracle given how they have played most of the tournament.

This time they deserved the win, brushing aside a desperately disappointing Colombia who never really got going, and (with a little help from the referee, for a change), won their quarter final 2-1 and sparked the biggest party yet in the Salvador Fanfest, where thousands of people spent the entire night either dancing the night away, or staring at me attempting to do the same.

Fanfest festivities…

Standing in their way will be

46. World Cup: Quarter Previews pt.I: Germany, France, Brazil and Colombia…

So, after a few days off, are you thirsty for me?

Today sees the first pair of quarter finals, with another two to come (and be previewed) tomorrow.

First up is FRANCE vs GERMANY, for me possibly the most exciting game of the round. Both teams are amongst the favourites to win, having been amongst the few to play consistently good football.

This Marseille fan I met on day one will be cheering the French on…

It may or may not be a factor that the German manager yesterday announced that

45. World Cup Live Match Report V: USA vs Belgium…

A gorgeous, sunny day; an old friend visiting from NYC who happened to show up for a USA match; another old friend racing back to see her country play; and yet another old friend back from his travels, all to be reunited in the gorgeous, gleaming Salvador stadium.

Back where I belong…

Another friend didn’t have a ticket, but details like this didn’t seem to matter on this magical day: walking to the stadium three hours early to soak up the atmosphere, (and the

43. World Cup Day 18: Luck and Skill…

Finally, a South American team in yellow playing exciting, passionate football with a killer instinct.

It just wasn’t Brazil.

Colombia sent home the 2014 Pantomime Villains, Uruguay, with a stunning display and yet another contender for goal of the tournament from current top scorer, James Rodriguez, taking a ball on the chest outside the area after a bout of headed ping-pong, controlling it onto his left foot and volleying stunningly off the keeper’s hand and down off the underside of the bar into the net.

James…more or less…

Anyone who read yesterday’s blog can’t say they weren’t warned, and since

42. World Cup Day 17: Ding Ding, Round 2…

After yesterday’s relaxing day off, we are back and ready to go with the meat of the competition: the knock-out phase.

The last sixteen as us boring English speakers call it; the ‘oitavos’ to the locals.

Today’s pair of matches is a strangely South American affair: due to an irony of the draw, (or a complete cock-up, depending on your view of FIFA), there are four South American teams all battling it out for a single semi-final spot.

Two of those teams will take the

40. Benfica to Brazil: THE BOOK!

For those of you who are enjoying the daily updates from the 2014 Brazil World Cup, you will be excited to learn that this is just the first part of a bigger project.

The ultimate goal is to turn the blog, (and my footballing life), into a BOOK entitled:

‘Benfica to Brazil.’

As the name suggests, the book will feature tales of my year following Lisbon-based super-club Benfica across Lisbon, Portugal and Europe, culminating in my attempts to watch them play in the Europa Cup Final in Torino, Italy.

There will also be tales of how I made my way into the Champions League Final between Atlético and Real Madrid.

The culmination will be, of course, my two months spent following the World Cup in Salvador and across Brazil, including stories from my time at the past two World Cups in South Africa and Germany.

The book will be coming out in around October 2014, with a marketing campaign launching soon after the World Cup ends.

TO STAY INFORMED OF THE BOOK’S PROGRESS AND EVENTUAL RELEASE, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS, WITH THE SUBJECT: ‘BOOK INFO’

benficatobrazil@gmail.com

You will then be kept up to date with all developments, and will have the first opportunity to acquire the book when it becomes available.

Enjoy the rest of the games!

 

37. World Cup Day 13: Brazil find their bling…

Whooomp, there it is.

After two damp squib matches marred by diving, awful officiating, and Brazil just not being particularly good, the hosts finally arrived last night despatching the feisty but not particularly impressive Cameroon to their third straight loss and propelling them into a knock-out match against Chile, (which should be a rip-snorter, given their South American neighbour’s form so far, despite a harsh 2-0 loss to Holland yesterday afternoon).

The seleção even has Ronaldo dancing again…

The first of Neymar’s two goals was the 100th of an already

32. World Cup Day 7: hasta la vista, campeones…

Well, that all happened rather suddenly.

Spain, World and European champions and many people’s bet to win the whole shebang, will be on the next flight back to Madrid, and they still have to go through the motions of a match against Australia, (also out of the cup), in a match as meaningless as most people thought but for reasons not many people can have expected.

Won’t be needing this shirt again this World Cup…

Spain almost went 1-0 down to Chile in the first minute in a must-win game, and

31. World Cup Day 6: Draws, Dives and Disappointment (for Brazil)…

The rain which hammered down all morning here both woke me up and kept me indoors, meaning I had time to completely organise both my photos,  and my Panini sticker collection.

Brazilian weather is…unpredictable…

In case you’re wondering, I need 173 stickers, and have already

30. World Cup Live Match Review pt.II: Germany vs Portugal…

I have spent the past six months living in Portugal, having an amazing time in Lisbon with some great people and one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world.

That is going to make this blog entry difficult to read for some of my friends back there, and for the thousands of readers I have who have found me through their (and my) love of the most supported club in the world, Benfica.

I meet a Lisbon native but 48-year veteran of Brazil…still proudly rocking the SLB!

But I really enjoyed this game.

I may have been one of the most confusing people at

26. The ‘beautiful’ game…

Last night, the World Cup began.

At last.

I joined 10,000 other fans at Salvador’s FanFest, (serviced by a whopping five toilets: for anyone visiting, I recommend not spending too much time at the top of the beach nearest the FanFest…), and people drank, danced, and got soaked as we spent three hours waiting for the game to start.

Three hours during which apparently they decided not to show us the Opening Ceremony on the giant screen.

Oh well, I got about a third of the way through my regular World Cup Challenge of taking a photo with a fan from every country in their national jersey, (and a few in team jerseys from around the world, too), and the party spirit was, finally, high.

Bumped into an Argentinian who supports my team – Racing!

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie!…

And then that decision happened, and the World Cup was already a little bit ruined for me.

6.0, 6.0, 5.9, 6.0, 5.8…

I was wearing the Brazil jersey I’d bought in 2006 in the joy of going to my first ever World Cup match, the same fixture in Berlin. After seeing the replay, I took it off in disgust and refused to wear it again for the rest of the evening.

It felt dirty, (in every sense).

The crowd reacted awkwardly, the locals, (about 50% of the crowd), cheered the penalty a little shamefacedly, thre rest of us soon turned our support to Croatia, hoping for them to score a deserved equaliser.

People, from the Croatian players and manager to the press are blaming the referee.

It may have been a terrible decision, (made not only by a referee, by the way, but by a linesman and an ‘additional assistant referee,’ the man whose job it is to stand on the goal line and…well, I’m not sure. (S)he no longer has responsibility for goal-line decisions, since FIFA finally allowed technology to take care of that. But from two metres away he failed to spot the worst dive I’ve seen for years in a football match.

But if referees are making decisions like that every five minutes in matches, as players spend more time rolling around on the floor and waving imaginary cards at officials as they did last night, (wasn’t that made a yellow card offence in itself?), what chance do they have of getting every decision right?

We should stop blaming the referees, and start blaming the people who are obviously to blame: the diving, cheating, scumbag players.

Fred…

Anyway.

It was great to be at the World Cup again, meeting people, taking photos, discussing memories from past events.

The evening ended with a gig by local percussion band Timbalada, followed by a DJ set from local favourite Fatboy Slim, (or Fachi Boi Slimi, as he is brilliantly pronounced here!).

For now, I am off to watch Mexico vs Cameroon, switching between my Cameroon and my UNAM Pumas jerseys, and then heading to my first live match of the 2014 World Cup: a category 1, halfway line ticket to see a rematch of the last final, Spain vs Holland!

(Dressed in my Barça shirt: Forza España!!!)

 

24. World Cup News: Kick-Off Day!!…

It’s finally here.

I’m finally here, in an apartment on the beachfront.

The sun is still here, although it’s having a little disagreement with its main sponsor, showers, this week.

Some Dutch and Spanish tourists are here in Salvador, although not as many as you would have thought.

Fatboy Slim is probably here somewhere, getting ready for his World Cup-opening show here in Salvador later this afternoon/evening, giving me a dilemma about where to watch the opening match, since the FanFest is literally next to the place I’m staying, and where most of the friends I have made this past two weeks has been.

So, here’s the last news update before we can officially say: The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil has started!…

–Security seems to be all in place and highly organised. As long as

23. Match tracker…

So, after four years of waiting, it’s all about to kick off, quite literally.

Are you ready?

You can be, with this gorgeous, simple, interactive online website.

Every World Cup some sponsor or affiliated company comes up with a beautiful way of following all of the games by venue, date and team – this time it fell to UOL, a Brazilian internet provider, to bring us this site.

The chart in all its glory is HERE!

Enjoy!!

Colonel Mustard, in the Amazon, with the backheel…

22. Updates from the FIFA frontlines…

Twenty-two hours and fifteen minutes to go, and blog entries are coming thick and fast now!

This is the smallest so far, just a single message from a new friend who just returned to São Paolo from a holiday here in Salvador.

“So, literally all of my housemates are joining two buses of people headed to SP to protest tomorrow. They bought mini gas masks…”

 You have been warned…

Photo courtesy of Pressenza

21. Medicals…

It’s been a busy few weeks for me, in many ways: a new country, a new place to stay and explore, a new accent to master, (apparently, Brazilians don’t say ‘obrigadinho‘ as much as the Portuguese do, which may explain some weird looks I got last week).

A new blog, new readers from around the world, and a new role as a celebrity blogger for a friend’s website, Let Me Do That For You.

I also became a minor celebrity (in my own mind) when I was interviewed by email for an article in Portugal’s second largest online newspaper, Mais Futebol, (article coming soon), as well as being interviewed by a journalist friend on Skype for an article in The Guardian newspaper.

“Have you had all your jabs and things?” she asked me on Skype.

“…” I replied, authoritatively.

Never mind Italy, Holland or South Korea, THIS is my biggest rival right now…

I’ve never been very good at

18. Not so friendly friendly…

On Friday evening, I took five friends, (an American, another American, an Ecuadorian-American, a South African and a Brazilian), to see Salvador’s first taste of the World Cup, (an hors d’oeuvres, let’s say), when Australia took on (competition openers) Croatia in local side Bahía’s Pituaçu Stadium.

Estádio de Pituaçu, Salvador

An old friend, and current member of the Australian technical team, hooked me up with some VIP tickets for my friends and some inside information on

16. Taxi Trouble on Salvador’s Streets…

A few days ago, I wrote what I felt may be an overly bleak view of some of the dangers in Salvador.

I hate being right sometimes.

On Friday evening, five friends and I jumped in taxis to travel over an hour to a local stadium to see Australia play Croatia in a pre-World Cup friendly, which will be blogged on soon.

Australia vs Croatia friendly, Salvador, Brasil

(The problems of the public transport and roads here is another topic for another time…)

After the game, we all crammed into a larger taxi and

15. World Cup News, Saturday 7th June…

I think i may start writing regular news updates, for all the fun facts and details I want to share with you, starting today with some sad news:

-I was just sent a message by a (new) Brazilian friend to tell me that former Brazilian, Internacional and Olympique de Marseille striker Fernandão has died in a helicopter accident in central Brazil.

Brazil striker Fernandão, RIP

I was lucky enough to see Fernando Lúcio da Costa play when

13. I’ve got a (half dozen) golden ticket(s)…

Sometimes, I have to sit down, take a deep breath, and realise how ridiculous my life is.

I arrived in Salvador, Brazil, alone and without a friend, exactly seven days ago. I had a place to stay for ten days, a rough grasp of the Portuguese language, and zero tickets for the forthcoming FIFA 2014 Football World Cup.

I just got home from a night out drinking with new friends, (one of whom, a half-Scot, half-Spaniard with a love of football to rival mine, and a passion for footie jerseys likewise that makes him almost certainly a friend for life), and jumped online before getting a good night’s dribbling.

Real life World Cup tickets in my real life hand…

And FIFA chose just that moment to release

9. Is Brazil ready? Am I ready?!…

I made a new friend yesterday, who may also soon be a new roommate, as we were meeting to see if I wanted to stay in his small, sometimes crowded, but incredibly positioned apartment overlooking the stunning Bahia beaches.

The potential view from my potential World Cup accommodation…

Together, on (painfully slow) buses and (comparatively fast) foot, we explored the Historic Centre of Salvador, and made our way through the streets to see

7. Salvador de Bahía…

I woke up this morning and found myself in Brasil.

This was a good thing. After all, I had taken a flight to Salvador de Bahía, and was planning on spending two months here, but it was still nice to wake up and be in the largest country in South America.

My first 24 hours here have been…quiet. I was lucky enough to be picked up at the airport by a friend of a tourist I showed around Lisbon a month ago, who had never met me and had no reason to do me a favour except that people are lovely sometimes.

Gorgeous, coastal Salvador de Bahia

Luckily, my youth hostel exists, and is

6. Benfica to Brazil…

The title of this blog may be a mystery to some of you, but only if you have never heard of the most supported football club in the world. Today, I leave for Brazil, catching a 16:25 TAP flight to Salvador de Bahia, (after two years of presuming I would be in Rio I had a late change of heart, knowing that I would be there in 2014 for the Olympics anyway, and seeing that after the draw Salvador had much better matches, at least until the final).

Benfica

Sporting

I popped over to Lisbon for two reasons: one, I had never been to Portugal, and two