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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Karl[/i] [br]Samba Madness 26/03/03 By Eddie Ogembo That which will be dismissed as totally useless information and rudely turned away at the gates of the exclusive club of ideas that is an adolescent’s mind on a sunny afternoon should return many years later, when the club will be under new management and will have adopted a new information policy. This maxim came to me when I learned how this year’s Brazilian Paulista and Carioca championships were respectively won by Corinthians and Vasco da Gama, and suddenly remembered the second law of thermodynamics, which I lazily scribbled on my arm one sunny afternoon in a physics lab many years ago. Briefly, the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy – chaos, if you prefer – grows inexorably; in other words, structure decays. As the word “thermodynamics” suggests, this law relates to matters concerning heat and energy. However, had R.J.E. Clausius been studying Brazilian domestic football instead of the properties of matter he would have no doubt arrived at the same discovery – in about half an hour. This is the irresistible conclusion one must reach when one looks at the state of the domestic game in Brazil today. A deadly cocktail of calendar congestion (clubs play in state and regional championships and the national championship), a hopelessly convoluted league structure, a million (more or less) fanatically supported clubs, wild superstition (in the Roman Catholic tradition), corruption that can be measured on the Richter scale, immensely powerful TV companies and just sheer madness has turned Brazilian club football from an example to be followed by the rest of the world into a ridiculous farce. The typical shenanigans range from clubs being conveniently saved from relegation by entire competitions being scrapped, to matches being played in mid-afternoon temperatures of over 35ºC so as not to cut into TV soap-opera ratings, and to coaches openly telling their players to commit as many fouls as possible so as to break up their opponents attacks (Luis Felipe Scolari, stand up!). But Gremio surely took the whole cake when, in 1994, they were forced to play three matches in one day! The latest episode in this chaotic saga called Brazilian football, which aired last Saturday, saw Corinthians meeting Sao Paulo (who in 1993 played over 100 games in one season) in the second leg of the Paulista (Sao Paulo state) final not knowing what would happen if the tie finished level on aggregate. This was the result of the Paulista football federation bizarrely deciding to change the rules governing the situation just days before the match, after its chairman claimed that they had been “badly written”. The matter was eventually referred to a tribunal that ruled that it would decide the position only if and when the match result required it to! Mercifully the match ended 3-2 to Corinthians, giving them a 6-4 aggregate win, however it was interrupted for five minutes by the now obligatory brawl. Not to be outdone, Vasco da Gama and Fluminense, playing the second leg of the Carioca (Rio de Janeiro state) final the next day, ensured that their brawl lasted at least ten minutes, thus making them unofficial interim joint champions of Brazil. The match ended 2-1 to Vasco, giving them a 4-2 aggregate win. So, with all this inexorably growing chaos in Brazilian football, exactly how did Brazil win the World Cup in 1994 and in 2002? Well, the answer may have something to do with the fact that in Brazil extremely talented and athletic football players grow on trees. Also, the thing about chaos is that, while it produces the ridiculous, it also produces the sublime, and that accounts for the fact that only in Brazil is it possible to find a Rivaldo, a Romario or a Ronaldo – to name just a few. [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.