Brasileiro: Palmeiras Thrives With a Perfect Weekend

On the 14th round, Palmeiras reached the top of Campeonato Brasileiro (losing on the goal difference for Atletico-MG) by thrashing its main rival Corinthians with a 3-0. Those who expected to see Ronaldo saw Obina. Obina, yes the one who Flamengo fans used to celebrate as “better than Eto’o”, pulled off a hat-trick. On the day interim coach Jorginho was having his farewell match before Muricy Ramalho, the current Brazilian champion, took the job, Palmeiras played hypnotic football. Not only Diego Souza, Cleiton Xavier and Obina are playing well. Palmeiras has a new defensive midfielder who has potential. His name is Souza and you heard about him first here. Palmeiras adds another match to its series of 6 defeatless matches in the derby, which goes back to 2006.

The reason Palmeiras reached the top is that Atletico-MG lost at home, in front of 50 thousand fans, for Goias, who scored a single goal through Iarley. Believe in coincidences? Last year, when Celso Roth coached Gremio, the team entered in a decline in the tournament after losing at home against Goias. Sao Paulo, coached by Muricy Ramalho at the time, ended was the champion. Now Celso Roth watches his Atletico-MG being reached by Palmeiras, which is now in the hands of Muricy. Can Atletico hold on to the first spot?

Another reason the weekend was fantastic for Palmeiras is that Botafogo beat Inter 3-2. Botafogo jumped on a 2-0 lead. Without Nilmar after the transfer to Villareal, Inter tied with a lot of effort. But at the end of the match, Alessandro scored and took Botafogo away from the relegation zone.

Also, another rival of Palmeiras for the top spots lost. The surprise named Barueri lost after 10 matches, the first one at home in the league. Sao Paulo won 2-1, goals by Washington and Andre Dias. It was the first match Sao Paulo won playing away in 4 months and the first in the tournament.

The only rival on the top to win was Vitoria, who beat Coritiba 1-0 with a goal by Leandro Domingues. Vitoria was the only club to win at home on Sunday – in other words only in one match out of seven the locals won.

To finish the (almost) perfect weekend for Palmeiras, Santos, coached now by Luxemburgo, lost at home against Flamengo. Robson scored for the locals, but Flamengo came back with a beautiful long range by Adriano and an own goal by Para. It was the first time in an official game that Flamengo beat Santos at Vila Belmiro. Counting friendlies, the last time Flamengo won at the mythical stadium was in 1976 with a goal by Vandelei Luxemburgo. Coincidences…

Relegation Zone

The fight to scape the bottom four seems to be more a fight for who will actually stay there. Just see why:

Atletico-PR took Avai at home. Two sides fighting relegation. And Atletico managed to lose in front of its fans 3-1. Avai reached the 4th game without a defeat.

Sport and Nautico, the two sides from Recife, played a derby at Ilha do Retiro to see who was going to keep the rival in a very serious situation. But it seems they agreed they both want to be in crisis – the 3 goal draw helped neither. They both seat in the relegation zone.

Finally, Fluminense played at home against Cruzeiro and tied in 1 goal. The result kept Flu in the bottom four.

So it doesn’t go unmentioned…

The most beautiful goal of the weekend happened in Porto Alegre. Gremio beat Santo Andre at home 3-2, with two goals by defender Rafael Marques and a beautiful long range by midfielder Souza (the most beautiful of all)