Posts under Sports

Lula Teases Obama about Soccer

Posted by Rachel

At this week’s G-8 summit in Italy, President Lula of Brazil gave President Obama an official Brazil soccer jersey signed by members of the national team.

The signatures included those of “Edmílson, Gomes, Lúcio, Vágner Love, Daniel Carvalho, Gilberto Silva, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Elano, Robinho, Júlio Baptista, Alex and Dida.”

President Lula also teased President Obama about the US team’s 3-2 loss to Brazil last week, chanting “Yes, we can” several times. Obama joked about the game and took the teasing lightly, making a sad face while holding up the shirt to show his disappointment in the US loss. Lula also gave the same signed shirts to members of the G-5 earlier in the week.

 

Favorite Brazilian Athlete

Posted by Rachel

Though Brazil is best known for its outstanding soccer players, it has produced amazing athletes in other sports as well, like volleyball, Formula 1 racing, and track and field.

For today’s interactive feature, the question is: who is your favorite Brazilian athlete?

Though there are many soccer players to chose from, my favorite athlete of the moment is swimmer César Cielo Filho, who won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and has excelled at other international events. He’s only 21, and trains in the United States. His emotional win in Beijing–Brazil’s first gold medal ever in swimming–was one of my favorite moments of the last Olympics.

What about you?

 

Favorite Brazilian Soccer Team

Posted by Rachel

In Brazil, soccer is life, and your favorite local team can define who you are. While everyone roots for the national team, rivalries run deep amongst city teams, where the heart of Brazilian soccer really lies.

So for today’s interactive feature, the question is: what’s your favorite Brazilian soccer team?

In Rio de Janeiro, there are four teams: Fluminense, Vasco, Flamengo and Botafogo. I don’t have a preference, since attending a game to see any of the teams play is a wonderful cultural experience.

What about you?

 

Podcast: Extreme Sports

Posted by Rachel

This week, we’re going to talk about extreme sports.

Check out the podcast here [extremesportsfull], and the BYKI list here.

Eu adoro fazer esportes radicais.
Já voei de asa-delta no Rio de Janeiro.
Também fiz parapente, e gostei muito.
Sei surfar, mas não sou muito bom.
Gosto de fazer trekking.
Eu costumo escalar e já subi o Pão de Acucar.
Um dia, gostaria de fazer paraquedismo!

Here, the speaker says: “I love doing extreme sports.” Esporte radical is an extreme sport. But when we have a noun that ends in “al,” it changes to “ais” in the plural, so more than one extreme sport is esportes radiciais.  And don’t forget that adorar means to enjoy or love something.

This means, “I’ve gone hang gliding in Rio de Janeiro.”  Voar de asa-delta means to go hang gliding, since asa-delta is the actual contraption you use, while voar means to fly. When we use (already) with the past simple tense, we can translate it in English to the present perfect tense: have done something, since it’s something that happened in the past.

“I’ve also gone paragliding, and I liked it a lot.” Parapente is a hang glider, and here we use it with a simple fazer (to do). Put together, this means to go hang gliding. Gostar, as we know, means to like, and in the past simple tense we conjugate it with an ei at the end (gostei). Here, we translate muito as “a lot.”

This means, “I know how to surf, but I’m not very good at it.” Surfar is to surf, and the verb we use to refer to knowing how to do something is saberNão muito bom means not very good.

Here, the speaker says, “I like trekking,” or “I like to go trekking.” Trekking is like hiking, but a lot more intense, often for several days in rough terrain. Don’t forget that when we use gostar (to like) with a verb, we must use de as the preposition before the verb (gostar de fazer).

“I frequently go rock climbing, and I’ve climbed the Sugarloaf.” Costumar means to do something frequently or to be used to doing something. Here, we translate it as “frequently,” though it can be different depending on the context. Again, we translate and the simple past (subi) into the present perfect: I have climbed. Sugarloaf is a famous mountain in Rio de Janeiro and one of the city’s best rock climbing areas.

This means, “One day, I’d like to go skydiving!” Fazer paraquedismo means to go skydiving, while paraquedismo is the actual sport. When referring to a desire (I’d like), we use the conditional tense of gostar, which is gostaria. Again, since we are using gostar with a verb, we must add de as the preposition.

 

Brazil State Championships

Posted by Rachel

Yesterday, Brazil held its state soccer championships, one of the most important sports events of the year. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

  • The Corinthians won the São Paulo cup, though there was a potentially serious accident during the victory celebration;
  • Cruzeiro beat Atlético to win the cup in Minas Gerais;
  • Vitória won the Bahian cup;
  • Inter won the cup in Rio Grande do Sul, leading the rival goalie to burst into tears;
  • Flamengo beat Botafogo and took home the Carioca cup in Rio de Janeiro, where fans wore creative face masks to protect against the swine flu.

For a full report on all of the state champions, see Globo Esporte.