Tim Vickery found the first leg of the Copa Libertadores final boring. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_football/4670865.stm His conclusion?
>>In a country whose income distribution is among the most unfair in the world, the import of EPL -style consumer culture has further emphasized the brutal division between a few haves and the vast majority of have-nots. The consequence of this for football is clear. The end result, victory, is much more important that the means used to achieve it.<< There...now it makes sense
Clearly this journalist has never really had a steady diet of Brazilian League football from 98-2005. Some matches in Brasil are absolutely loaded with fouls, so much so that it can become near farcical. However I think the better analogy would be what happened to basketball in the 90's. IMO the New York Knick's hurt basketball then with some pretty ugly, rough, and hard-nosed basketball. It wasn't conducive really to finess games and if you were a high-flyer, you went up at your own risk because dirty players like Oakley would take their legs out. I think that was what he meant with the 'like the USA' comment in terms of wanting to win at all costs. Take it as you will. I don't necessarily agree wiht it, and maybe that's not what he meant, but I suppose it's all open to interpretation.
I honestly don't think it can be interpreted any other way besides: The USA exports a win-at-all costs mentality and this mentality is infiltrating the Brazilian psyche and even hurting the Brazilian game. In other words, he doesn't know anything about the Brazilian league.
I wonder if he found the semi finals boring. Those same two teams were involved, weren't they? Maybe he has some socio-economic theories on why they performed so admirably then.
Open to interpretation? Your kidding right? I will no more take responsibility for the problems that exist in Brazil's football league than I would for the problems that exist in the english leagues. Your way to smart to play the role of apologist for this guy.
Exactly, you can't crow about the level of passion you have for football then blame it on the US when it suits you...
OK: Win - 3 points Tie - 1 point Exactly how many points do they give for flair? This isn't figure skating.
Little known fact: the presence of American servicemen in postwar Italy was responsible for the rise in catenaccio.
Shoot, I did not know that. I thought I was knowledgeable but I guess that you learn something new everyday.
You know, with everyone so concerned about the haves and havenots in soccer you would think people would be more open to a salary cap...
The immigration of several of Greg Louganis' Greek ancestors to the Italian peninsula introduced Romans to the art of diving...
the man is very confused. I really don't see what a "kicking lumps out of each other" win at all costs mentality has to do with US culture, unless he regards Wimbledon's similar brutal underhand tactics in the 80s to be a result of the A-Team and Knight Rider appearing on British screens at about that time. To be fair, if he really deserves someone to be fair to him, he stacked much more of it with Brazilian political corruption than the US. No, he doesn't deserve to be given a fair treatmeny. It sounds like he wrote a nice piece of the bad government of Brazil, which no paper wanted, and then spun into into a sports story instead.
i've written to bbc several times to complain about this moron. his articles, if you wanna call them that, are like journal entries... i think the fucqer just parties down there and writes his crap from internet surfing.
Especially the English and the Scottish leagues.. There's some American influence that wouldn't hurt.. Who here would not be able to name the 2 teams with a shot at the Scottish title and the 3 with a shot at the English title next season? Then they will argue that parody is not a good thing.. They need their super teams.. I thought parody is what the author was talking about.. So confusing.. (jk)