News: NSR but not so NSR: My new job at a football website

Just wanted to share the news that I will soon be working as a writer and lead Portuguese provider for a small football website called GloriousFootball.com. The site is small now but the owner has told me that they would like to see exponential growth in the future.

Obviously, this is a shameless plug in hopes that you guys are able to drive some traffic towards the site. Right now I'm working on a story about Braga's surprise rise towards the top of the league and I'm also working dilligently to see if I can set up an online interview with Freddy Adu (Benfica player currently on loan at Belenenses if you're that ill-informed).

 

Pending any edits this will be my first article for the site, it's not been reviewed by my editor yet but should be soon here it is in uncut format:

Year after year, the Portuguese league is often contested fiercely by three main competitors from the two main cities of Portugal; Lisbon and Porto. In fact, there has never been a team outside of these two cities that has ever gone on to win the league, and outside of Benfica, Porto and Sporting, only two other teams have ever hoisted the league trophy.

This year, it seems, could finally see an end to the pattern. Following wins against Sporting, Porto and Benfica, Sporting Clube de Braga have found themselves top of the league on 25 points. Benfica also have 25 points, but as a result of Braga’s emphatic 2-0 win at home over Benfica a few weeks ago, and due to the head-to-head result being the tie-breaker, Braga are technically flying solo at the top of the mountain.

Surely there are many who expect that Braga will soon slump and find themselves content to win a spot in Europe, but given their impressive form, this seems an unlikely scenario. Braga are hardly the first team to have made an uproar in the beginning stages of the season. Previous seasons have seen other teams fight for the top spot for about six to eight weeks before finally settling into mid-table mediocrity. However, we’re now going into the 11th round of matches and Braga do not seem to be stuttering.

It would be foolish to say that this is a one-time thing for Braga. Followers of the league know fully well the drastic improvements that Braga have made in the last five years, arguably forcing the issue on whether there were three of four top teams in Portugal.

Despite that, it still comes as a massive shock that Braga have made such an indentation on the foundations of Portuguese football, especially considering their transfer deals in the off-season, which included the exits of talented striker Roland Linz, former-captain Paulo Jorge, Luis Aguiar, Stelvio, and Orlando Sá. Their incoming transfers were hardly seen as suitable replacements. Newcastle United reject Hugo Viana joined the squad on loan from Valencia, in addition to the loan signing of Rodridgo Possebon from Manchester United and the free-transfer of a dynamic winger with the name of Diogo Valente. Of those three, only Hugo Viana has played any major role in Braga’s efforts this season, an effort which includes on Viana’s part, a spectacular wide-angled free kick goal against Benfica.

Despite this, it is unquestionable that Braga do indeed have a talented roster which includes the current Portuguese national team goalkeeper Eduardo, pacy winger/forward Alan, prolific goal-machine Meyong, and Vandinho.

It will truly be interesting to see how Sporting Clube de Braga cope in the rest of the season, especially since their coach, Domingos Paciência, has no experience managing a title-contending club. For this reason, many questions pop up. How will he handle the pressure? How will he keep his team focused on winning?

By the end of the season, however, these questions will be more than answered in colorful detail, and one can only hope that Braga do indeed break the vicious cycle of the ‘big three’ in Portugal.

Paulo Pincaro is an up and coming football analyst who previously wrote for the LusoAmericano newspaper based in Newark, New Jersey and can be contacted via email at PauloNewYorker@yahoo.com

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As far as the Freddy Adu interview, unfortunately my only means of contact with him are twitter, but I'm hoping he responds favorably to my tweets. (God that sounds gay!)

 

Duly noted, I'll make the appropriate edit-thanks for the feedback Mr. da Silva!

BTW: How's about we meet up for a francesinha in Newark next week?

 

Picky little Portista eh!? Consider it a deal, send me a message on facebook relaying what time your free and I'll stop on by! I also sent an open invitation for the legend that is Frank Cunha to join us.

Finished article available here:
http://www.gloriousfootball.com/europe/bragas-surprise/
Any feedback is more than welcomed!

 

New Article, uncut version, link to be posted later-on:
Almost every football fan can recall to you their first experience with the game. For me, I can vividly remember kicking about a beat up football in the garage of a rundown shack that my family called a home in Portugal. Despite that the rest of this piece won’t focus on this experience, I could think of no more appropriate opening.

The year was 1995 and I was still in kindergarten in Portugal. On most days, the teacher would ask us about what we did the previous day after getting home from school. To my own shock and disbelief, I can still remember the following as vividly as I can see the time on the clock at this moment.

This particular day was after Portugal’s national team had played a game. Unfortunately, I can’t possibly recall against who and whether it was a friendly or a qualifer of any sort. Of course, when the teacher called on me to ask what I had done the day before I quickly replied about watching the Portugal game the day prior.

Then, in a moment captivated by words that I can to this day replay in my head as I’d like, the teacher replied that this was impossible since, and I

kid you not, this is what she said, “Portugal doesn’t have a team.”

Had I dreamt it? Was this a figment of my imagination?

A classmate of mine spoke up and let it be known that he, too, had witnessed this game, though by the reporting of the kindergarten teacher it may as well have been a UFO-sighting.

I dream of going back to Portugal, finding this woman and asking her what team it was that got to the semi-finals at EURO 2000, the final at EURO 2004, the semi-final at World Cup 2006, and most recently the quarter-final in EURO 2008.

Perhaps the teacher’s ignorance was to be expected in a nation whose, at that point in time, last appearance in a World Cup competition was marred by an ugly off the pitch quarrel over monetary compensation for the players. However, even then, to say that the team didn”t exist was still way too much of a stretch. Especially since, even despite the performances of the national team, the interest in football in Portugal was still as high as ever, especially having won the World Youth Cup on home soil just four years beforehand. And on top of this players like Luis Figo, Rui Costa, João Pinto, Paulo Sousa, Fernando Couto and other well known stars were already featuring on a regular basis for the team by the time of this story in 1995.

To this day, before any game involving Portugal those words cross my mind, and a humor-induced smile accompanies it.

 

Link to the latest article:
http://www.gloriousfootball.com/international/memories-from-a-portuguese-past/

Thanks for the great support guys!

 

New Article:
It's a process that shouldn't take more than half an hour, but FIFA managed to find a way to stretch it into three hours. To put things in perspective, we could've used those three hours to watch two whole football matches, half-time break aside.

There was the glamor, there was cameras and of course a completely irrelevant figure in the world of football drawing balls. Early rehearsing of the event saw Charlize Theron embarassingly calling out Ireland's name instead of France in a cheeky protest of the elimination of the Irish.

That was not the case this time around and the draw went off without any hiccups.

Some sighed huge sighs of relief while others smacked their foreheads in disgust to what came their way.

Here is how things looked at the end of the draw:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

Hosts South Africa got placed into a rather unpredictable group (more on that in just a bit). Meanwhile, Groups C and G see former colonial powers take on former territories, as England face the USA and Portugal square-off against Brazil.

As always the media took it upon itself to find the supposed 'Group of Death.' Many point to Group G in this respect with Brazil, Portugal and the Ivory Coast battling for the two spots. North Korea are by all means, looking from the outside in and will be rather fortunate to advance. Ivory Coast are no strangers to tough groups having been drawn with Holland, Argentina and Serbia in the previous World Cup. Brazil and Portugal are the clear favorites to advance in this group, though many are questioning Portugal's ability to compete given their largely unimpressive World Cup Qualifying campaign. Despite that, there are reasons to believe that Portugal could do well in the tournament. They got into the tournament playing their last three games without one of the world's best footballers in Cristiano Ronaldo. Another favorable aspect is that Carlos Queiroz previously managed South Africa and will be aware of any special requirements necessary in fine-tuning the training regiment of the squad.

I, on the other hand, believe that Group D is worthy of the dubbing. Featuring the likes of Germany, Ghana, Australia and Serbia, it has far and away the biggest assortment of talents in its ranks. Three of the four teams in this group were present in the last 16 of the previous edition of the World Cup (more than in any other group), and while Serbia weren't lucky enough to go that far, this could be because they were in one of the two groups of death, having drawn the short-straw and being matched up against Argentina, Holland and the Ivory Coast. Ghana who also feature in the group, were in the other group of death which consisted of the Czech Republic, USA and Italy. Who will make it out alive is anyone's guess, as it is for any group, but in particular in this group there will surely be an intense shock value.

Others are pointing at Group A as the death-ridden one. However, it would be more appropriate to call it the 'Group of Uncertainties'. Even though they reached the final in 2006, question-marks will inevitably linger around France who qualifed in controversial style. Uruguay boast some talent in their ranks, but have failed to come close to the glories of earlier days. Mexico qualified rather easily and are considered one of the favorites to go through. Then we come to South Africa. Having qualified via fact of being the host nation, the only foresights we can create are based on their performance in the Confederations Cup and the friendlies played since then. South Africa got off to a shaky start drawing against Iraq, but a win against New Zealand was enough to make sure that a loss to Spain proved irrelevant. Against eventual winners Brazil, South Africa performed well enough to only lose by a one goal-margin, which setup a rematch with Spain which again, the South Africans would go on to lose by a one goal marin. Their record in friendlies however is largely alarming as they managed only one win, coming against low-ranked Madagascar. Their other matches culminated in five losses and two draws, two losses and a draw coming at the hands of World Cup participants. South Africa's chances at advancing will need some miraculous turn of events to unfold to be considered good by any means.

In viewing over the other groups, it would seem that the top seeds have been handed rather straight-forward draws, barring any major upsets.

For the most part, Brazil, Spain, England, Germany and last edition's winners Italy are the favorites to win the trophy. While I fancy everyone's chances, I'll stick my neck out and say that this tournament could result in a second star on England's shirt. Despite their embarassing failure to qualify for EURO 2008, they present a rejuvenated team as well as a competent coach this time around. I'm also of the opinion that the mild climate that will be found in South Africa will be suitable to the Premier League players found in England's squad who know how to keep their performances at top notch in such conditions. Should they fail to win, I'm sure there will be plenty of people to point the finger at, but for the sake of avoiding repetetiveness, let's hope it's not someone Portuguese.

Part of the suspense has now subsided as the teams all recognize their opponents, but it remains in the form of a 'to be continued.'

Paulo Pincaro is an up and coming football analyst who previously wrote for the LusoAmericano newspaper based in Newark, New Jersey and can be contacted via email at PauloNewYorker@yahoo.com

 

Also for the facebook addicts in the room you can now become a fan on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paulo-Pincaro/199479401891?v=info

Hopefully I'll have a more appropriate picture soon!!

 

http://www.gloriousfootball.com/international/world-cup-draw-review/

Finally online...

 

Newest article on Cristiano Ronaldo:
http://www.gloriousfootball.com/la-liga/the-controversial-one/

 

I didn't have time to go into depth on every group, I might do a revisit on it later though.

 

Of course. You couldn't recognize me by the way I was taking names?

 

I was born in 1922 don't you know...

I had to hide my age because I knew what certain people would say... case in point... z187.