RIP Eusebio

One of the greatest players of all time, Eusebio, has passed away. Although a Portuguese national, Eusebio was the first African player to make it to the world stage, being Mozambican when his country was a Portuguese colony.
He played in Benfica from 1960 to 1975 in what was perhaps the best Benfica side of all time. In that period the club from the Portuguese capital won 11 national titles, two European Champions titles and were runners-up in three additional European titles. Eusebio scored an impressive 317 goals in 301 matches for Benfica, where a statue of him is in front of Benfica's home stadium (seen below).
Eusebio also became the star of the 1966 World Cup, overshadowing even Pele. With nine goals he became the most scoring player of the tournament (and very memorable are his four goals against North Corea in the quarterfinals when his side was down 0-3) where Portugal became bronze-winners, the country's best World Cup result ever.
RIP.

The circle is complete

North Corea and Paraguay are playing tomorrow in the first round of the World Cup. This is a repeat of one of the most legendary matches in history, the 1966 World Cup quarterfinal where Portugal defeated North Corea 5-3. But besides being a legendary match, it was also a match that symbolized the globalization of football that has led us to where we are today, at the first World Cup in Africa, and thus, there is a strange symbolism around this match tomorrow.

In 1966 all African nations decided to boycot the World Cup as it was a virtual arrogant monopoly between Europe and South America, who, besides Mexico, allowed only one participant from "the rest of the World". This participant became North Corea amid the African boycot, who qualifed and was not given much of chance against the USSR, Chile and Italy. But North Corea tied Chile, and in one of the most sensational victories in history, defeated Italy, to make it to the quarterfinals.
Nevertheless , the "rest of the world team" had only half-quieted Europe and South America, but this was to change: after only 30 minutes, the unknown Asians were ahead 3-0 against the "Europeans" from Portugal, and had the unconditional support of all fans in Liverpool, as well as most of the football fans of the world, who far ahead of FIFA wanted to see the rest of the world succeed in the sport that in spite of it all belongs to the fans (and not to FIFA...).
Portugal ended winning 5-3, but the player who led the way was Eusebio, a Mozambican and African, who played for Portugal because Mozambique was Portuguese colony at them time. However, a person from "the rest of the world" had shown the way for Portugal, against a stunning football nation from the "rest of the world". The globalization of the game really started then, although FIFA really only started it when they saw money in it...

The World Cup is now a world event: it (currently) belongs to Africa, and Europe and South America is no longer the owner of what it long considered itself to be.
Although it seems unlikely that we will have such a match tomorrow, it would be proper to remember the Asian and the one African pioneer of 1966!

Tunisia out, Nigeria in

Nigeria have just qualified for the World Cup after two dramatic matches in Nairobi and Maputo.
In Nairobi, Kenya was playing Nigeria. Nigeria was forced to win, and at the same time hope that Mozambique take points from Tunisia in Maputo. The Nigerians, who had never lost to Kenya before, were 1-0 down at half-time, while the score in Maputo was 0-0. The Tunisians apparently did not seem to worry about the prospects for their World Cup participation, and let Mozambique dominate, even as news 15 minutes into the second half must have arrived, that Obafemi Martins had equalized for Nigeria, and only a few minutes later, Nigeria went ahead 2-1, and only then did Tunisia bother to attack. But this didn't last long: Kenya equalized, and again Nigeria was out and Tunisia were in.
But the Tunisians apparently had their minds in Kenya; only seven minutes before the end Dario scored for Mozambique, and almost at the same time Martins scored his second and Nigeria's third goal, putting Nigeria back on track and Tunisia out.
It must have been desperate attacking from Tunisia in the dying minutes of the match, knowing the score in Nairobi, but Mozambique still won, and with the score also holding in Nairobi, Nigeria were in the World Cup.
What a drama! This is what football is about!

Nigeria is arguably one of the nations with most football passion, with an almost never-ending pool of immensely talented players (just look at their u-17 side presently playing at the World Cup!). They were greatly missed at the 2006 World Cup, but will surely be an asset in South Africa next year.
It is a pity for Tunisian football and fans, but they can only blame themselves.
Congratulations to all Nigerian fans, who are surely celebrating now!

Back to (football) life

I have now left the harsh football backlands of Northern Mozambique, where following football was so difficult. I have only followed (superficially) the champions league and the major European leagues. Now, I am extremely surprised to see that in the Danish league AaB (Aalborg Boldklub - Danish clubs have never been good with names...) is winning by a pretty large margin ahead of FC Midtjylland (those names...).
And my favourites, Brøndby B, remain on the lower half...

Champions League final

I watched the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League on a long road-trip of Mozambique: the first leg matches in a boring bar in Nampula and in a kitsch old hotel in Quelimane. On the following day I crossed the mighty Zambezi river, and eventually I arrived in Maputo exactly for the second leg of the semifinals.
I was not expecting Barcelona to go through, even though my support went for them, both personally, but also football-wise, since I believe we would get a much more exciting final with them there, than the two (great) teams we had got. But without scoring at home, it was bound to happen. I am nevertheless surprised that a team with Barcelona's firepower was unable to score in the first match at home, a sure sign of the crisis the Catalonians are clearly going through. Manchester United were surely not the better team in the first match, and did look shaky even at home; but football is about scoring goals, and after Paul Scholes' blast, they are deservedly in the final.
Liverpool and Chelsea gave us some great and intense matches. The first one was a tactical and hard encounter, while the second was intense and very entertaining. While Liverpool played their game, never surrendering, it seemed to me the entire time that Chelsea was the team that wanted to be in the final the most. The players are great, and Chelsea is surely hungry for their first European title.
The final will indeed be hard to predict; I do not expect a very entertaining match. It will probably be very tactical, a bit nervous, and with few (if any) goals.

Leaving football wasteland

I am leaving northern Mozambique tomorrow. I am not going to talk bad about my job: it has been fascinating and interesting working in some of the poorest and most isolated areas of Africa. But... besides the fact that many youngsters wear Ronaldo or Beckham t-shirts, they have no idea whatsoever about football. I am in football wasteland, and in spite of my football mojo having returned, I have been so unable to follow international football, that I have found it all but irrelevant to post on this site (well, I have also lacked consistent internet access and time...).
But tomorrow, I am leaving: I am driving south, and I am hoping that already tomorrow I will be in a nice place to watch my first CL football match of the year: Chelsea-Liverpool.
And I am looking even more forward to the clash between two of my favourite and most respected teams, Manchester United and Barcelona, where I of course, sway towards the latter.
Two great matches, which I hope will symbolize my return to the magical world of football, after leaving the football wasteland I have lived in over almost a year!

World Rankings 2007

The FIFA 2007 Galla Awards are an occassion for looking back at the foregone year in terms of football: which teams did well, which players were outstanding, and all other things for us football nerds.
One of the more interesting things for me, personally, was the World Ranking standing, where two countries that interest me a lot, had a quite prominent positions:

Argentina (where I lived as a child), has ended the year on the top spot on the world ranking, a position it has held for the first time since the establishment of the ranking. This has somehow surprised me, due to the fact that Argentina, in July, lost the final of the Copa America 0-3 to Brazil, in Venezuela. But besides that, and a loss to Colombia here in November, Argentina has had a quite impressive year, and the top-ranking at the end of the year may be a prelude to great things for the coming World Cup in South Africa (and I hope so with my heart!).

The other country prominently mentioned in the world ranking, was, to my great surprise, Mozambique (where I am currently residing). I have before said that I have a great positive influence on the football of countries I live in, and that I would do it for Mozambique, and seems I have already fulfilled my promise: Mozambique was the single best mover on the world rankings in 2007, with 245 points and moving from 128th to 75th place on the world ranking. This was mainly due to some good results on their qualifiers for the 2008 Africa's Cup in Ghana, which will nevertheless not see the participation of the Mamba's. Mozambique is on the right track though, and I shall do my best next year as well!

While I was gone

I have been out in the Mozambican bush doing poverty assessments in poor communities. Out there, on tired evenings in a random hostel, I have had urges to watch football. Even though I have seen the results of thr Champions League, I still have a huge urge to sit down, watch some matches, get excited...
The results from last round though, would have been bound to excite me:

• Liverpool destroyed Besiktas by 8-0! Incredible to see such a result at top European level, and well, Liverpool showed they are not in as bad a shape as many were insinuating! However, they are still trailing Porto and Marseille in the standings, and need to win their last two matches.
• Valencia lost again, at home. This time to Rosenborg! It is amazing how far the team has descended lately, and Mr. Koeman has a lot of work. Deep crisis for Valencia, who is looking unlikely to make it to the next round.
• After being held 0-0 in Glasgow, Barcelona managed to defeat a very defensive Rangers side by 2-0. Glasgow is still on second spot with 7 points, but being threatened by Lyon, who defeated Stuttgart 4-2 to have 6 points.
• Manchester United is looking more and more as a serious candidate for the title after crushing Dynamo Kiev by 4-0, and with four wins for four matches, is far ahead in their group F.
• Real Madrid tied Olympiakos 0-0. They are winning their group ahead of Lazio and Olympiakos (both with 5 points), and seems progress is in their own hands.

Inter and Fenerbahce in group G, and Arsenal and Seville in group H seem set to progress on the first two spots. In many other groups however, there is the potential for some exciting matches, as more teams are potentially in the next round.

I hope to be able to watch!

Champions League in Nacala

And so, Football Mojo is back... On Tuesday I went out of the way to watch football... I was working in a poor community in Namatapa (don't try to find it on a map...) and then afternoon, drove some farmers on lousy roads to the community of Nivali (site of the splendid match between Nipita and Mazua). I then hurried 120 Km, on lousy roads to the community of Geba, by the coast, before taking the last 60 Km to Nacala. This is a medium town, a port town, with a few hotels, bank, so I figured there was an hotel showing football. And there was... But they weren't showing it. I drove around, desperately and tired to three possible places, until finally crashing a small hotel where the South African run DSTV was available. It was a relief. I was tired though, having left home at 4.30 that morning.
I started watching Besiktas against FC Porto. But predictably, I fell asleep... Not the glorious return of Champions League I would have hoped for after all the hazzle... I saw that FC Poto had won 0-1, thus achieving a second place in a group where Marseille upset a horrible Liverpool side at Anfield.
They then announced that they were showing Celtic against AC Milan. The defending champions against the ever-fighting Scottish underdogs. And this was an exciting match, with Scott McDonald's last minute strike giving Celtic a well-deserved and surprising win. The end was marred by a spectator running on the pitch, but Dida's pathetic acting made it all seem very grotesque!
Otherwise, I was disappointed to see that Valencia lost at home to ever-present Chelsea. There were also some surprises in this round, with Benfica losing at home to never-to-be-underestimated Shakhtar Donetsk and Glasgow Rangers destroying Olympique Lyon in Lyon (Really a great day for Scots!).
The teams to watch, Barcelona, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Arsenal, all won, while Real Madrid managed a 2-2 draw to Lazio in Rome.

But for me, football mojo is back :-)
Pity I am living somehwere where it may prove difficult to follow...

Nipita versus Mazua

In my realization that football may be my way into the communities in the north of Mozambique, I accepted the invitation to drive 80 kilometers to the very small and poor community of Nipita (40 kilometers off Alua, on the Pemba-Namialo road, towards Memba. But that probably means nothing to anyone reading this…), on a national holiday, when the local lads were facing their counterparts of Mazua.

On a very uneven pitch of blood-red dirt, under a burning hot sun, the teams stood facing each other, a bit later than anticipated… Nipita, the home team, in old Benfica shirts, and Mazua, in a variation of Brazilian national team shirts: on their starting lineup I counted three Robinho’s, three Ronaldinho’s and four Ronaldo’s.

No wonder that the whole thing was confusing for the home-side Nipita’s defense…

Many players wore no shoes, but that seemed to make no difference as the game started with Nipita feverishly attacking the visiting side, and disappointingly not getting ahead on some huge chances. The home-spectators were grabbing their heads!

But as football often is with (the real) Ronaldo & Co.: on one single counterattack the Nipita defense was open wide, and Ronaldo surely made a goal (I decided to call this guy long-panted Ronaldo, since he was the more prominent of only two guys in long pants in the heat – the other was also a Ronaldo… Long-panted Ronaldo was also the best player of the match). The home audience protested loudly to the referee, some saying the ball had gone behind the wooden post marking the goal. But the referee was adamant, and correctly gave the goal to the visitors.

Here I saw that in spite of the differences, the poverty, lack of education, etc., all people in the world can agree that the referee sucks. Someone shouted (in Portuguese, although most people speak Makua): “take that analphabet referee off the pitch!!!”, which I found very amusing considering that 80 percent of the population in the area cannot read or write.

At least people demand something of their referees.

I have no idea if it was the pressure from the spectators, but after mere 20 minutes into the first half, and the away team being up 1 to 0, the referee called for half-time (!?). Protests then took on huge effect, as numerous people ran on the pitch, and all were discussing with the referee, who after a somewhat confusing circumstances was substituted for a new referee.

I think FIFA should learn from this: “let us change the referee when he sucks”.

The new referee continued where the first had left off, and after only a few minutes gave a completely non-existant penalty for the home-team.

This was when I realized that the away-team also had some fans among the spectators; the pitch was invaded by dissatisfied fans. After a heated argument with a spectator in a Kaká shirt (there were no player’s in Kaká shirts on the Mazua team), the referee then changed his mind to the home-spectators huge disappointment, although they remained completely calm - probably because there had been no shadow of a penalty at all.

I think referees elsewhere, too proud to change their minds, should learn from this.

A few minutes after all this happened, Mazua went ahead with a second goal, after a deadly run down the right side by long-panted Ronaldo.

The bare-footed left-hand defender of Nipita (although he was never there), had a hard time with long-panted Ronaldo, and at one point he was viciously tackled by the bare-footed defender. That was when I learned that the referee had no red or yellow cards. In any case, Mazua’s long-panted Ronaldo was accused of dragging out time, so a Nipita player kicked the ball away (?), way into the bush behind the pitch, and a horde of children were unable to find the ball, for which reason the match stopped for a while (someone did eventually find the official ball).

Unfortunately, as I didn’t want to drive home on the lousy back-roads after dark, I had to leave midway through the second half. However, I am sure there were no more goals, as especially Nipita, who had started with headless feverish attacks in the burning sun, seemed completely run down and barely able to run.

I would however would like to thank the people of Nipita, who I may be doubtful may ever read this (there is no electricity or phone coverage in Nipita), for this great match.

The passion of football is alive here, in an area so poor and isolated, as much as in any international capital of football.

Who is David Beckham?

I think I had forgotten the international language of football. I have been working with subsistence farmers in some very isolated areas of Northern Mozambique for some six months now, and football had never really come up much; I had concentrated on doing my work, and trying to get to know these extremely poor subsistence farmers through the numerous silly sociological methods I have been pounded in with at university…

Then, someone asked me if I could bring a football to the community. The proposal amused me a bit, and I thought, “what the heck…”, and brought a cheap ball for my next visit. This made me suddenly a coveted person among the youngsters in the community, as well as suddenly gaining more trust with the rest of the farmers. After kicking the ball around after a short official meeting, young lads were asking me if I would come and play with them sometime; they asked me if I knew how to play.

I smartly told them I was a David Beckham without the haircuts.

They looked at me completely clueless, and I realized they had no idea who David Beckham was.

Maybe these people are not “underdeveloped” at all!

Barcelona out

Last night I went to watch football. I haven't done it for long, but went to a local bar here in Maputo called Mondos, where they show many sports. The place is full of South Africans though. In spite of they having the next world cup, they know absolutely nothing of football.

It's tuff to watch football not drinking beer. The result was rather predictable nevertheless: Liverpool was surely going to pull home the victory over the two games, although the Barcelona pressure would give tham a narrow victory, which would keep the fans of both teams awfully nervous.

Barcelona is out, the champions are out. Still, no team has ever managed to defend the title in the CL!

Football in Mozambique

I am not in Mozambique due to football. The beautiful country has been little known for anything to do with football, except for the fact that Eusebio, Portugal's best player ever, was actually born in Mozambique, during the days of Portuguese colonialism.

Mozambique has never played a World Cup, they have qualified for only three African Cups, where they were eliminated in the first round each time. Not impressive.

The Mambas, as the national team is called, took part in the preliminary qualifiers in the African zone for the 2006 World Cup. They lost to Guinea after two matches, and that was it for Mozambique's world cup adventure. Not impressive.

Football is popular all over Africa, and many teams compete at highest level. Another lusophone colony, Angola, played their first world cup in 2006, and many should be on the way. However, it doesn't seem Mozambique is one country we will see in the world cup in any foreseeable future. Although I wouldn't bet on it, I have personally been known to have good karma for local teams: Silkeborg IF won their first (and only) Danish Championship when I was there; Ghana qualified for their first world cup when I was there; Valencia qualified for their first champions league final when I was there.

I won't promise Mozambique anything, but I shall do my best while I am in the country :-)