Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Brazil speeds up World Cup preparation

The Brazilian government announced measures on Monday to speed up preparations to host the soccer World Cup in 2014, boosting spending and cutting red tape for public works projects.

The move follows growing concern in recent weeks, including by the soccer world governing body FIFA, that preparations for the sporting event were seriously delayed.

The debate put the spotlight on numerous obstacles to investment in Brazil's fast-growing economy and angered President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been touting the tournament as an accomplishment of his government ahead of October's presidential election.

Brazil will also host the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In a signing ceremony arranged at short notice, Lula pledged 5.5 billion reais to revamp airports in the 12 cities that will host the soccer tournament.

He also lifted restrictions on the ability of cities to raise debt to pay for infrastructure such as roads, stadiums and trains.

Lula, who called some of the concerns senseless, said the latest measures would avoid problems Brazil had with funding the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The federal government also donated real estate and earmarked 740 million reais on Monday to allow seven cities, including Rio de Janeiro, to overhaul their ports and facilitate docking of large cruise ships.

"Certainly it will be an alternative to the lack of hotels," said Pedro Brito, the ports minister.

Lula blamed the Sao Paulo state government, which until April was run by the opposition presidential candidate Jose Serra, for failing to provide an adequate stadium to host the World Cup.

"Frankly, I can't imagine a World Cup in Brazil without Sao Paulo as one of the corners for athletes to play ball," Lula said during the ceremony in the capital Brasilia.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Stemsport - soon to be available in Brazil?

StemSport

The StemSPORT regime is the latest Stem Cell Nutrition offering coming out of California's STEMTech HealthSciences, the Stem Cell Nutrition company. STEMTech and its Chief Science Officer Christian Drapeau have been increasingly in the news over the last two years for their breakthrough work in the field of Adult Stem Cells.

The STEMTech mantra, supported by double blind scientific studies, is that Adult Stem Cells made by a person's own bone marrow are nothing less than the body's natural renewal system. The STEMTech product line increases the release and circulation of Adult Stem Cells by some 25% with some extraordinary results. StemSPORT is their first entry into the Sport's Nutrition market.

Sports guru and STEMTech V.P. Heather Livingston said the NBA All Star Weekend venue for launching the sports Stem Cell Nutrition product is symbolic.

"With StemSPORT we're empowering distributors to proactively impact the performance of all athletes, amateur and professional, by assisting in reducing muscle recovery time. What more visible start than with the Legends of Basketball?"

Scientist and author Christian Drapeau explains how the Stem Cell enhancers function to maximize human performance: "Supporting the release of stem cells from the bone marrow and increasing the number of circulating stem cells improves various aspects of human health. For very active and sports focused people, Stem Cells are the raw materials to repair micro-tears and micro-injuries created during training."

The results, according to Drapeau, are that active people, whether former NBA stars or amateur weekenders, can exercise more intensely at each training session with the ultimate consequence of greater performance.

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Monday, July 5, 2010

Stubborn Dunga dug own grave

The ghosts of his stoic and at times arrogant selection blunders will surely come to haunt Carlos Dunga long after he has been delegated to what now seems a certain Brazilian coaching grave.

In a soccer-mad country where failure to win the World Cup is little short of a tragedy and invariably a non-negotiable commodity for any coach, Dunga went out on a limb when he inexplicably refused to include charismatic soccer genius Ronaldinho in his 2010 World Cup squad.

But almost as though fate took a hand in knocking the nails into Dunga’s coffin as Brazil slithered to a 2-1 defeat against Holland at Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday, it was Dunga’s controversially selected Felipe Melo that precipitated the jarring second-half decline of the five-time champions.

Although a talented player, Melo has experienced an alarming decline in form over the past 12 months so much that he has regularly been booed by supporters of Juventus, in Italy, where he is now based after a series of blunders not dissimilar to those he committed against The Netherlands.

In the first instance it was Melo’s header that deflected the Jabulani ball into the net past bemused goalkeeper Julio Cesar for The Netherlands’ second-half equaliser.

Then again it was the hapless Melo who was responsible for Brazil being reduced to 10 men in the 68th minute when he needlessly stomped all over Arjen Robben.

And Dunga’s world – or should that be World Cup – fell apart after he had also stuck by a combination he had pieced together 12 months earlier while stubbornly disregarding the loss of form of a number of other players apart from Melo.

He resorted to utilising three defensive midfielders following the injury to Elano and playing Dani Alves, one of the world’s leading full-backs, out-of-position in a role where his talents are largely negated.

And, apart from the non-selection of Ronaldinho, the implacable Dunga had also turned his back on brilliant AC Milan striker Pato and a host of dynamic, emerging young Brazilian stars.

That is how Dunga dug his own grave.

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Brazil’s Beautiful Game Now Has Tougher Edge

By whatever means the Dutch think they can knock Brazil out of the World Cup, getting physical would not be a good idea. This is a big Brazilian team, the tallest, strongest and most physical in memory.

Its defenders will be taller and clearly bigger man to man than their Dutch counterparts in Friday’s quarterfinal game in Port Elizabeth. And if Mark van Bommel has notions of roughing up Kaká the way he did little Leo Messi in the Champions League last year, he might consider two things: the referees in this World Cup have been consistently hard on that kind of play, and Kaká is one of eight Brazilian starters (and 13 on the 23-man roster) who stand above 6 feet.

Indeed, Kaká has already been forced to miss a game during this tournament for what might euphemistically be termed getting his retaliation in first. A man of silky skills, Kaká has added steel, as anyone playing under Coach Carlos Dunga must.

Dunga was tough as a player. As a coach, he is unequivocal: stand up and fight for the right to play or he will select someone who will.

Brazil’s muscle has been growing for more than 40 years. Some might ascribe this to Dunga, 46, but he is a mere disciple — an extreme one perhaps — of a toughening-up process that dates to 1966. It was then that Pelé, the greatest player of them all, was battered out of the World Cup in England. First the Bulgarians kicked him, then the Portuguese. The Brazilians never forgot that in the Portugal game it was a British referee, George McCabe, who allowed the rough play that hobbled Pelé and led to Brazil’s being eliminated in the group stage.

Long before Dunga was a player, Brazil dispatched trainers and coaches to study physical preparation at the German sports institute in Leipzig. The Beautiful Game that fans know and love — and hope for from Brazil from time to time — gives way to emulating Europeans, sacrificing flair for method.

Dunga was the anchor of perhaps the most structured Brazilian team to be world champion, in 1994. He watched Brazil win the trophy again in 2002, but lose in the quarterfinals in Germany four years later.

That was when he came in as coach. His work is evident in the way Brazil performs now, a style that is so athletic that many former Brazilian players are Dunga’s foremost critics. The former star Socrates has called the new Brazil “an affront to our culture.”

Socrates was a tall, thin midfielder who appeared to walk on stilts when he played in the 1980s. He was elegant and languid in his movements, but his type would never get near the Brazil of Dunga.

It is not simply a question of height. The members of Dunga’s team — with the exception of the recently repatriated winger Robinho and the reserve defender Gilberto Melo — play for clubs in the rugged leagues of Europe. Goalkeeper Júlio César, right back Maicon and central defender Lúcio, the team’s captain, helped Inter Milan win the Italian League, the Italian Cup and the Champions League in May.

César, playing at this World Cup in a back brace to protect a recent injury, is game-tested and among the few first-rate goalkeepers Brazil has produced. Boys in Brazil prefer to play offense. Even some defenders, like Lúcio and Maicon, love nothing better than to stride out of their defensive positions and counterattack.

Dunga does not deny them the right, provided they observe the safety-first ethic of his game plan. This, moreover, must be the first Brazil seleção, the national team, that strives to win matches on set plays like corner kicks rather than simply off the flow of the game.

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