Someone in Brazil once said Football is the people’s opium. I could not agree more. For people like me, who has this feeling inside, is like trying to explain how love feels. Or hate.
I believe with me (and many others) it started at home. My dad was fanatical about it. He was a strong supporter of Palmeiras, who is the rivals of Corinthians in Sao Paulo. I was the only child of the three that connected with dad to sit down and watch the games, I think in a level it was the way I would spend the great time with him, rooting, crying, suffering for our team. In one occasion, I even kissed the TV when we won the regional championship in the last minute.
This love grown so much, I had football decorations on my wardrobe, I went out in my football shirt, I would make Sundays a programme to go an watch football. Because Dad didn’t want to go to the stadiums, sometimes we had to anxiously listen to the game glued to the radio…Mum once took me there and I can remember every little second of it, it was amazing! (later dad also took me and I was even on TV while they said the game marked the return of families to the games).
But ok, that deals on how I came to love football so much. But why? Again, like love and hate, there is no way to explain the whys.
I can explain the deep happiness we feel when our team wins. And the deep (silly) sadness we feel when we loose. The anger when the other team cheats. Or the referee is unfair. The frustration we feel when we know we could’ve done better than those stupid people earning rivers of money playing down there did. The sense of giving up everything when we see maybe, just maybe, is all a political game, where supporters do not have a say on how it is run – and giving it up, when is too much to accept.
When I came to London I’ve stopped supporting Palmeiras because they fired the manager who won it 2 years in a row of titles because he started clashing with the directors. Because games here are mostly shown only on cable TV, I didn’t bother picking up a team to support, what would be the point if I wasn’t going to be able to follow them? But after meeting Mr J., I’ve met in him a person who loves football as much as I do, and we now love football together, and this is one of the highlights of the week, and I say that in a good way!
Now, another thing I have to explain as well is the fact I don’t like the Brazilian squad. I will wear my shirt on the World Cup and support Brazil with all my love, because I know how important for the people the victory would be. How people who the only happiness in life is football would feel, and they, despite the Brazilian squad, deserve to feel it. Because I can say, I feel it in my heart too.
*********** Moment “Dear Diary” *********
Here are some pics from our trip to Preston to see our English Team (Chelsea) play. See, that’s what love for football do to you. 6 hours on a car each way. And on the way back, you know it was totally worth it.
Getting together before the game
The flag and “The” man
This play ended up being the second Chelsea goal of the game
National Football Museum
“And to the winners, the potatoes!”
Mr. J took me on a guided tour of Preston seeing he did his University there! Such a nice little town (reminded me of Liverpool)
And isn’t it cute Preston still does such a thing?
******* Moment movie review *****
Just by coincidence, last weekend I also watched a movie about football, but because we are on the subject anyway, here goes two tips about very good football movies, even if you don’t like the game 
The Damned United – Amazing acting from Michael Sheen, one of the best of this generation. The plot is about the greatest football manager to never be England’s boss. The guy is amazing and along with a good directing the film is a story about perseverance, revenge, being hamble and not so much. Found myself rooting for whatever team he was managing. I now truly believe the cheating trend is in the name of the club 
Goal! – is a cute film. One of those you put on Saturday afternoon, eating air popped popcorn and drinking tea. Is about a boy going against his dad’s wishes to play football and learning that only wanting it hard is not enough to have your dreams come true.
) here goes my opinion on the Games (world Cup and Olympic) going to Brazil:
Graphics 
. Hopefullythere will be more like this to come!
