The campeonato Paulista is a pre-tournament for the major national tournament called Brasileirao. The campeonato Paulista is part of the state championship in Sao Paulo the state. Other then the Paulista there is a one called the Campeonato Carioca, and the championship you play in depends on the state you live, whether its the state of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Bahia, and etc…At the moment my team Sao Paulo which is part of the Paulistao, is in 3rd place with one round to go. Third place might seam mediocre or even bad because they are not winning, but actually that position is really good. The reason why is the following; first 20 teams play each other one time, it could be home or even away, then the first four teams in the end go to a semifinal in which the person in first plays the one in 4th and the one in 2nd plays the one in 3rd. The semi-final round and final round work in the same way as the UEFA Champions league which was the in my first post. The next game Sao Paulo plays is against Juventus-SP a very bad team which is in 14-20th place more a less. the end is going to be really exciting because in the second to last round two teams guaranteed the passage to the semi-finals, with 37 points. Those teams were Palmeiras and the tournaments big surprise Guaratingueta. Only four other teams have a mathematical possibility of qualifying: Sao Paulo, Corinthians, Barueri, and Ponte Preta. The favorites teams out of those four are Sao Paulo and Corinthians. But the teams that have the most chance are Sao Paulo and Ponte Preta. Sao Paulo is the team I’m going to be cheering for because it is my favorite team. The campeonato Paulista is probably the most competitive state competition out of all of them. I think Sao Paulo can win the Paulista because with every game they have become better and better and they seem to be in sink.The the ranking of the teams that can still qualify(ex 1st, 2nd)

1. Guaratingueta, 37 points, 12 victories
2. Palmeiras, 37 points, 11 victories
3. Sao Paulo, 35 points, 10 victories
4. Ponte Preta, 34 points, 10 victories
5. Corinthians, 33 points, 9 victories
6. Barueri, 32 points, 10 victories

Chances:

1. Guaratingueta = Qualified
2. Palmeiras = Qualified
3. Sao Paulo = 91% chance
4. Ponte Preta, = 53% chance
5. Corinthians = 23% chance
6. Barueri = 33% chance

The following is a picture of the symbol of the Campeeonato Paulista.

What does freedom mean to you?  How does this relate to you as a blogger? Freedom for me means being able to express yourself and being able to share, what ever you want with out being afraid of getting hurt or laughed at usually. This relates to my blog because in these blogs we get the opportunity to express ourselves freely without the fear of being laughed or mocked at. Freedom also relates to blogging because we get to show the world who we really are without a lot of barriers created today in the modern world. In soccer you get the freedom to express yourself sometimes. In soccer in my opinion there is pretty much no freedom of speech. For example currently in soccer if you discuss with the referee he can and might a yellow card and in extreme situations a red card. Right now there is an on going discussion about freedom of speech. There were two topics towards it. The first one was if you were able to wear religious messages in your shirt, and a decision has been made, which was that if you wore a religious message in you undershirt it would result in a yellow card. The next one was towards players being able to say bad words when scoring a goal and right now it is a on going discussion. In my opinion players should not be able to say bad words because it sets a bad example to younger kids who admire soccer. The religious discussion I can see why it exists because a person could offend another persons religion and could even offend the country they are playing against or also the host nation having the game.

This is a video about socccer which I created about two months ago and is currently posted on youtube. This video includes goals and plays from famous players like Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele. I put in this video because I think it is a cool video and shows some cool soccer tricks and some cool goals. Their are some pictures of players too. Hope you like it.

Kaka also known as Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, was born is Brasilia the capital of Brazil and later he moved to my hometown Sao Paulo. First he started playing in the junior Sao Paulo FC team, and surprisingly he rarely started of games. The reason it’s supposed to surprise is that today he plays for AC Milan the world champion of teams and also he is the Best player in the world according to the magazine France Football  and FIFA. Before he became a pro-footballer he had an accident when he was 17 and was in vacations in a water park in a town called Caldasnovas. In this accident he hit his head in the slide and almost became a quadriplegic. After six long months he miraculously recuperated and today he thanks that to god and Jesus, and also that has converted him in to a very religious person. In his first game in 2001 for Sao Paulo the club that discovered him, he came in the finals of the Copa Rio-Sao Paulo against Botafogo from Rio as a substitute when they Sao Paulo FC were losing 1-0 and then he scored the two winning goals and gave Sao Paulo the championship.(I might refer to Sao Paulo FC as Sao Paulo too, this may sound obvious, but you never know). His nickname Kaka came from his younger brother Rodrigo who when he was young could not say Ricardo so he just said Kaka instead. As I said today Kaka plays for AC Milan and for the Brazil National team. The video above tells the story of the waterpark I tolds in the paragraph above. Later in the video he explains his goals which if you did not know he accomplished all of them.

Soccer to some and Football to other but for me it is also known as passion. Soccer for me is probably the most important thing in the world because it was so hard to get some respect in the game and when it finnally happened I was really proud of myself. Strangly When I was little I loved basketball, but hated soccer. Alot of people thought I was crazy because ussually people think Brazilian automaticlly love soccer.  As time went by the passion for this game grew and today I dedicate alot of myself to it.  When I play soccer, not to prove to other people that I deserve respect in the game but just to get better and better to a level that I am known as the best in the world. I love soccer too because its a a good way to stay healthy and fit which is very important for the human body. My favorite team is Sao Paulo FC, and my favorite player is Kaka. The reason I admire Kaka is because he plays simple and does complicate the situation and sometimes does nice plays and ussually he scores beautiful goals. Currently he plays for AC Milan and uses the number 22, and he won the 2007 player of the year award. That is probably the most important individual soccer award in the world.

These are the Adidas Predator and they are my favorite shoes. I chose the blue Predators because they are the one Kaka my favorite soccer player also known as Ricky Kaka has. These shoes in my opinion are really good because first they are made of authentic kangaroo leather, which helps out when kicking or passing. The cool feature of these cleats is that you can change the sole of the shoe to either a heavier one that will increase the shot power or the one that will help you be more agile since they are lighter. The one I have is the semi-pro which does not contain that feature. I love the Predator because other from having a nice look it is technologiclly desgined. I have it in two colors the one above and a one that I love very much which is in black, white and red. This may sound silly, but I feel a special connection with it and that helps sometimes because I trust no matter what happens they will help me. These shoes are the older version because a short while ago they released the new one which are cool to but honestly I prefer the ones above because they are more comfortable for me. According at the moment to Adidas they are sopposed to increase “Power, Accuracy and Swerve”. Power obviously meaning the stregnth of yuor shot and that helps because that ussually increases the speed of the ball causing it to be harder for the goalie to defend the ball. Accuracy means that is will pretty much give you more precision in you shots which will allow to place the ball in a place harder for the goalkeeper to deffend. Swerve means the effect wether its a curve or a drop. The curve or drop will trick the goalkeeper, to either go to the wrong side or to become confused. The one the semi pro model costs 50-70 dollars and the pro ones cost 200 dollars.

Soccer for me is not just a sport its a passion. When I play I do it for fun because when you have the ball in your feet there are so many possibilities. This passion does not go back very far, but it goes to 2004 when I saw Sao Paulo FC win The Copa Libertadores. When I saw them win I knew that I was going to grow up as a pro soccer player. Even though odds were against me I practiced but I did not show signs of improvement. Then I moved to Costa Rica and i started taking things more seriously. I started going to little soccer clubs and I had a lot of fun. Until I got really good and today I feel like the best because i beat all the odds and comments against me.

Today eight teams of the 16 teams played in The UEFA champions league knockout round of 16. This is how the knockout round works two teams play a home and away game for example lets say team A plays team B in team B’s stadium and they tie 1-1. Then in the next game team B tie’s with team A 2-2 in team A’s stadium that would qualify team B because of the away game rule so lets the final sum of the amount of goals equal 4-4 then whoever has the most goals in the other teams stadium would qualify. In the example game the final sum was 3-3, but since team B had more away goals(goals in the other teams stadium) they qualified. In the second game AC Milan needing a victory at home in the San Siro against Arsenal lost 2-0 qualifying the English team Arsenal. The goal scorers for Arsenal were Fabregas in the 83rd minute of the game with a good play that ended with a kick to the left side of Kalac the AC Milan’s Goalkeeper and Adebayor in the 89th minute of the second half with a soft left foot shot. In the other game Manchester United from in England faced Lyon after a 1-1 game in France, the Frenchman needing a 1-1 tie to at least go to penalties lost 1-0 after Cristiano Ronaldo foiled there plans after scoring the winning goal for Manchester United in the 41st minute. The next game was between Sevilla from Spain and Fenerbahce from Turkey in Spain. The Turkish team had won in Istanbul 3-2, but in this game Sevilla started of better and in the 5th minute of play Daniel Alves the Brazilian scored and right after Keita the other Sevilla man scored in the 9th minute. At this moment it seemed like Sevilla would be qualifying but at the 20th minute of the first half Deivid the Brazilian scored the the first goal for the Turkish team making it 2-1, but this result would still qualify the Spanish team because of the away goals, and on the 40th minute Kanoute made it 3-1 for the Spanish, but the Turkish team wasn’t out of it yet because all they needed know was one goal to take to the penalties and that was exactly what happened in the 78th minute Deivid scored that goal. Know the match went to penalties making this exiting game into one that would go down to history. Fenerbahce with more confidence won it 3-2 in penalties with three saves from the Turkish goalkeeper Volkan. The last game this Tuesday was between Barcelona from Spain and Celtic from Scotland, they were playing in Spain now and the Spanish had the advantage after winning 3-2 in Scotland with an amazing goal for the Barcelona side by the Frenchman Henry. The game started fast paced and with only two minutes of play Xavi passed it to Ronaldinho who passed to Slyvinho who crossed it and then Xavi pushed it in giving them the lead. The game continued and nothing changed but with the 1-0 Barcelona still qualified. Tomorrow the following teams play with each other, Real Madrid from Spain play Roma from Italy in Spain and the Italians got the advantage after winning 2-1 in Italy, next the English team Liverpool plays Inter de Milao from Italy in Italy after Liverpool won 2-0 in England, unfortunately that match was postponed till the 11th of March because the field is used and in bad conditions after the AC Milan game. Next the other English team Chelsea plays Olimpiacos from Greece in England after a 0-0 game in Greece. Last FC Porto from Portugal play Schalke 04 from Germany in Portugal after winning 1-0 at home in germany. The team i was cheering for was AC milan and they lost and were eliminated and that is really bad for me and know I will probably continue watching but with less excitement.