Futebol and the Portuguese Psyche

This morning's lecture was on the Estado Novo dictatorship, and part of it dovetails nicely into one of our cultural activities this afternoon: watching the PORvsGHA game at a football club.

I knew as soon as the groups were released that I was not going to enjoy this World Cup. I'm not stupid; I never expected both of my teams to advance over Germany. (I think they're a final four team, tbh) I didn't know who I was going to choose.

Then PORvsGER happened. It's not that Portugal lost; my two favorite teams (the Sharks, the Niners) have managed to disappoint me this year and I'm still a fan. It's the way they played. Entitled, stupid, malcriados. Then, this ridiculous blame game after the game. No, thank you. I went from a 50/50 split to a solid 60/40 in favor of the country that issued me my passport.

But this blog post isn't supposed to be about me; it's supposed to be about the Portuguese psyche. So, a quick history lesson is in order.

Portugal was a dictatorship, the Estado Novo, from the 1930s until April 25, 1974. Salazar, the dictator, knew he had to control the populace and mold the Portuguese psyche to fit his own image of Portugueseness. One of the tools he used to unify and control the Portuguese people were the 3 F's: (grupos) folclóricos, Fatima, and futebol. 40 years and counting since the fall of the dictatorship, and all three of those things still define Portuguese culture to this day.

When Cristiano Ronaldo is (rightfully) named the best player in the world, it is an honor for all the Portuguese. When the Portuguese national team loses, it is a national wound. Futebol is a part of the national identity in a way that baseball or football (our official and actual American pastimes) will never be in the US.

The blame game I'm watching on tv now goes back to Salazar, too. He had his own hybrid of the Gestapo and the Spanish Inquisition: the PIDE. They were everywhere. They were your neighbors, your family. You just never knew who they were. So, it became a part of the national character to avoid blame and pin it on a scapegoat instead. Better them than you when it comes to the risk of being sent to prison, right?

Before the World Cup started, I believed that US Soccer needed to make it out of group play more than the Seleção Portuguesa. When it comes to the promotion of the sport, I still believe that. Americans only care about winners, after all. 

But the Portuguese people? As much as they needed it for the sake of their national self esteem, I supposed they're used to disappointment by now. When you peaked in the 1600s and you can't let that go, I guess it comes with the territory.