{"id":8728,"date":"2017-10-11T02:25:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T02:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/from-marcos-pizzelli-to-joao-saldanha-brazilian-armenian-football\/"},"modified":"2017-10-11T02:25:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T02:25:12","slug":"from-marcos-pizzelli-to-joao-saldanha-brazilian-armenian-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/critique\/2017\/10\/11\/8728\/","title":{"rendered":"From Marcos Pizzelli to Jo\u00e3o Saldanha: Brazilian-Armenian Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying process, after the Kazakhstan-Armenian match, Armenian national footballer Marcos Pizzelli expressed his opinion on the problems in Armenian football. The interview was published by almost all the Armenian media outlets, most of which were edited, after which Marcos was forced to provide a clarification<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re all to blame: [Football Federation of Armenia president] Ruben Hayrapetyan, [former coach of the national team] Varuzhan Sukiasyan, the footballers, everyone,\u201d said Marcos, which for most of the media outlets became a news story with the headline \u201cMarcos blames the federation\u2019s president for the [team\u2019s] failures.\u201d In his explanation, Marcos practically repeats his earlier remarks, but in other words: \u201cWe can\u2019t blame only the federation\u2019s president \u2014 we\u2019re all to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

By and large, the uproar surrounding Marcos\u2019s remarks is very much akin to a classic example of orthography: in the phrase \u201cForgive you cannot shoot\u201d the comma can be placed after the first word or before the last word, resulting in two completely different meanings. Marcos, who hails from Brazil, is able to express his thoughts in Armenian only approximately, and we have to try to understand him, analyze his words, find a benefit, and not quote him directly and more so, not edit his words. In exceptional cases do Armenian football players and experts provide an analysis of the matches, talk about problems, and in this sense, Marcos is a pleasant exception. But I\u2019m sure that in the future it will be much harder to get opinions from Armenian football players and experts, because they\u2019ll remember how Marcos\u2019s words were distorted.<\/p>\n

In general, in Armenian sports, football professionals and athletes later on don\u2019t want to comment on ongoing developments, don\u2019t want to provide analyses, and in this case, the public gets mainly journalists\u2019 analyses, which are mostly at the amateur level or personalized. <\/p>\n

Whereas it is exactly those offerings with which sports journalists and the public understand football and its nuances much better. Former coaches\u2019 and athletes\u2019 opinions are considered much more valuable also in international sports, and it\u2019s no coincidence that the most authoritative TV channels and media outlets spend astronomical fees to hire global stars to be experts on their shows: Thierry Henry, Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, and others.<\/p>\n

Konstantin Genich, a Russian sports commentator greatly respected among Armenian sports fans, was also a professional football player. The contribution of formerly well-known tennis players Alex Metreveli and Anna Dmitrieva to the development and popularization of tennis is invaluable. The list goes on. There are no such examples in Armenian sports. <\/p>\n

In international football, there are instances when the journalist turns into an expert and achieves success. The best example is Brazil\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Saldanha. <\/p>\n

Communist in his ideas but a bully in nature, Saldanha in the 50s and 60s was considered one of Brazil\u2019s most scandalous journalists, who made the news not only for his serious analyses, but also in the crime section. Saldanha brilliantly analyzed football and the Brazilian national team\u2019s matches, and was outstanding in his non-standard way of thinking, solutions, and suggestions. Moreover, he didn\u2019t express himself only with words: Saldanha once confronted the coach of one of the Brazilian teams with a gun, to prove his opinion on the shortcomings of his team\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

In 1957, the Brazilian football club Botafogo was experiencing serious financial difficulties and was unable to hire a professional coach. Saldanha, then a journalist, came to the rescue, offering his services, without pay, and was appointed head coach. The results were simply astounding: Botafogo became a champion that season, showing spectacular, effective football, while unparalleled footballer Garrincha<\/a> simply shone. One year later, Saldanha left the team and returned to journalism. <\/p>\n

In 1969, it was Brazil\u2019s national team that was facing a real disaster: there was no main team, coach, or purpose. The newspapers were flooded with brutal criticism of the Brazilian national team and the federation\u2019s president, among which Saldanha\u2019s pieces drew attention. Then too Brazilian Football Confederation President Jo\u00e3o Havelange decided to appoint Saldanha as the national team\u2019s coach, saying approximately, \u201cIf you know better, you can coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course the appointment of the journalist caused a real shock in Brazil, and everyone began to give their advice to the newly appointed coach, even Brazilian President Emilio Garrastazu M\u00e9dici. Days later, Saldanha came forward with a special message: \u201cIn Brazil live 80 million people who can offer 80 million versions of the team\u2019s composition. But coming out on the field will be the team that I choose. As for the opinion of the country\u2019s president, he didn\u2019t ask for my opinion when he appointed his ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n

With only one year of coaching experience, Saldanha, adopting non-standard solutions, was able to create perhaps one of the strongest teams in football history. \u201cSaldanha\u2019s Predators,\u201d the Brazilian national team was called during those years, celebrated six consecutive victories in the qualifying round, with a score of 23-2. Belonging to Saldanha is the famous football coaching advice: \u201cIf during the game you feel that my words are not yielding results, change the game.\u201d The story goes that at the penultimate qualifying stage, during the break in the match with Venezuela (the first half had closed with a score of 0-0), Saldanha had shut the locker-room door and had not allowed the players to return to the locker room. \u201cAre you tourists or football players? Have you come here to take in the sights or to score goals? Return to the field and don\u2019t come back until you score a goal,\u201d he reportedly said. To the surprise of the spectators, the Brazilian footballers returned to the field, waited 15 minutes, and in the second half, played a brilliant game, scored two goals, and won 2-0.<\/p>\n

In any case, his sharp tongue and eccentric ways didn\u2019t permit Saldanha to stay long at the helm of the national team: just two months before the 1970 World Cup, Saldanha was dismissed, and the team was managed by M\u00e1rio Zagallo, who later repeatedly remarked that the world champion title was won by the team created by Saldana. Whereas Jo\u00e3o Saldanha again returned to his career in journalism and died in 1990 in Rome, while reporting on the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

Armen Nikoghosyan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying process, after the Kazakhstan-Armenian match, Armenian national footballer Marcos Pizzelli expressed his opinion on the problems in Armenian football. The interview was published by almost all the Armenian media outlets, most of which were edited, after which Marcos was forced to provide a clarification. \u201cWe\u2019re Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","author_posts-armen-nikoghosyan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}