In NYC, Brazilians and Honorary Brazilians Breathe Again

6/12/2014

Meanwhile, at Copacabana Beach/Photo by Altenir Silva

“Wowwy wow wow!!!”

This text message came clattering over my cell phone at 4:17 PM, Foley’s time.

“Shades of Nicola Caricola” hit my screen at 4:18 PM, from a correspondent who shall be identified as Doug From Florida.

Both were noting the own goal in far-off São Paolo, greeted with mostly horror by the large crowd in the Irish baseball pub on New York’s W. 33 st.

Many of the patrons were wearing the familiar yellow jersey or t-shirt. As somebody at our table said, everybody’s default position in the World Cup is Brazil. (Except Argentines.)

The “Wowwy wow wow!!!” speaks for itself, but the “Nicola Caricola” in question was an old Juventus player who became legendary by making an own goal in the very first game for the MetroStars, from which the franchise is still recovering.

In jam-packed Foley’s, there was the frisson of danger that Croatia might profit from the own goal propelled into the net by Marcelo of Brazil.

Some of us at the table spent a few minutes telling the tragic tale of Andrés Escobar of Colombia who scored an own goal against the United States in 1994 and was gunned down in a parking lot when he got back home.

Before long, Brazilian talent and the referee's hasty whistle for a penalty kick combined for a 3-1 victory for the host team.

Finally, they were playing the World Cup. I was hoping that Brazilians would make their points about the brutal costs imposed by FIFA for holding the World Cup, and yet balance it with their love of futebol.

I have been thinking that Brazil players would be somehow affected by the demonstrations planned around the country, but on the first day the yellow jerseys swarmed. Neymar carried himself with the assurance of a young man who knows he is handsome and talented. Not sure he meant to hit a slow grass-skimmer inside the right post, but that may be the way life works for Neymar.

I sold a couple dozen copies of my new book about the eight World Cups I covered, hung out with old friends from Hofstra and elsewhere, met some really nice people.

For the duration of the World Cup, I'll be commenting on the matches here and there on a daily basis. Reactions and Comments are more than welcome. Muito obrigado.

Sam Toperoff

6/12/2014 06:36:57 am

Giorgio--As I say, kudos to you, you caught the wave.
When you're standing waist deep at Jones Beach and you want to take the next big one all the way in, you've got to know instinctively when to jump ahead and start swimming like mad. You did that with soccer way back when and it's now thrown you way up the beach...way up the beach. Bravo, George Vecsey.
I won't be able to watch Brasil/ Croatia tonight where I am; it's way past my bedtime. I'll know the result when I get on this blog tomorrow morning. As you know, I'm just learning about the game and at my age that's unexpected fun, but also as you know I'm a killjoy with a very low threshold for injustice and unethical behavior, which describes pretty well everything that happens outside the lines--fixed games, unfair labor practices and bribery in Quatar, likely the same in Rio, probably doping and head injuries as well--in world class soccer. I liked Platini as a player. I've liked what I've seen of him as a Europe soccer big-shot. (I saw someone ask him a tough question on French politics, and damned if he didn't answer it directly.) Two questions: Will he be able to take down Blatter? Is he any better?
Let's say I have five more years on the planet--will I see a game in which I won't have to separate my appreciation of the game itself and its players from the human indignities the masters of the game create? I'd like that to be the case for all our sakes.

John Omicinski link

6/12/2014 08:23:01 am

Your book stopped me cold on P. 20 with the phrase "birther prattle." Times guys just can't avoid liberal politics. Too bad, because I thought it might be good.

Brian Savin

6/12/2014 12:52:27 pm

John,
Keep reading, trust me on it. George perhaps wishes the world of Democrats-good, Republicans-bad were true. But it is not. Forgive him, because he knows sports and he knows life and can write like few others have ever. I am a Republican party leader locally, and I love his work. We all need to forgive each other, and learn from each other. A working brain goes a long way in life, and gives the greatest courage to reasonable convictions.

George Vecsey

6/12/2014 01:19:56 pm

Mr. O: "Birther prattle" is non-partisan. I am referring to people who ignore the reality of a birth certificate from Hawaii and try to invent a phantom birth in Kenya -- probably because it makes them uncomfortable to see a man of color as President. Ignoring reality is non-partisan. GV

George Vecsey

6/12/2014 01:22:55 pm

Brian, thanks. Funny, I was just at Foley's, and ran into a guy from my town who is (a) a Republican activist and (b) a smart contemporary guy with his take on taxes, gov't priorities, etc. I was able to tell his son how much I learned from his dad. Clearly, I regard you in the same category. Your notes always make me think. Best, GV

Andy Tansey

6/14/2014 12:56:12 am

Football and politics? Is that a stretch? What was the title supposed to mean?

What does Diego Costa's birth certificate say?

Sir Ian Darke reported that Danny Alves ate a banana thrown at him at the end of La Liga.

Soccer and politics? It may go deeper than that.

I hope my book stays dry.

George Vecsey

6/13/2014 04:37:07 am

Sam, thanks for the note. I guess it's true about almost any organized event -- there's a corporation and profits and disadvantage behind it.
I don't know if Platini would work. He was tilting toward the USA for 2022 and delivered the vote for Qatar. Then good things happened with Qatari investment in PSG...Gee, do you think?
If FIFA were a board of a major corporation, some responsible directors would walk Blatter to the door, and bring in some successful business person living in 2014. The only real handle on FIFA would come from its sponsors and networks saying Blatter is a wretched image for this sport. But the sport is full of people who cannot afford outside scrutiny. GV

Michael Beer

6/12/2014 02:01:20 pm

Hi George. I enjoyed listening to you on The Football Show this morning. Looking forward to buying and reading your book at the Philadelphia Library on 6-23. Soft penalty call in today's match - sad. Watch out for Belgium!! Michael

George Vecsey

6/14/2014 05:15:53 am

Michael, thanks, I am watching Belgium with my book editor in NYC on Tuesday.
Look forward to meeting you in Phila.
GV

Jack Gavin

6/13/2014 04:15:48 am

Mr. Vecsey,

All I can say is the game reminded me of the old WWII submarine movies when the Captain would say:

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!

Sheesh.

Jack Gavin

George Vecsey

6/13/2014 04:32:23 am

It is stunning to watch great athletes suddenly fall to the ground....I'm so used to it, I almost consider it part of the game. But still....thanks for your comment. GV

Fred Bear

6/15/2014 05:46:27 am

Loving the WC; hope the "glut" of goals doesn't offend the purists. The split-second decision-making (and execution) of a Van Persie; the undeniable cosmic effect of Drogba's taking the field: this sport has a special, perhaps unique dramatic element for those who can recognize but temporarily compartmentalize its massive organizational faults and failures. Query: is Platini the honest, decesnt figure he seems? Any chance of overcoming the legions of power brokers in Blatter's pocket? Watch the "low Countries" rise!

George Vecsey

6/15/2014 07:38:58 am

My first response is "no." Platini led US officials to think he was supporting it for 2022, but he apparently changed his vote. Shortly after, good things began to happen for France -- Qatari money for PSG, etc. Sarkozy wanted Qatar.
FIFA won't get cleaned up, even a little, until the old-boy soccer types, Platini included, are minimized, and some form of modern, more transparent, responsive leadership is imported from the outside -- I hate to say this, given General Motors Death Cars, stuff like that -- corporations.

Alan Rubin link

6/16/2014 02:51:23 pm

George

As I promised at Foley’s, I edited the penalty on Fred in the Brazil-Croatia game.

I think that the Croatian made very slight contact before he went for the ball. Fred was falling and actually fell on the defender.

It is difficult to determine the relative positions of the two players, but it appears that the defender’s foot reached the ball before Fred’s and his leg was in front.

Referees MUST avoid game changing penalties and this was not severe enough for a yellow regardless of field position.

A recent feed that I received from www.refereesoccerusa.com complained about the lack of knowledge of the Rule of Soccer by TV announcers. Ian Durke was way off when he commented, “this is a yellow card plus or worse”.

http://www.understandingsoccer.com/group-a.html

So far, there has be many questionable referee decisions. I hope enough are left to officiate the final.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

In NYC, Brazilians and Honorary Brazilians Breathe Again

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