Free Nonsense

Tradition is not what it used to be...

By Alfredo Martins*

Today nothing is what it used to be... Of course we should know this; after all we try our very best every day to make this motto real.

I’m here today because I want to give you proof that tradition is not what it used to be. However, in this case I’m not referring to science and technology, but to sports and social traditions.

As most of you know, INESC TEC organised again this year another edition of the football tournament. Well, this year, and as in the previous edition, the robotics guys had two teams, one for each workplace. The game calendar dictated that the games would take place on four Saturdays – 19 May, 2, 9 and 16 June. And we were in it to win… we wanted to go all the way through to the finals!

But we were surprised by something completely unexpected: André, one of our collaborators, was getting married on Saturday, 2 June. Well, that figures: important events always occur simultaneously.

Fortunately, tradition is not what it used to be, and the wedding was a special one: neither long gowns nor fancy suits were required… at least for the guests; the groom still had to endure the trouble. The wedding party would last all night.

So we had to devise a plan: at 10 am we would play against USE and would definitely win, at 11.45 am we would be at the church for the wedding ceremony, at 1 pm we would feast our stomachs with a “Francesinha” (a “Francesinha” is a Portuguese “soggy” sandwich originally from Porto, made with bread, wet-cured ham, sausage, steak or roast meat and covered with melted cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce), and at 4 pm we would return to the football field and would definitely beat CISTER.

And so the day arrives: our team comes strong at 10 am and no psychological consequences were visible of the defeat in the previous game. Fortunately, the USE1 team did not have all their players available and we start the game in full force with our main team. We created the opportunities; some balls hit the post, finally, a real spectacular football match. And yet, as with anything in life, those who do not score will end up suffering the consequences… and so we lost the game.

Clearly the game time is not adjusted to our technical and physical capabilities (let’s just say that one of the problems was energy autonomy). There was again the "we could have won" thing. We must take into consideration that some important players were injured, and some did not show up because they had a wedding to go to.

We even hired a Brazilian player (who happens to have a brother in USE), but although he is a promising young man, he is not yet playing to his full potential. Clearly the USE team was able to find more mature and experienced players in the Latin American market, as in the previous edition of the tournament. Our young promise will certainly shine brightly in the future.

But we do not lack courage! We showered, changed attire and some of us even stopped by their houses, and on we went to the church.

What a beautiful ceremony it was (for those who watched it all; that was not my case!) and then on we went to the restaurant. Having arrived there, we start our recovery process: we need to be strong enough for the afternoon match. Now a promise is a promise, and we were promised “Francesinhas”. Let’s just say that this is not the lightest meal and the problem was that our “Francesinhas” only came to the table at almost three o'clock.

Pressuring the groom to cut the cake was obviously our next step. After all, we were entitled to our very own piece. And off we went to the afternoon game. We managed to leave just before 4 pm, at the precise time of our game. Fortunately, two of our own were there that managed to convince our opponents – CISTER – to wait for us. And thus the game began. Again our tactical positioning was excellent, i.e., we were either stationary or slow, for running with a “Francesinha” in our gut was as challenging as can be. We scored a great goal, but allowed two, which means that, according to the final arithmetic of it, there was only one thing left to say: "we could have won."

But we did not travel with a sore heart for long. On 9 June, just before the match between Portugal and Germany in the 2012 Euro Cup, we were there for another hypothetical victory. And this time the newlywed groom was ready to contribute. As the guys from HASLAB did now show up, we actually managed to win a game and we relished in the moment: we trained for next year’s tournament.

Well, we may not be the best team in the tournament, but next year we will be here again and then we will win... At least the other robotics team brought home the trophy so I guess we can say it’s partly ours, right?

In these troubled times, we cannot be discouraged. As António Gedeão said, "the dream commands life", so all we have to do is be proud of our team, count on our teammates and play the game.

*Collaborator at the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Unit (ROBIS)