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The Best of Brasileirao

Bruno Romani — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:58:36 +0000

One day after the end of 2009 Campeonato Brasileiro, the best players of the tournament were awarded. Placar, the most traditional football magazine in Brazil, handed for the 40th time the Bola de Prata (silver ball) and the Bola de Ouro (golden ball). Later, CBF awarded its Craque Brasileirão, a newer prize but the one that gets an official seal. And despite that the two prizes have different criteria to chose the best, only 4 differences took place.

For one of the defensive midfielders, Placar chose Palmeiras’ Pierre whereas CBF picked Sao Paulo’s Hernanes again. As leftback, Placar chose Kleber (the one Dunga dropped from the national team) while CBF picked Julio Cesar from Goias. For one of the offensive midfielders, Placar picked Marcelinho Paraiba who was relegated with Coritiba while CBF picked Palmeiras’ Diego Souza.

The two awards diverged regarding Brasileirao’s MVP. Placar handed it to Adriano while CBF picked Diego Souza.

The Bola de Prata squad, prize handed by Placar, is chosen in the following way. Journalists from the magazine watch every game at the stadium and grades each player from 0 to 10. The best averages in each position take the Bola de Prata. The best average of all takes the Bola de Ouro. So this is their team:

GOALKEEPER:
Victor (Grêmio)

RIGHTBACK:
Jonathan (Cruzeiro)

CENTERBACKS
André Dias (São Paulo)
Miranda (São Paulo)

LEFTBACK:
Kleber (Internacional)

DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS:
Pierre (Palmeiras)
Guiñazu (Internacional)

OFFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS:
Marcelinho Paraiba (Coritiba)
Petkovic (Flamengo)

FORWARDS:
Diego Tardelli (Atlético-MG)
Adriano (Flamengo)

GOLDEN BALL (MVP OF THE TOURNAMENT):
Adriano (Flamengo)

The team of the Craque Brasileirão Prize, award handed by CBF, is chosen in a different way. Players, coaches and journalists vote on the players they think were the best:

GOALKEEPER:
Victor (Grêmio)

RIGHTBACK:
Jonathan (Cruzeiro)

CENTERBACKS
André Dias (São Paulo)
Miranda (São Paulo)

LEFTBACK:
Júlio César (Goiás)

DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS:
Hernanes (São Paulo)
Guiñazu (Internacional)

OFFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS:
Diego Souza (Palmeiras)
Petkovic (Flamengo)

FORWARDS:
Diego Tardelli (Atlético-MG)
Adriano (Flamengo)

MVP OF THE TOURNAMENT:
Diego Souza (Palmeiras)

CBF also hands the following awards:

BEST COACH:
Andrade (Flamengo)

BEST NEW TALENT:
Fernandinho (Barueri)

BEST PLAYER CHOSEN BY THE FANS:
Conca (Fluminense)

Brasileiro: Leaders Fail to Win and Inter Celebrates

Bruno Romani — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:55:58 +0000

The 28th round of Brasileirao was big obstacle for the leaders of the tournament. Palmeiras, Sao Paulo, Goias and Atletico-MG failed to win. The only side rubbing its hand and smiling is Inter, as it pocketed 3 points.

On Thursday, Palmeiras received Avai at home knowing that on the day before Sao Paulo had failed to win. Everything was ready for a big party. A victory was going to increase the lead by 7 points. But somebody did not tell that to Avai. The club played a solid first-half – marking and counterattacking well but missing goals. The side headed by Silas jumped in the score board ahead with 2 headers, by William and Emerson. The incredible thing is that before visiting Palmeiras, only one goal scored by Avai in 27 matches was the result of a header.

Despite the rain, Palmeiras had to pressure and before the first-half was over, Vagner Love scored for the locals, which brought promises of a dramatic second-half. And that became reality. Palmeiras threw itself into the attacking field. At the same time it looked dangerous, it gave space, which was well used by midfielder Marquinhos. Avai missed chances to kill the match. With 5 minutes to be played, Robert left the bench and scored one more time. Palmeiras fans were able to celebrate finally. But the 2 goal draw tasted as a defeat for the players, who left the pitch talking about the importance of not losing.

The day before, the story was similar and the final score was the same. Sao Paulo received Coritiba and played well the first-half, missing many chances. With 23 minutes, it opened the score board with the talent of Hernanes, who stole a ball, dribbled and shot. But after that, Sao Paulo stopped attacking and Coritiba found 2 goals in two mistakes of Rogerio Ceni. First, the goalie gave a rebound for Renatinho. Then, he failed to clear the corner taken by Marcelinho Paraiba and the ball visited the net. The best player of Coritiba scored a bizarre Olympic goal.

In the second-half, Sao Paulo attacked without much organization. Washington left the bench and tied for the locals, but Coritiba had lots of space to kill the match. The draw, however, tasted bitter. Hernanes even declared that the title for Sao Paulo depended on a miracle to happen. At that point, Sao Paulo did not imagine Palmeiras wasn’t going to win.

The other leaders did even worse. Atletico-MG visited the desperate side of Botafogo while Goias took on Cruzeiro at Mineirao.

Like it did against Goias in the last round, Botafogo played an inspired half against a club in the top. The first-half ended 3-0 for Bota, with beautiful goals by Andre Lima, Lucio Flavio and Reinaldo. In the second-half, Atletico-MG scored from the spot with Correa but it wasn’t enough. Botafogo left the relegation zone, while Atletico-MG not only failed to jump to second, but also it fell to fourth.

Against Cruzeiro, Goias missed its chance of taking advantage of this round in 8 minutes. Between the 2nd and the 10th marks into the second-half, Cruzeiro scored 3 goals. Leandro Lima (in his debut) and Wellington Paulista (twice) made another round really bad for Goias, which now seats in 5th.

With all these results, Inter could not be happier. In the debut of coach Mario Sergio, Inter received the troubled side of Nautico and had no trouble (sorry, I could not avoid it) to win. Alecssandro scored twice and reached 13 in the competition. D’Alessandro, after a long time, scored the other goal. Bruno Mineiro scored for the visitors. After 6 matches, Inter wins again. Not only that, the club jumped to third with the perfect round. Nautico, on the other hand, is stuck in the relegation zone.

The top of the table looks like this: Palmeiras – 54, Sao Paulo – 49, Inter – 47, Atletico-MG – 47, Goias – 45.

Coincidence?

Except for Inter, all the teams with players in the national squad did not win. Palmeiras did not have the best player of the tournament (Diego Souza), Sao Paulo did not have its best defender (Miranda), Atletico-MG did not its main forward (Diego Tardelli), Flamengo did not the best forward of the league (Adriano) and Gremio did not have its goalie (Victor). And it will happen again this weekend because CBF does not stop matches of the tournament when Brazil plays. Coincidence or poor management?

Best Match of the Round

The round had many candidates for the title of “best match”, but the clash Vitoria 3 – 3 Flamengo was the best of all. The first-half had 5 goals. Flamengo scored. Vitoria tied. Flamengo scored. Vitoria tied again and came back. The main name of the match was veteran midfielder Ramon, who plays for Vitoria. First, he gave an assist to Roger tie the match. Later, he scored twice – one from a beautiful free-kick. Ramon, you may remember, is among the top 10 scorers in the history of Campeonato Brasileiro.

For Flamengo, the man of the match was Ze Roberto. He gave an assist to Denis Marques in the first goal. And scored the third goal of Fla, which came in the last minute of the match. A nice ending for a thrilling game. The other goal for Fla was scored by veteran Serbian Petkovic – from a free-kick, as usual.

With the draw, Fla failed to take advantage of the round and remains in 6th with 42 points.

Relegation

The only change in the relegation zone was the departure of Botafogo. Santo Andre is the one who joined the bottom four, with a nil draw against Barueri. Despite each team hitting the post once, it was by far the worst match of the round.

Besides Nautico, Sport and Fluminense walk firmly towards the second division. Sport received Santos and lost 1-0. Defender Igor did a very poor job in clearing a ball, which put Felipe Azevedo in front of the goal to score. Sport has only 24 points.

Fluminense remains in the last position with 22 points. The club from Rio tied in one goal against Corinthians at Maracana. Both sides were very little committed to winning, and neither Ronaldo nor Fred were on the pitch. Alan scored for Flu while Dentinho tied for Corinthians.

The situation in the bottom of the table looks like this: Botafogo – 31, Santo Andre – 29, Nautico – 26, Sport – 24, Fluminense – 22.

Not much to talk about…

Atletico-PR 0 – 0 Gremio. Gremio is in 7th, with 41 points.

Half of State Tournaments in the Pockets of Two Big Clubs

Bruno Romani — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:06:06 +0000

Half of the state championships of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul have been played. Two traditional clubs took home these “titles” home, which means that they are already in the finals of the tournament. The rules for the two tournaments state that the champion of each half plays a final. And reaching a final this early in the year means that some clubs are already pocketing some extra money, as TY rights offer bigger quotas for finalists.

In recent years in Rio, it has been a common happening smaller clubs spoiling the party for the traditional sides. So Botafogo had every reason to be cautious about Resende, who eliminated Flamengo last Sunday. Botafogo played serious and controlled the match from the first minute. Resende seemed happy about just reaching the final of the half. Put this together, Botafogo had no hard time to score 3 times, goals by Reinaldo, Lucas Silva and Maicosuel. The spot in the finals is an indication that Botafogo did the right thing by completely changing the team from the past 3 seasons.

Rio Grande do Sul

In Rio Grande do Sul, there’s no space for the small. Inter and Gremio played another derby. Besides a spot in the final, the winner would have won another week to make fun of the rival. But besides these attracting elements, the local football federation seems to care very little about goes on outside its boundaries. Gremio was forced to play its 4th match in the week. It played last Sunday, Friday and this Sunday for the tournament. And on Wednesday, Gremio debuted in Copa Libertadores. So, on top of facing a better side, Gremio was going to face the physical limits of its players. Very poor decision making in Rio Grande do Sul.

With all this said, a derby is a derby. Gremio made things no easier for Inter. Victor (remember this kid. National team material detected), the keeper from Gremio, was a wall in the first-half. It didn’t matter that Inter played better. The draw was a victory of a single man. But, as football is a collective sport, Gremio’s defense let Indio onside in the beginning of the first-half. 1-0 Inter. And Inter played better.

Not only the second goal didn’t come, but Gremio tied with 15 minutes into the second-half through Alex Mineiro. Things changed, and the Inter risked losing at its own stadium for its main rival, who played 4 times in 7 days and who technically is worse. Inter got scared. But again, things insisted to change directions. And Inter scored with 10 minutes left through a header of Magrao.

The first-half of the tournament is in Inter’s pocket. Anything different would have been a shame.

PS: In Sao Paulo things remain the same. Palmeiras is the best. Corinthians and Sao Paulo suck. But these are the top 3 clubs. Santos, Portuguesa, Barueri and a line of other club fight for the 4th spot.

Goals: