Brasileiro: All Green
Bruno Romani | Aug 24, 2009 | Comments 0
It was a green weekend. The 21st round of Campeonato Brasileiro smiled to Palmeiras and Goias.
Palmeiras played at home a decisive match against Inter, a contender for the title. Despite the beautiful goal by Juliano for the visitors, Palmeiras had a brilliant participation of Diego Souza. The number 7, the best player of the team, left behind his markers before getting the penalty taken by Obina, and attracted the entire rival’s defense in the play that resulted in the goal of Ortigoza. Not only Palmeiras beat a direct rival, but also it debuted its beautiful third jersey, which, ironically, is not green.
Goias received Santos under heavy rain in the match that marked the return of forward Fernandao, ex Inter, to the club who introduced him into football. And Goias controlled the match the entire time, beating up Santos slowly – not even the goal by Kleber Pereira and the saves by Felipe could change that. After a beautiful pass by Iarley, who used his heel, Goias scored through Vitor – one of the best right sides in Brazil. In the beginning of second-half, Felipe scored the winning goal. With the 2-1, Goias jumped to second again with 38 points.
One of the reasons for the green weekend was Atletico-PR. The team was conducted by veteran Paulo Baier and stopped Sao Paulo and its series of 7 victories in a row. Baier, who played both for Palmeiras and Goias, scored the winning goal through a header. On the day goalie Rogerio Ceni became the player with more games played in Campeonato Brasileiro, his club fell to third, staying with 36 points.
Finally, Atletico-MG steam seems to have reached its end. Coach Celso Roth returned to Gremio’s Estadio Olimpico, where he is hated by the local fans. And those fans could not be happier with Roth. Gremio delivered another of those powerful performances at home and trashed the ex-leader 4-1. In 29 minutes the score already marked 3-0, goals by Rever, Perea and midfielder Souza. In the second half, Jonas scored one more. With that, Atletico fell to 6th and Gremio is just 3 points away from the top 4.
The newest side to the top 4 is Avai – who reached the 10th match without a defeat. The victim this time was Flamengo who was trashed 3-0 by the locals. Luis Ricardo, Leo Gago and Fabinho Capixaba scored the goals that extended Avai’s dream.
Relegation
The fight to escape relegation is getting increasingly difficult. And the side who benefited the most from the 21st round was Santo Andre, who had a direct battle against Coritiba. The paulista side dominated most of the match and scored the only goal of the match through Nunes. Santo Andre jumped to 24 points and is two positions above the relegation zone.
The one side stuck in the relegation zone is Fluminense, which received Barueri at Maracana. It struggled against a side short of one man (in the end, another played was ejected), and the match remained scoreless. With the draw, Fluminense now is the last side in the table.
Sport is no longer the last club in the table. The club beat Vitoria 2-0, goals by Andrade, ex-Vasco midfielder, and Fabiano. It was the first victory of Sport in 10 matches.
The other side from Recife is also on the relegation zone. Nautico visited Cruzeiro and saw its defense collapsing with only 16 seconds. Wellington Paulista needed a little more than a quarter of minute of the match to open the score. Eventually, he scored another 2 to complete his hat trick in the match that ended 4-2. Fabricio scored another one for the blue team. Gilmar and Carlinhos Bala scored for Nautico.
Botafogo is the other side in the relegation zone. In other situations, the 3 goal draw against Corinthians in Sao Paulo would’ve been great, but not today. Especially when the main name of the match was the referee and his poor work. The man did not see Botafogo’s Andre Lima use his hand to score. But also did not give a penalty in Victor Simoes, gave a penalty in Jorge Henrique taken by Dentinho (one of the two converted in the match), and did not see the invasion in the box when the forward too the penalties. This poor work overshadowed the beautiful goals from free-kicks scored by Marcinho for Corinthians and Lucio Flavio for Botafogo. Reinaldo scored the other goal for Botafogo.
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