The pronunciation is exactly like the famous legend boxer he was named after by his mother, but his name is spelled Taison. Taison Barcellos Freda is 21 years old and plays for Internacional.

Not a regular starter yet for the Gaucho club, he became, after three months in 2009, the top scorer of the year in the country (although right now only the State competitions and Brazil’s cup is being played – Brasileirao won’t start until May).

But more than his 14 goals in the beginning of Brazilian season (exception of Gremio, local rival, all other clubs were quite weak), Taison shows great and, like every other boy starting in Brazilian football right now, does the ‘pedaladas’ in Denilson and Robinho style. But, not like Denilson and better than Robinho, he scores a lot although he can still set up plays for his team mates. He is very fast, not so tall. Not a good header like Pato, but much faster.

Older than Pato, he took a longer time to reach the Inter first team. But the great group Inter has right now (Nilmar, D’Alessandro, Guinazu, Kleber among other stars) made his life easier. He fit on the first team and had a great.

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Taison Barcellos Freda 
13/01/1988, em Pelotas-RS 
1,72m / 64kg 
Internacional (since 2005)  

Gremio tied away against Atletico Paranaense, Palmeiras beat Vasco da Gama 2 x 0 and now Brasileirao, after 2/3 of the leader and vice are just one point apart from each other. Gremio completes three games without winning and saw its huge advantage down to just one point.

But with 12 rounds to play, everything can be even more dramatic next week. The three first in the table will play away. Sao Paulo (5th) x Cruzeiro (3th).

Gremio will play the derby against Internacional at Beira Rio Inter Stadium. Palmeiras will fly the northeast to face Nautico, a club still threaten by relegation.

Flamengo, that came back to the G4 group, will also play home against Sport. At last, Botafogo plays home too, against Fluminense. If every home team wins, Brasileirao would enter the last 11 games with just 5 points between the leader and sixth place.

Complete table and standings for Brasileirao 2008

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.  

Interrompida a boa fase do Colorado dos últimos anos. A equipe foi irreconhecível na partida contra o Velez, em que levou de 3 x 0. Os argentinos pisaram na camisa do Campeão Mundial, que mal chutou em gol.

Fosse o grupo baba como o do Santos ou do Flamengo, tranquilo. Mas o Inter corre sério risco de ficar de fora da segunda fase da Libertadores. Precisa torcer para o Emelec.

Tenho minhas dúvidas se a tática de colocar o time reserva tanto tempo no Gauchão tenha sido a melhor. O time parece estar fazendo pré-temporada na hora de jogar sério. Mas agora é fácil falar.

Uma pena. O Inter, no papel, é melhor que o São Paulo e o Santos e muito na frente de Grêmio, Flamengo e Paraná.

Em campo, tem sido pior que todos.

detalhe da foto.. Hernan Pellerano, que jogou pelo Velez, e é separado no nascimento do astro Ginobili, da NBA

Big night in Porto Alegre. For the first time as a professional player, Alexandre Pato will wear his number 11 jersey home. Internacional plays its second game at the Beira-Rio Stadium, in Porto Alegre. 2006 Copa Libertadores Champions try to get first 3 points after a come from behind lost against Nacional, at Uruguay, last week.

Alexandre Pato, the new Brazilian sensation, played only four professional games until tonight. The first one was at Sao Paulo, against Palmeiras. The next two games were in Japan, playing for the Fifa Club WC and last weekend he played for the State Championship another game on the road. He scored 3 times in these 4 games. I will be the first time ever that the Colorado Fans will have the opportunity to see the boy playing home.

1100 kilometers from there, Sao Paulo will play against Alianza Lima from Peru at Morumbi Stadium. Coach Muricy Ramalho will start Tricolor’s second game at the competition (the first one was a draw away) still without Jorge Wagner, former Internacional and Real Betis player, the most important transfer made by the club for the season.

Brazilian clubs seems to be motivated to keep the title of Copa Libertadores in the country. After 8 games in 1st and 2nd rounds, they have 5 wins (four as visitors) and three ties. Last night, Gremio beat Cerro Porteño at Paraguay for 1 x 0. The Gaucho Team has now 7 games with 7 wins this season (including State Championship) and their defense line didn't suffer any goals until know.

Parana Clube also won their game at Maracaibo (venue for Copa America's next final match) by 2 x 4 against the local Maracaibo team. The club plays the Libertadores for the first time and has already 2 wins (both away) and 1 tie in the competition.

São Paulo and Flamengo tied games away against Audax Italiano from Chile (0 x 0) and Real Potosi (at 4000 meters high by 2 x 2).

Santos, who won both two games in the 1st round includin a 5 x 0 at home, will debut next week at the 2nd stage against Deportivo Pasto (COL) as well as Internacional, title holders, will face Nacional from Uruguay, both away.

This is good for the football in Argentina that has just lost players like Gago, Higuain and Gallardo bet even better for the tournament.

Here some of the player to watch during the competition (I swear I will work in better profiles later). I just got the Brazilian and Argentinean’s ones for the moment, although the Mexican are also strong forces this year as usual. Some of them are well known as you can see.

Alexandre Pato (Internacional)
Dinélson (Paraná)
Ernesto Farias (River Plate)
Lucas (Grêmio)
Obina (Flamengo)
Riquelme (Boca Juniors)
Rogério Ceni (São Paulo)
Zarate (Vélez Sarsfield)
Zé Roberto (Santos)