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| quote: | Originally posted by George Smiley
Lira, someone told me that after Brazil, Brazilians support England in football. I notice you have an England tag and was wondering if it's true and if it is ... why?! |
Although I can only speak for myself (I'm going to give my reasons later), it could be true, and the reasons behind many Brazilians supporting England could be:
- Corinthians: One of our most important football clubs, the Corinthians Paulista has in its origin a strong relationship with England - in fact, I've seen stickers that had the Union Jack behind the "Corinthians Paulista" crest. This could be a reason that makes England more popular here, football wise.
In fact, it was an Englishman, as I recall it, who brough football to Brazil.
- Argentina and France: Many Brazilians have a(n often unfair) prejudice against Argentina, and we know there's a rivalry between Argentina and the UK. Also, Brazil strangely lost to France two World Cups ago, and most of us never really got over it - therefore, rooting for England would be a way of rooting against France.
- Competence: You guys had a great squad during the last world cup. Thus, England is considered one of the favourites.
- War on Terror: As weird as it might sound, the whole "War on Terror" made England look a lot better here than the US. Sure, Blair supported Bush, but the massive demonstrations in Britain gave us the impression that most Brits were against such alliance.
These are all assumptions though - Brazil's got a great Italian and Portuguese influence (not to mention most of us would love to see an African team kicking arse  ), so it wouldn't be rare to see Brazilians supporting these teams. Now, personally:
- Number of World Cups: Since I remember watching my first world cup, Brazil played 5 times, got 3 times to the final and won 2 titles. The next world cup is in Africa, where Brazil seems to have a lot of charisma and, after that, the next world cup will be held in South America - which means our team would have even more support.
Now, I'd hate to see some kind of "monopoly" ruining the sport. I'd rather see another competent team, with less titles, making their way to the top. England won just once, so I think another title would be welcome.
- Culture: Since I was a kid, I've been into British humour (unaware of the fact it was British... or humour
 ), British music (I was a junglist back in my early teenage years), British Philosophy and so on, which somehow influenced me (e.g. my English sounds more like a failed Estuary English than General American) and explains why it's quite natural that I become a bit biased towards England.
- Competence: As I said, there were two teams whose games I liked to watch in the last world cup - England and South Korea. Given the fact that it's a bit unlikely to see South Korea making it to the finals (although it'd kick ass if they did), I'm having England in my sig for a while.
I might change it soon for randomness' sake
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| quote: | Originally said by Maurice Moss
I came here to kick ass and drink milk... and I've just finished my milk |
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