EURO 2016: PORTUGAL, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

What a wild ride! I’m still high from all the emotions from last night, and I still can’t believe it… I’m ecstatic. WE WON!!! If you follow football (soccer) at all, you know by now: PORTUGAL IS THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPION!

I suffered a lot in 2004, I’ve been suffering a lot since then, but this European championship made me suffer for a lot more than our 23 player on the field. We saw a slander campaign against us. For a whole month we endured all criticism, people saying we didn’t deserve anything, French reporters saying that our game was disgusting. They belittled our people and the 2 million portuguese immigrants living in their country. We saw coaches from another huge national teams saying that we stood no chance. They wrote articles saying how bad Ronaldo was. There was an overall lack of respect and sportsmanship in regards to the Portugal National Team.

Because of this, I have to say that our win tasted all that better.

It’s true we didn’t play the most gorgeous football ever. Yes, we went through the group phase with only draws. We played more minutes than any other team on the competition too. We also used all our player (apart from the other 2 goal keepers) because we had injuries and our scheme wasn’t settled. We also had a coach that always believed! He said from the start that they would only be back to Lisbon on July 11th, and damn him, he was right :D. We had a group that wanted it more than anything, and that had a great chemistry and relationship. We had a huge cohesion and a group that worked always towards a common goal: go through to the next phase and the next. And we had an amazing group of immigrants in France, who never gave up, who were there all along for our national team, supporting our boys and making them feel like they were at home.

Then we had such a tough game last night. The field was in the worst conditions ever, our captain, Cristiano Ronaldo was badly injured right at the beginning of the game, and he was in so much pain that he had to leave the game.

We suffered through the 90 minutes of the game, where Pepe and Rui Patricio were heroes. Then 30 minutes more and we finally did it. Eder, against all expectations, scored and everyone went wild. And then we did it!

WE WON! We’re the European Champions for the first time ever.

We have a Captain that is a TRUE CAPTAIN. Something has to be said about this guy, because his dream was to win something for Portugal, but he got injured and had to leave. He still did his job even outside the field. He supported them in the half time. And he was in the bench for all the last 30 minutes, supporting them, giving directions, helping his coach. He was motivating them! HE’S THE BEST CAPTAIN EVER! (and I might have cried when Nani gave him his Captain bracelet again).

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS (of Europe), and I’ll be happy for awhile! 😀 A huge congratulations to these boys, they deserve this :D.

Musical Mondays: Hino Euro 2004 (Menos Ais) by Da Weasel

We’re entering the last week of UEFA EURO 2016, and Portugal is – for the 4th time in the last 5 championships – in the semi-finals. I don’t care about the critics and stupid comments. We’re there, and even if we don’t go through to the finals, I’m still proud of this young group of players. This week Portugal will play with Wales on Wednesday, and on Thursday it’s France and Germany playing for the other place in the final. I’m wishing with all my might that we achieve at least what we did on Euro 2004 – a place in the final, so today I’ve decided to share a song done for that championship, when Portugal was about to head to that magical game (that we lost, btw). This song was sponsored by our national oil company and sang by Da Weasel. Watch the video to see our players from a decade ago (you might spot Cristiano Ronaldo when he was super young).

Está tudo pronto? Dá-lhe gás!

Três, dois, um, vai arrancar
uma espécie de hino em versão popular
sem coisas de mão no peito e ar pesado
Em 2004 o campeonato vai mudar o nosso fado
do coitado, do arrumado, do comido
Porque é que o país se queixa do que podia ter sido?
Mas nunca é. E a culpa nunca é nossa
é do árbitro, é do campo, é de quem nos deu uma coça.
Chega. Queremos mais, é um murro na mesa.
Um grito do Ipiranga em versão portuguesa.
Até hoje, quase marcámos, quase ganhámos, quase
fizemos…
Mas porquê quase? …Passemos à próxima fase.

Marca mais!
Corre mais!
Menos ais, menos ais, menos ais!
Quero muito mais!

O conceito é muito simples: não desistir.
Mas será que é esta atitude que acabamos de pedir?
É chato agora, acreditem no que digo:
nós jogamos em casa e contamos com o Figo,
o Rui Costa, o Deco, o Simão e o Pauleta.
Razões para querermos mais que um lugar que não
comprometa.
Será de mais pedir a taça?
Nada que um adepto com orgulho não faça.
Bonito, bonito, é dar o litro,
E não pôr culpas no gajo do apito.
Vá lá gritar noventa minutos, cento e vinte, o que
for
do princípio ao fim, por favor.
Vamos lá people afinem-me essa voz
No fim, só ganha um… e temos que ser nós.

Marca mais!
Corre mais!
Menos ais, menos ais, menos ais!
Quero muito mais!

Joga mais!
Sua mais!
Menos ais, menos ais, menos ais!
Quero muito mais!

Nem custa tanto assim imaginar a vitória
no fundo, é só uma soma de momentos de glória.
Era bonito… Um abraço aqui, um abraço ali…
Abraço toda a gente, abraço quem nunca vi.
Vamos lá transformar isto numa grande festa
Sem pressão, Selecção, és a esperança que nos resta
Por isso, escuta: não te esqueças que a sorte protege
os filhos da luta.
Não levem a mal a exigência
Mas pr’a empates e derrotas não há paciência.
Queremos mais, muito mais, menos ais
Scolari, já vimos do que cê é capais.
Cê sabe que para ganhar é preciso ter fé.
E a bola no pé.

yo…querem mais?

Então baza lá, vamos lá outra vez
Quem não salta agora aqui não é português
Sempre com o desejo de cantar na final
“levantai hoje de novo o esplendor de Portugal”.
Tudo a postos,
vamos ter fé uma vez na vida
e acabar o europeu de cabeça e de taça erguida.
Se temos saudade, temos vontade, temos saúde, temos
atitude
Se temos tudo, de que é que o português se queixa?
…Era esta a vossa deixa.

Marca mais!
Corre mais!
Menos ais, menos ais, menos ais!
Quero muito mais! 

Joga mais!
Sua mais!
Menos ais, menos ais, menos ais!
Quero muito mais!

Portugal National Team: 2000-2012

I love the International Football tournaments! I’m a late bloomer in regards to football, I always watched the occasional game, rooted for my team (Sporting) or the National team, but it wasn’t until Portugal hosted the UEFA Euro 2004 that I really started to pay attention – me and most of my generation.

Four years before, however, is where the dream started. The UEFA Euro 2000, organized between Belgium and the Netherlands, saw the epitome of our “Golden Generation”. We won our three games from the group stage, winning with Romania and England, and given that we already had enough points to pass on, our coach rested some of our biggest players for the match against Germany, and we played with our so-called B-team, where Sergio Conceição, in a match that i still vividly remember, made an hat-trick, and we won 3-0!

That year we went to the semi-finals, where we played with France, and unfortunately lost, with a penalty converted by Zidane at the 117 minutes mark, due to a “hand” from Abel Xavier. To this day, this is probably still one of the most heated discussions you can have with a Portuguese supporter, because there’s no doubt that there was a touch, but what was in question was the intentionality of that touch, and the referee decided that Abel Xavier willingly put his hand in the trajectory of the ball, in order to stop its progress. And just like this, the Euro 2000 was over.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup is not even worth mentioning… it was that bad! And then came the UEFA Euro 2004, which was incredible, and most importantly, we had a kick ass national team!

Back then, Cristiano Ronaldo was just a 19 year old kid, playing in Manchester, that still wore the number 17 and didn’t have a permanent spot on the main team. The real stars were other names, such as Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Pauleta, Fernando Couto, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Jorge or Ricardo. Just a year after he arrived to train the team, the brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari encouraged the people to believe and for the very first time really, we did! And we did so well!!! We got to the Final, having lost only 2 games throughout the whole competition, the first one and the last, both against Greece. On the way, we won with Spain, England or the Netherlands.

 

Two years later, we managed to qualify to the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. Once again, Luiz Felipe Scolari managed what no one before him could: unify the country in front of the TV screens! Everywhere you went in Portugal, you would see the flags flying from the windows, scarfs in the cars and everyone supporting their players. This was going to be the goodbye to the last members of our “Golden Generation”, such as Luis Figo.

So, taking advantage of the fact that Angola also qualified and was on Portugal’s group, me and a big chunk of my family, flew to Germany, where we watched the first two games of Portugal and Angola.

We won all the games in our group stage and went to the round of 16, where we won with the Netherlands. Next was England in the Quarter Finals, and, as we were used to by now, we had to go to penalties. The country stopped! The man of the hour was our goal keeper, Ricardo, who not only kept 3 balls from coming in, he also did it without gloves! Unfortunately we lost with France in the Semi Finals, and then again with Germany and ended in 4th place.

In the UEFA Euro 2008 we stayed for the Quarter-finals, losing to Germany, and shortly after that we said goodbye to our coach, Luiz Filipe Scolari.

Four years ago, at the South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010, we stayed for the Round of 16, losing to Spain, who would become World Champion that year. The team, now over the direction of Carlos Queiroz, failed to reach the unity that had once had, and the coach had enough problems of his own with FIFA after the World Cup.

Soon after, Paulo Bento took over the team. The now coach is none other that number 17 in the first photo of this post! At the UEFA Euro 2012, in Poland and Ukraine, we reached the Semi-finals, losing again to Spain, who would become, again, European Champion.