This is the best gossip I got from inside the olympic Village (actually the second best, but the first one I will have to take to my grave). It is not new at all that players like Rafa Nadal, Ronaldinho, Kobe Bryant, and many others are like idols for the others misters and misses nobody from the Olympics.

"I was sorry for Nadal. He can't have lunch, he needs to take pictures with athletes every two minutes", told me a table tennis guy. "I saw Yao Ming being rude to a guy that asked for a pic", told me another.

These two guys and two others confirmed to me that Messi can walk alone the whole day that nobody wants to take a picture with him. "Nobody knows him", told me a girl from Brazilian volleyball.

Anyway, if nobody wants to talk to Lionel, Kobe Bryant himsel said he was dying to get to know the Argentinean. Kobe was at Brazil x Argentina game and also at the football final.

BEIJING (CHINA) - Ambruse Vanzekin probably crossed Isinbayeva at the Olympic Village in his way to the Bird's Nest to play against Argentina the final.

This is the only reasonable excuse for the Nigerian keeper to go out of his small area to try to stop Argentina. This move was really unfortunate. Di Maria had no chance to score if the keeper stayed 'at home'.

Anyway, maybe this is hust my Brazilian part trying to believe Nigeria could win. But Argentina was the best and now they got this second gold medal and we don't have any (in football, in the overall standings at the Olympics Brazil comes first, of course).

 

My chat with the girl in the picture next to the Bird’s Nest was something like this...

- Hi, do you like Brazil?
- I love Beijing. I live here.
- Bra zil! BA GI (Brazil in Chinese). Brazil, not Beijing!
- Not so much
- What?
- Not so much. No.
- Really?
- Yes.
- Why are you wearing this t shirt anyway?
- I like the color

It is like Confucius always said: “Be honest and people will post about you at their blogs”

BEIJING (CHINA) - Communication is by far the biggest enigma from Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. It doesn’t matter if you know the name of your destination in Chinese. When you speak, they just don’t understand. The accent is so different that I already gave up.

For the worst moments, a telephone number with a friend who speaks the local language is the only option.

But, even the telephone can fail. So here is my sad history:

My accreditation is not valid for tennis. I am a huge fan of Roger Federer and I made a lot of effort to get a pass for one of his games. But, I had to do table tennis before as part of my work here. I had enough time. One hour left between the end of my article in the table tennis venue and the Olympic Green, where the tennis courts are.

So I asked a volunteer to help me to find a cab and tell him where he should go. They spoke 3 minutes in Chinese, looked at me and gave me lots of OK OK OK OK. After 50 minutes in the cab (wow) I was at the venue. 10 minutes to the game. Nice! I passed through security and finally I was there... in the BADMINTON VENUE!

I lost the game. Federer lost the game to James Blake. I definitely have to improve my Chinese beyond Ni Hao.  

BEIJING (CHINA) - Forget about Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and 'ping pong'. Get ready for some real action here in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Bring on your masks, cause the smog pollution we are obliged to breathe here every day will be heavier on Tuesday 19 when Brazil and Argentina comes to town and enter the field for the first time ever in an Olympic football competition. OleOle is here and we will be there!

This game should be the gold medal one on Saturday at the amazing Olympic Stadium, the Bird's Nest (pic from the field), but becomes even more tragic as one of the two lifetime rivals won’t have the opportunity to run for gold. Argentina is the defending champion. They qualified January 2007 in a dramatic match against Uruguay, decided in extra time.

For Brazil, gold medal is an obsession. Every player wants to give the first gold medal to the country. This title, the only major one Brazil never won it, would transform the 18 players and the permanent under pressure coach into heroes.

Romario (silver in 1988), Ronaldo (bronze in 1996) and Ronaldinho (quaterfinals 2000) are often called chokers cause they lost the Games in their times. Even Dunga, the Brazilian National Coach, got ‘just’ a silver medal in 1984 as a player.

Because this is huge in Brazil, every player wants to play. Ronaldinho and Kaká said no to Copa America last year in Venezuela, but they fought hard to be in Beijing. Kaká lost his personal battle with AC Milan but Ronaldinho had a master play by negotiating his absence from the same Italian team before he signed his new contract. Robinho, the best player in Copa America, was stopped from Real Madrid to join BNT in China. “He is very upset, he dreamt of being in the Olympics”, told me here Diego, his closest friend since they played together.

Diego himself, old enough to play for the under 23 team yet, had to escape from Werder Bremen to be part of the team, the same that Rafinha, from Schalke 04, had to do. “Win this medal is like a World Cup for us and besides, this place is so cool. If I have some time I want to watch the Dream Team playing basketball”, he completed.

Ronaldinho is the single star from Brazilian team. Argentina, one more time, seems stronger with Messi, Riquelme and Aguero. But let’s remember Brazil have won mostly of the most important games with a not so Joga Bonito team, including last Copa America.

Cesc Fabregas é espanhol de nascimento. Com apenas 20 anos, é o principal meia do futebol inglês na atualidade e o líder do Arsenal.

É também, ao lado de Fernando Torres, alguma esperança de anos melhores para a seleção espanhola, eterna perdedora do futebol mundial e europeu de seleções.

Cesc tem contrato com o Arsenal até 2014, ano da Copa no Brasil. Terá 27 anos quando aqui entrar em campo pela Fúria, se ela vier ao Brasil.

Agora, o Arsenal tenta renovar seu contrato (!!???). Exatamente. O contrato vai até 2014 mas o time tenta renovar para sempre com o garoto. Foverer Cesc.

Isso não quer dizer muito coisa. Estes contratos são feitos todos os dias para ampliar as multas, melhorar os salários e dificultar a ação da concorrência. Um fenômeno da época dos empresários.

Duvido que Cesc fique no Arsenal sua carreira inteira. Mesmo que renove para sempre, sou capaz de garantir que um dia defenderá Real Madrid ou Barcelona. Ou mesmo Milan, Juve ou Inter.

As raízes vão falar mais alto. Não se pode exigir que um espanhol como ele tenha a mesma dedicação e identificação que um Gerrard tem com o Liverpool ou que Totti e Raul tem com Roma e Real Madrid, por exemplo. É diferente.

De qualquer forma, será o grande responsável caso o Arsenal, que vem de uma goleada sofrida para o Manchester, consega eliminar o Milan no duelo que começa nesta quarta.

Jogão!

According to Rodrigo Bueno, reporter from Folha de São Paulo, one of the major newspapers in Brazil, the Brazilians, including the ones that play for other National Teams like Deco and Eduardo da Silva, are the biggest community of players in this next Champions League.

There are mor than 100 Brazilians, still according to the report, in the most traditional club competition in the world, that began last Tuesday. Some of them are stars such as Kaka, Ronaldinho, Juninho. Espanish, French and Italian players, even with teams from these countries playing the Tournament, don't reach 70 players.

Only Olympique Marseille, Rosenborg, Celtic, Glasgow Rangers and Steua Bucarest dont have at least one Brazilian player in their squad.

Check out the list:

Group A

Liverpool: Fabio Aurelio and Lucas

Porto: Helton, Paulo Assunção, Lino, Leandro Lima and Adriano

Besiktas: Bobô, Ricardinho and Marcio Nobre

Group B

Chelsea: Alex and Belletti

Valencia: Edu

Schalke 04: Bordon, Kuranyi* and Rafinha

Group C

Real Madrid: Julio Baptista, Marcelo, Robinho and Pepe

Werder Bremen: Carlos Alberto, Diego and Naldo

Lazio: Cribari

Olympiakos: Julio Cesar

Group D

Milan: Emerson, Cafu, Dida, Kaka, Ronaldo and Serginho (Pato and Digao are out of the squad)

Benfica: Edcarlos, David Luiz, Leo, Luizão

Shakhtar Donetsk: Brandão, Fernandinho, Ilsinho, Jadson, Luiz Adriano and Willian

Group E

Barcelona: Deco*, Edmilson, Ronaldinho and Sylvinho

Lyon: Anderson, Cris, Fabio Santos, Fred and Juninho Pernambucano

Stuttgart: Cacau, Da Silva, Ewerthon and Gledson

Group F

Manchester United: Anderson

Roma: Cicinho, Doni, Juan, Mancini, Julio Sergio and Taddei

Sporting: Anderson Polga, Celsinho, Derlei, Gladstone, Liédson, Pedro and Ronny

Dinamo Kiev: Correa, D. Rincon, Kleber, Michael and Rodrigo

Group G

Inter Milan: Julio Cesar, Maicon and Maxwell (Adriano and Cesar out)

PSV: Alcides, Cassio, Gomes and Fagner

CSKA: Daniel Carvalho, Dudu Cearense, Eduardo Ratinho, Jo, Ramon and Vagner Love

Fenerbahce: Alex, Deivid, Edu Dracena, Marco Aurelio*, Roberto Carlos and Wederson

Group H

Arsenal: Denilson, Eduardo da Silva* and Gilberto Silva

Sevilla: Adriano, Daniel Alves, Luis Fabiano and Renato

Slavia Prague: Michel and Rogerio Botelho

*They play for other National Teams, altough were born in Brazil.

Source: Folha de São Paulo

Just a quick question for you guys. Is it just my impression or Carrick is a much better player when Scholes is not around? Against Rome it was not the first time that I noticed that, but without Scholes, he looks free to start the plays from midfield and also be in front.

His two goals yesterday were amazing. But I keep thinking next game, when Scholes is back, Carrick comes back to his supporting position and maybe, even Scholes is obviuosly important, Manutd can loose some of the brillant action from yesterday.

 

And remember some unforgetable moments like when Romario did the same with Simenone in Spain clicking here , video do Romario socando o Simeone aqui

Fabio Capello has his problems, of course. I don’t like him as coach, particularly. But he is right about Robinho. The boy (??) is still in debt with great football after 18 months wearing Real's number 10.

Even worst. Now Robinho thinks he is not playing because of Capello. But he was a starter in 3 from the last 6 matches and last game, against Bayern, he couldn’t perform at least one right play for more than 30 minutes. He actually screwed two important chances to open 4 x 1 during the second half.

Before Ronaldo faced Capello, he had a career, titles, prizes and maybe he needed another challenge to get some motivation. But Robinho has nothing but a great start in Santos and needs to stop crying around and show some football not just for Capello, but for everybody else, including himself.