Bruno Ribeiro, currently graduating in Social Psychology, joins us for part 23 of the series. Bruno is a football fanatic, with FC Porto being the team he supports. The interest he has in the sport drove him to start his own blog, Lugar Cativo, about three years ago; nowadays he is also part of the cast of Terceiro Anel, one of the most successful Portuguese football blogs.

I thank Bruno for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Portuguese football history and the football culture which exists.

First of all: we breed football! The sport dominates society; which is pretty much pathetic some times!

Now, about our history. Football have always been Portugal main sport since the beginning of the 20th century; it’s impact in Portuguese’s life was/is so great that Salazar’s dictatorship took advantage of it to ‘distract’ the mob of the country problems.

Portugal always had great players, but some difficulties to build good squads. It’s a bit of strange that we’re only to our fourth World Cup, one everyone recognize our quality! I believe that our problem was a um of bad management of the Football Federation and a perpetual feeling of inferiority, which prevent us of showing our true quality along the years.

We’ve never achieved anything more then two Under’20 World Cups, back in ‘89 and ‘91. The closest we were of actually win some silverware was Euro’04, where we loss at home with Greece; European Cup tends to show the best of us. At the World Cup level, only in ‘66 we did something to be proud of, finishing 3rd at expenses of the USSR in a year where Eusebio marvelled the world.

(more…)

Starting this week, we have a new feature at Sportolysis. In Visitors, I invite one person each week to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Jon Reed of Complete Sports joins us to give his thoughts on the NBA Playoffs 2006 till the conference semi-finals and looking ahead at the conference finals.

By Jon Reed

What have we seen so far? Try 9 OT games, lots more that were decided by 1 or 2 points, and the biggest young star in the NBA proving that he can get the job done in the playoffs. Ah yes, the rebirth of the NBA.

We’ve seen one of the best conference semifinals ever, when we had arguably the top 2 teams in the NBA (San Antonio and Dallas) square off in an incredibly well-matched series, where only one game could be considered “not close.” We saw a series between Cleveland and Washington that featured Cleveland making 3 game-winners in the last 5 or so seconds. We’ve seen running and gunning from Phoenix throughout the playoffs, and we’ve seen tight defense in Game 7 when the Pistons needed the win.

We’ve seen countless incredible performances from stars. LeBron got a triple-double in his first playoff game. Tim Duncan did everything but drain a couple 3-pointers against the Mavs (incredibly without drawing a foul), but even he was topped by the heroics of Dirk Nowitzki. Dwyane Wade’s been knocked down many times, but he has the Heat in the conference Finals. Shawn Marion has played over 40 minutes a night, guarding guys like Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Chris Kaman, or Elton Brand, and all the while he’s been the Suns #2 scoring threat. The individual performances have been incredible.

(more…)

Presenting herewith the second and final edition of Decalink for the week:

• Forbes: Oilers 3-0 up.

• Salil Benegal’s cricket blog: It is called the man on the outer. Do check it out if you are a cricket fan.

• Cricket 24×7: Manish Varma puts in his thoughts after an Indian loss.

• NBA.com: Heat-Pistons game 1 analysis.

• DNA: Anand helps India fightback.

• More DNA: Sania Mirza loses to Michaella Krajicek.

• Reuters: Rossi says no to F1.

• Dan’s Take: Raptors should trade down.

• World Cup Blog: World Cup vibrators taken off shelf.

• Tennis Fans: Tommy Robredo wins in Hamburg.

Hope you enjoyed another edition of Decalink. Is there any interesting stuff you would like appearing in the Monday edition of Decalink? Mail me then!

Mark Inglis was a hero a couple of days back. He was getting praise from every one.

Now, he is facing severe criticism from a lot of people for leaving David Sharp to die. Edmund Hillary has been severe and said that he would never do such a thing. Some bloggers speaking on the issue - People blogging on the talking point - Vent, Saakshi Juneja, Chris Brazendale and Aparna Ray.

Inglis has tried to avoid the blame saying it was expedition leader Russell Brice’s decision. While it is true that Inglis should not get all the blame for the incident (there were 40 people out there and an Inglis should not be made target), he cannot avoid the spotlight because of his achievement. So Inglis gets picked on most. Also, he loses out the most as the sheen over his accomplishment is lost. Years of hardwork get washed in two days thus.

The difficult questions which should be asked - would any other present day climber react differently in a similar situation and go against the team? Would such a decision make sense at all as it would mean being in a life threatening situation for the climber who does decide to isolate from the team? So should individual team members be blamed for not risking their lives and possibly commiting suicide in standing alone? Who should actually be blamed - the team captain or each member?

No sporting glory is more valuable than saving a human life. Risking lives happens while pursuing sporting glory but that is obviously different. From the way I look at it - the mission should have been aborted, no matter how much effort had gone into it and try to save a life if even the bleakest chance for it existed.

Various sections of the media have highlighted how India has been superb of late in the one day arena. A few aspects have to be noted, though. India hasn’t faced the tough challenges till now. So it is too early to go euphoric over recent run of one day cricket victories. If any thing, we have we have even failed in instances where we shouldn’t have. With all due respect to the English side, why couldn’t India win convincingly versus an English side at home with half the English side missing? Time is asked because we are a young side. We were a young side in respects like bowling but weren’t the English side young and inexperienced as well?

(more…)

For part 22 of the series, Paraguayan lawyer Daniel Brunetti (who is blogging at Paraguay World Cup Blog) joins us. Currently, he is finishing his masters degree at Georgetown University in Washington DC. But what Daniel really is, is a football addict fan. His priorities goes first the national team of Paraguay and second his club Olimpia. For more on Daniel, check out his profile at World Cup Blog.

I thank Daniel for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Paraguay football history and the football culture which exists.

In Paraguay you don’t feel the football, you breathe it. The football is the number one sport of the nation. In each neighbourhood there are at least one football field, and even if you don’t have a near field, every place could transform it in a huge stadium for the people. We have two big teams down there, Olimpia (Libertadores Cup Champions, 1979, 1990, 2001) and Cerro Porteno. They are like the Boca-River of Argentina. But when it comes to cheer for the national team, all the people put on the national shirts.

(more…)

Anju falls short. Even the brainy chess guys are not winning. Indian sport continues to see an upward trend while all this happens, especially football.

Priya Saini at Economic Times writes:

Indian football is taking on glitzy hues as more and more corporates are coming on board as sponsors. It would seem outrageous that a sport in which India is ranked so low, is seeing major Indian TV networks bidding some ridiculous amounts for its TV rights and corporates making a beeline for sponsorships.

The piece is a must read if you want to know more on the recent Indian football trends. I had touched briefly on Indian football here. There is huge potential for growth in football (else why would it be the most popular game in the world!) and the scenario for India is no different. A few wins can propel the growth of the game very, very quickly.

A lot has been said on Brown. I like this form of expression better. [Via NBA LJ]

Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of India’s test series in the West Indies. The decision was to be taken after a fitness test today. The decision has now been taken and it has been announced to the public.

Telegraph Calcutta reported some thing contrasting in the morning before the decision was made:

…a well-placed source informed he’s going to make the Test squad.

“Sachin will be in the West Indies for the four-Test series… That’s a certainty,” the gentleman told The Telegraph on Monday.

It is evident now that however well placed the source, it wasn’t that well placed to provide the leak. Such reporting means that a newspaper can claim next day we told you so if the decision goes along the lines of their well placed sources. If it does not, they can always explain - that is if they bother to explain.

Now I am not questioning Telegraph’s credibility here. I am questioning why such an item makes a newspaper even if we assume it is from well placed sources? Shouldn’t statements be quoted only if people are named? Else it only leads to speculation and can encourage creation of false news all across by every other sports media. Not on according to me despite the obvious selling potential of such news, regardless of whether real or fabricated.

Mumbai Mirror has a section called Bloggers Park. It was a nice surprise to see them link to a recent post on Hingis in the latest edition of the newspaper. Check out the online version here. Check out the pdf file (how it appears in print) here.

I was unaware regarding the feature but it does seem a very good section to encourage bloggers.

Kudos to you guys!