Pode to be? (Maurício Val/VIPCOMM)
Poor Joel Santana. Widely ridiculed in Brazil for his terrible English, he made himself look even more stupid on the weekend after reacting angrily to a journalist following Flamengo’s loss to Vasco in the Rio Cup semi final.
Ever since this classic Joel Santana interview (below) when he was managing South Africa at the Confederations Cup in 2009, he has become the laughing stock of Brazil when it comes to English. In Brazil every time somebody mentions bad English they refer to Joel Santana followed by a jumble of words like through-e da middiw-e the Bafana play a very-e goodie gameee and five minutes of laughter.
This blog even has the Joel Santana English quote of the month the keen observer will have noticed.
Back in 2009, Joel Santana was not happy with everybody having a go at his English. He said he was a respectable man with a family and didn’t deserve such criticism. Errrm….. okay. Eventually, supposedly seeing the funny side and having a lot of money waved in his face, he filmed an ad for Pepsi making fun of his own English on a beach.
However, after yet another loss as Flamengo boss over the weekend he was in no mood for joking. Since Joel took over less than five months ago Flamengo have crashed out of the Libertadores in the first round, lost to Vasco in the Guanabara Cup semi final and lost against their bitter rivals again. The rumour mill and Brazilian football logic both suggest it’s only a matter of time before he is fired. Clearly sensing the delicacy of the situation, the press team at Flamengo barred the journalist from local humour programme CQC from asking any questions at the press conference following the game over the weekend.
Quiet for the entire press conference just as Santana was getting up to leave the room the CQC reporter blurted out: ”Hey Joel, Ronaldinho earns a lot of money for somebody who keeps missing training. Pode to be?”
Now pode to be be doesn’t make any sense except that it is the punchline of the Pepsi ad. Its the sort of phrase in half English – half Portuguese that only Joel Santana could come up with.
Santana didn’t like the question and had the following to say: ”Who let this idiot in? This is serious. You should arrest him. I’m being criticised from all sides and now this happens.” Later, when a little bit calmer he explained: ”You can’t accept lack of respect and sense. My boy, I’m 63 years old and you are 20 something. I’ve been coaching longer than you’ve been alive. I’ve got children older than you. The least you can do is respect me. Honestly, son, now is not the time for jokes.”
Excuse me Mr. Santana you are a decent man but I disagree with you. I do think now is the time for jokes and I’ve just got one thing to say regarding this: ”hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…..”
In terms of the football….
Luis Fabiano getting back to form (Wagner Carmo/VIPCOMM)
…São Paulo breezed past Bragantino (4-1) and into the SP State semi final. Luis Fabiano scored two goals and missed a penalty. Has struggled with injuries since his return and to be honest from looking at the highlights he still looks a little slow and immobile – definitely not the same player we saw terrorise defences at the 2010 World Cup, that’s for sure. He did score a nice free kick though. As for São Paulo I guess we’ll really see what they’re made of in the semi final against Santos next weekend. Looks like Jadson is coming into form. Great pass to set up the opening goal.
In the other quarter finals, amazingly both Corinthians and Palmeiras lost against weaker opposition from Campinas. Two very good games, both finishing 3-2. What that means is we’ll have an all Campinas affair in the second semi final. Ponte Preta v Guaraní. Now that sounds pretty tame but actually, sadly, this fixture is often marred by violent clashes between the two sets of fans. This is one fixture that the Campinas police department would not have wanted.
In Rio, as mentioned Vasco overcame Flamengo and reach the Rio Cup final. Veteran midfielder Felipe was in inspired form for Vasco and scored two goals. Vágner Love and forgotten man Kléberson scored for Flamengo. Ronaldinho Gaúcho played but by all accounts had another ineffectual game. In the other semi Botafogo beat Bangu 4-2. Fluminense didn’t qualify for the semi’s after they rested their main players for much of the Championship, preferring to focus on the Copa Libertadores instead.
I’m just not feeling the love with the other states at the moment, sorry. 🙁 I’ll give you an account of what happens there as well as all the Libertadores news next week. Promise.
Goals and highlights:
São Paulo 4 Bragantino 1 (Goals only)
Santos 2 Mogi Mirim 0 (Goals only, worth watching Neymar’s – Santos’s second)
Flamengo 2 Vasco 3 (Highlights)
Poor Joel. I’m worried about facing Sao Paulo. The way Santos will be coming into the game is eerily similarly to O Tricolor’s win earlier in the year.
Well, in the end nothing to worry about for Santos Gordon. I thought Sao Paulo had a good chance but Santos and Neymar just too good, even with a tiring trip to Bolivia during the week!
As for Joel, I reckon he’ll be out of a job pretty soon!
Im very surprised Santana has lasted this long,having watched them in Copa Lib this season they are very dissapointing. Ronnie seems to be back to his old self and not the brilliant one from early Barca days. Neymar meanwhile just gets better and better, Flu v Inter and Bolivia v Santos game shown in Scotland this week- Quality. Ill be going for wins for Inter and Santos.
Joel is the living proof tha smarts can be manifested in misterious ways. Should he speak good English he wouldn´t ever make half as much money on publicity.
Yeah, good for him. He might need the money soon cos it probably won’t be long before he’s out of a job again. Very hypocritical – making fun of himself for cash and then getting all upset when somebody makes a joke.
Hi there, I found your site by way of Google at the same time as looking for a similar topic, your site came up, it appears to be like good. I have bookmarked to my favourites|added to my bookmarks.