On Ronaldo and being Portuguese

The weather has taken a turn for the worse today. Last night the clouds came in and when we woke up there was rain falling. The high temperatures and orange alert in the north have given way to sub-20º temperatures and accidents on the roads. When a little snow falls in London, the whole capital grinds to a halt. When a little rain falls in Portugal, the drivers keep driving as if the sun was out and end up slipping and sliding all over the place.

Portuguese believe that it is their right to be tanned. When the sun comes out, the first destination of any Portuguese is the beach. At weekends, cities are deserted, the lines of traffic snaking toward the seaside are never ending and the beaches heave with people looking for a space they can erect their umbrella. Getting to the beach, to achieve that perfect shade of mahogany, becomes an obsession.

So it was interesting to see an article on the Daily Mail website ("Becks vs Ronaldo: Who is the biggest metrosexual of them all?") comparing the attention that Beckham and Ronaldo pay to their grooming, with an earlier article saying Ronaldo

has spent so much time on sun loungers and by the pool that he could almost be mistaken for the Cuprinol man from the television adverts for the wood preservative... The £100,000-a-week star, who is recuperating from ankle surgery to cure a long-term injury, passed the healthy looking bronze stage some time ago, but is still soaking up the rays on a daily basis."

Well sorry guys, but Ronaldo is Portuguese, and like him, if you spend the bulk of the year in rain-swept and sun-free Manchester, you'll take every opportunity to get a tan. Portuguese will lie in the sun until they can't tan any longer, and then they will lie in the sun some more, mocking us poor English for our factor 15 protection while they lather themselves in factor 2, or olive oil as I prefer to call it.

Today the weather in Portugal is a little dull, everyone in the north of the country is looking towards the sky for the clouds to clear. As soon as they do, the beaches will be filled again, the bars on the beach will be happy, and normal service will be resumed. A Portuguese without a tan is not a Portuguese.

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The Sound of Silence

After several glorious days, weather-wise, last week, the omens were not good. It was a cloudy day here in Aveiro, with a light rain from time to time, and after the euphoria of the week everyone seemed a little jaded.

There was excitement about the match, of course, Portugal was through but Switzerland had failed to win a game, so it looked like a slam dunk (to mix sports metaphors). However, when the team came out there was a collective, 'huh?' What was Scolari up to, where was Ronaldo, or Simão, or any of his good players? OK, he's resting them, and besides it's only Switzerland.

Ninety minutes later, there was a stunned silence from the Portuguese fans, in fact after that ludicrous penalty we couldn't bear to watch any more. During the game, we were watching through our fingers, it was car-crash television, like watching Steve Carell at his most embarassing in The Office. At half-time, when the players came back onto the pitch, there was a shot of a clearly embarrassed Ronaldo waving to the crowd. Great, we thought, they're going to substitute their better players, but no.

With over 30 yellow cards, by the end of the game practically everyone had been carded apart from the goalies. The refereeing was appalling, each time a player fell, or dived, out came the yellow card. There were cards for dissent, cards for running in a funny way. The penalty was given for such a blatant dive, we wondered at first who was getting the card, and the Swiss players were congratulating each other on such a smart move. We were asking what on earth Scolari was up to. Even when Portugal was 1-0 down there was time to put in Ronaldo or Nuno Gomes, or any of his first team players. But no, he carried on playing a weak team, saving his better players for the quarter final match against the runners up of group B, whoever that is (probably Germany). It was like watching Switzerland play Beira Mar, or Sporting, the Portuguese team were so outclassed. The referee didn't help.

In the post-match press conference, Scolari apparently took on all of the responsibility himself. We were thinking that he was concentrating on all of the lolly he'd be making at Chelsea, but if I was Abramovich, I'd be wondering what the hell was going on.

Unlike the previous games, especially after the game with the Czech Republic, when the team guaranteed their place in the next round, there were no celebrations, no dancing in the streets or car horns blaring. There were just sullen people going home through the drizzling rain. Sad and alone.

Apparently that was not the only upset of the evening, as in a surprising twist Turkey beat the Czech Republic 3-2. So it looks like Turkey will be going through to the quarter finals instead of the Czechs. With a mistake from Cech costing them the game, it was not a good day for Chelsea.

Marcas Technorati: Euro 2008,football,Scolari,Portugal,Switzerland,losing,Ronaldo,Aveiro,penalty,soccer