Football and Religion

The World Cup has started, for the delight of all football fans out there including me. This may seem like a good thing, but is it actually?

The TV is all about the World Cup, showing all games of the competition, and when it's not games it's still talk shows or debates about it. And what about the overall quality of the matches so far? Yes I know that Portugal - Ivory Coast as by far the worst match, but still, your life would have to be pretty iddle if you manage to find time in your schedule to watch Slovakia - New Zealand. (Obv this doesn't apply to Slovakians and New Zealanders).

Indeed, nowadays football truly is the people's religion. Check out Portugal's example. In Portugal we have 3 major clubs, FC Porto, SL Benfica and Sporting CP. In 100 years of Portuguese League these three have won 98. I'm not sure if there have been 100 Leagues, but they have won everytime except 2 editions. We can safely say everyone supports one of these 3 teams and absorbs their influence.

The president of FC Porto is nicknamed "the Pope" , it can only exist one, and he his the highest figure in the power of football, local politics, courts, laws, etc.

SL Benfica supporters have started wearing t-shirts saying: "I have finally seen Jesus! - He was in the SL Benfica subs bench". Let me explain. In the last 15 or so years Benfica had only won 1 time the League. This season they appointed Jorge Jesus as their coach. In his first press conference, Jorge Jesus promissed the miracle of multiplication, but he wasn´t talking about bread. He promissed to multiply the productivity, the attacks, the goals and the show of Benfica's football. One year after, he won Benfica their second League in 15 years.

Sporting CP's president also seems to have a weird obssession with religion, because one year ago he declared Bento Forever! (In Portuguese Bento = Benedict, so Papa Bento XVI = Pope Benedict XVI).

At the time, Sporting coach was none other than Paulo Jorge Gomes BENTO who lead the team from 2005 to 2009. However, one year and a miserable season later, Sporting fired coach Paulo Bento. Sporting's president always devoted to Benedict XVI didn't want to be seen as a liar when he said "Bento Forever" so he proceeded to appoint coach Paulo Sergio BENTO Brito as the new Sporting coach.

Leaving Portugal aside and going just next door to Madrid, we can find our very own Cristiano Ronaldo, who some believe to be a football god (except when playing for the National team). But also in Real Madrid we find a special coach, who claims to be better than God, because God haven't won the Champions League twice.

After analyzing these facts, I see how close football and religion can be. Enjoy your World Cup matches, and as for Portugal vs North Korea, come on God, one time!

Marcia???

I'm going to assume that a large portion of this blog's readers play (and by "play" I mean play, played, know how to play, trade, judge, whatever) Magic. If you do, it is very likely that you're familiar with the name Márcio Carvalho, especially if you're Portuguese. Márcio is a big name in Portuguese Magic, one of the greatest ever of this country. Moving on to a little of Portuguese grammar.

Like the other latin languages, Portuguese has a funny little curiosity. Our nouns can be classified into Singular or Plural, but also classified into Male or Female, just because our grammar says so. For example:

Carro (car) is a male noun.
Mota (moto) is a female noun.

Does this mean that cars are for men and motos for women? No, it's just grammar, male nouns and female nouns need diferent pronouns and articles, and the adjectives have to be slightly modified in order to have 100% perfect grammar.

Usually, the rule is, if it ends in "a" it's a female noun, if it ends in "o" it's a male noun.

Take a look at these names: Tiago, Márcio, Paulo, Eduardo, Hugo, João, Pedro. They're all names for guys, and they all end in "o".

How about these names then? Joana, Paula, Claudia, they end in "a" they are girls names. If you guys happen to mistype PV's name into Paula (I saw it happen one time, and it didn't seemed an inoccent mistype), he will feel a little offended, because you are calling him a girl.

Which brings me back to the topic, why is the title of this post "Márcia" if i started talking about Márcio Carvalho?

Yesterday it was local holiday, Saint Anthony's day, Patron Saint of Lisbon. Me and my friends went out to the street to join the excitement, music, dance, parades, grilled sardines and peppers. During the evening Márcio called his sister Joana Carvalho to meet up. I've seen pictures of her before, and I have her as a friend on some social network, but seeing her again side by side with Márcio, I really had to make a terrible effort in order not to call her Márcia Carvalho (or Márcia Carvalha, for emphasis).

I was unable to get a picture of Márcio's female clone, but next time you play against him, think of Márcio Carvalho with long hair and boobs.