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 It wasn't what I was expecting but a final traumatic weekend of losing World Cup football led me on a path of enlightenment here in Brazil. It might sound strange, in fact it definitely does appear slightly out there, but my World Cup experience on the streets and in the bars of São Paulo ended under such adverse circumstances that I was drawn to uncover three important insights of life.
Of course you could also attribute these thoughts to my post match depression induced madness and caipirinha fueled hangover which would be understandable but bear with me as I am going to take you through them anyway. It's first of all important to highlight that I am an Englishman and my wife is Brazilian. Pre World Cup I felt we would happily exist side by side supporting each others team when they played whilst both secretly desiring and dreading a meeting between the two sides. Destiny (or just plain bad football) decided that the potential England and Brazil semi-final, luckily or unluckily depending on your school of thought, never materialized. Despite my initial good intentions, not to mention my wedding vows, I found that however hard I tried I just couldn't bring myself to cheer on Brazil. To be honest this reaction genuinely took me by surprise and I sincerely doubt that it was solely my obsession with English football that held me back. I believe being totally submerged in a universally unquestionable Brazilian confidence verging on arrogance had an important role to play. Now don't get me wrong, this is my opinion coming from a nation that has had to deal with 40 years of "what could have been stories" which has lead to a somewhat reserved optimism. Compare this to the five previous championships that this country's fans can draw on and you can easily understand their confidence but when it turned to what I read as mild arrogance I have to be honest it got to me. On the other hand maybe it was just jealousy for as I sweated, sighed and tried to avoid a heart attack along with all the other English fans during every single nerve racking moment of our games Brazilians were having a party. Every one of this nations games to every Brazilian is a "festa", regardless of what football is being played. After matches it seems that very little analysis between friends takes place as tables are moved aside instantly, dancing shoes are laced up and the real fun begins. Taking into account all the stressful games and all the parties this World Cup month has been an emotional time in my household (and for my liver) culminating in the double game losing weekend just passed, as both me and my wives respective countries left the tournament. However in tough times you can learn a lot and I have explored ideas that I never thought I would through football and listed below are the three insights that stood out the most. The First Insight - Top sportsman "in the zone" a state of Nirvana? Witnessing Zidane glide around the field last weekend in a serene manor, one trick and thought ahead of his alleged peers, for me was like watching the moves of a shaolin monk. The fact that this, the greatest player of his generation supports a bald head and talks very little merely adds to the fact that I think he was schooled in some hills deep in rural China. Top sportsmen commonly refer to it as "in the zone," but a more spiritual take would judge that for a short but perfect period of time these humans are channeling into some greater energy. Zidane undoubtedly was in total harmony with the world around him on the pitch on Saturday and no team, not even an extremely talented Brazilian one, could compete with that. Phil Jackson of NBA coaching fame is a known Buddhist and openly admits using the religion's teachings to instruct his players at key championship deciding moments. In charge of the Chicago Bulls at the height of their powers in tied play-off games with seconds left on the clock he would send Jordan on with the advice of not to think just feel and he would know exactly what to do. The teams numerous trophies are an unquestionable testament to the very real power of this technique. The simple truth is that top sportsmen don't have to try they simply sense just as we all know in life when everything is going well everything comes easily without effort. The same theory can be applied to the leading football managers some of whom have an uncanny capacity to make circumstances work in their favor which goes beyond that of luck. They appear to be aware of a bigger picture that the average man is unable to comprehend and know exactly where it is possible to draw that extra bit of energy needed to get a result in a game. In recent times the almost miraculous efforts of the Dutchman Hiddink and Brazil's very own Filipão stand out. Compare the energy of these two to the forlorn figures of the much berated Parreira and Eriksson who appear to misread the obvious signs that almost any fan can clearly see. I am contemplating starting a campaign to get a Buddhaesque statue of a naked lotus positioned Big Phil at the end of Avenida Paulista. Not sure what the gay parade would make of it but well worth the investment of the odd handful of cash from a Brazilians politicians pants I feel. It has to be said though that even if Brazil's talented group had been under the charmed hands of Big Phil they would have struggled to reign in the powers of Zidane. A player so at ease in a World Cup quarter final he had enough skill, time and presence of mind to give Gordinho (the little chubby one) a lovely "chapeuzinho." The second Insight - In adversity we see the true nature of people or in a World Cup the true character of a nation I am a true believer that the way a country plays football reflects its culture. This is never so more obvious then during a World Cup and Germany 2006 has been no exception. The mental strength of the Germans themselves has been revealed once again as an unfancied side fought its way to a semi-final birth, the conservative Italians stamped their classy looks and defending on a another tournament, the temperamental French flittered between excellence and mediocrity depending on how the mood took them and the list goes on and on. The whole world knows and celebrates the fact that Brazil are associated with "futebol arte" the likes of which only they can play and the rest of the world doesn't even dare to dream of attempting to produce. Entire books have been written on why this is so but it's clear that Brazil's unique historical, cultural and societal mix leads to a brand of football that at times can light up the world. England's players aren't blessed with anything like the same ability but they are known to play with a passion and at a tempo that many sides would love to reproduce. However for a variety of reasons neither of these two sides came even close to mirroring their cultures and consequently all the people they represent glued to their TV's back in the countries they originate from. It is true that both sets of fans can handle the losses but the fact that their teams didn't give a true image of their country to the world is hard to stomach. It is in this adversity that perhaps a more honest and altogether different character of a country can be seen. Watching the England game in a crowded Irish style pub in Sao Paulo and seeing first hand the reaction of all Brazilians on the streets here it was interesting to see how differently both sets of fans reacted to defeat. England's loss started the moment that Wayne Ronney's unadvisable shove resulted in him, unjustly in my opinion, being shown a red card. However in this adversity we saw the true strength of the English character as our ten men held on for a further hour or more. This was the British backs against the wall mentality at its best and it was the catalyst for the atmosphere in O'Malleys to reach the most passionate it had throughout the whole tournament. The truth is that the English as a nation aren't comfortable with an easy victory or indeed a winner for that matter. We need a fight against injustice to really show our supposedly superior moral strength, for me the empire has long gone but the attitude still remains. The days of the colonial empires are in some capacity still responsible for the initial reactions of the average Brazilian fan too I feel. Immediately after the game the group of supporters I was with concluded that the management must have been bought - "Why did Parreira keep selecting such a bad team? FIFA must have paid Brazil not to win, Nike had their hand in there somewhere, the Brazilian management must have been paid off". For me this is a direct result of Brazilians automatic distrust of people in positions of power and having followed the recent "mensalão" saga it is not hard to see where this fear originates. If the people see the manager as the president and his policies were directly responsible for not allowing the players to express themselves in a truly Brazilian way then the question has to be asked: As a so called "peoples president" how long does Lula have left in power? The Third Insight - Real change is a slow process Our lives are just a drop in the ocean of time, therefore the four years between each World Cup may seem like forever for the hard core football fan but in the big scheme of things it is in actual fact tantamount to nada. This may explain how previous results and historical patterns have such a prominent role in World Cup folklore and no doubt future fixtures. World Cup 2006 itself is littered with games that seemed an open competition between two sides before kick-off but ended up merely being cases of history repeating: England's heartbreaking loss to Portugal in this year's quarter final was our third straight loss to teams under the charge of Filipão at this stage in a major tournament. Spain are known as great world cup starters that go on to achieve nothing - 2006 more of the same. France have never lost to Spain. Italy have never lost to Germany in a World Cup. England haven't beaten Sweden since 1958. South American sides are still unable to win a World Cup on European soil. African sides are still unable to make it past the quarter final round. On this evidence it seems that professional sport is a lot easier to predict than many would have us believe. Now don't get me wrong its not that I am suggesting these games are fixed just that though times and physical locations are different it is mentality that is most difficult to change. Every year everything is in place for these trends to be broken but it appears clear that it takes a far greater effort to change the norm than to continue along in the status quo. Just as in life itself we know that when we sometimes find ourselves in the comfort zone or a rut it is extremely difficult to inspire our way out of it. In my opinion the constant documentation of life through the media has taken this phenomenon to the next level in Munich. Images of various countries successes and failures are played over and over again in the run up to any major tournament. The players obviously don't sit in their hotel rooms' watching re-runs of previous world cups and then go out and repeat what they see however they are continually surrounded by these images from a very young age and I am no psychologist but there must be some effect. Ricardo, the Portuguese World Cup goalkeeping hero, is quoted as saying after his victorious role in the penalty shoot out with England that "In three of their eyes I could see they weren't confident". How many of England's World Cup squad grew up watching and discussing our previous failings? All of them I imagine and the next generation is already sat at home innocently being filled with fear. Brazil does not escape from this phenomenon either as its sides embarrassingly lame loss to France mirrored that unforgettable night in 1998 all be it minus two of the goals. Memories of that night almost 8 years ago appeared to come flooding back into the minds of the players, many of course were there but the new players fitted right in. With the years of investigation carried out by Brazil into the last game through the courts, TV, interviews, debates, re-runs and documentaries it is not surprising that the young players knew their roles so well. The Brazilians were shocked reverting back into the same shells they constructed in Paris. For me it proves beyond doubt that it is not physical the body or even its location that needs to be changed but the way in which it thinks. Zidane's 34-year old creaking body repeated what his 26-year old one did not because he was fitter in fact far from it. That faultless display in Germany came from a mind that had seen and done it all before and much to the distress of the Brazilian nation he knew exactly how to do it again. 2010 will see the FIFA World Cup arrive in South Africa, which is without doubt a new physical location. With two previous winners once again fighting out for the title in Germany you can't help but feel that the next tournament needs to offer up a few changes to the norm. In a country that has seen such social change itself it could be the ideal catalyst for someone new to join the hierarchy. However if history is anything to go on then my money is on Brazil to bring home the Hexa. Tim is based in São Paulo and is presently searching for employment opportunities in the areas of environmental business, journalism or education. He can be reached at
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Beckenbauer said that eight years ago. It´s time Fifa acted on those prophetic words: club sides can beat most national teams- Brasilians playing in Europe obviously don´t respond to national sentiment and like many other teams-England included- failed to perform.
The success of the Champions League should become the focus for changing the World Cup- starting now.