A Round Nobody Watched

By: Bruno Romani | June 30th, 2007

Today the remaining games of the 8th round of the Brasileirao took place. Yes, a round that started on Thursday ended today, throwing important derbies to the worst time ever to play a match in Brazil, 18:10. Thank you CBF for caring about bringing people to stadiums! Next time, if you don’t want matches of clubs coinciding with the ones from the national team, try postponing the matches so that both clubs and the national squad get the same attention. Or maybe, before anything else, try to think about an organized a schedule, like in Europe.

Three matches happened in the afternoon. Santos and Grêmio played a monotonous game at the Vila that justified the 0-0. Goiás, after cleaning its roster that ended in the firing of midfielder Petcovic, reached the second spot in the table after beating the fragile América in Natal by 3-0. At the same time, Cruzeiro defeated Vasco by 3-1 with two goals in the last 5 minutes of action. The situation of Vasco worsens after every week.

Derbies and Nacional Squads

To give some dimension of how bad the situation is in Brazilian football, take a look at the derbies and their characters. Copa América and the U-20 World Cup are taking away from clubs some of their main players during the competition. And it’s not that some of the main players of Brazilian clubs in Copa América are serving the Brazilian squad. They’re serving other countries! In the past Brazilian clubs would have players serving the adult Brazilian squad, and the U-20 wouldn’t take away from clubs players fundamental to the team, but rather kids who are on the bench learning, and getting experience.

Corinthians 0 x 1 Palmeiras

Palmeiras and Corinthians played one of the biggest Brazilian rivalries. Too bad lately both clubs have been involved in endless crisis that seem to take away some glamour from the match. Palmeira had 12 players unavailable for the match, including its main player Valdívia who is serving Chile, and Amaral and David serving the U-20 national team. Corinthians also lost its main midfielder, William, for the U-20.

The result was a tough match, very equal in almost everything, even in the lack of refined skills. Both sides have not been designed by their coaches to be active in pursue the attack. Instead, they prefer to counter-attack and focus on the defense. With that, Palmeiras did a better job at shooting and got the goal of the match through the defender Dininho. When Corinthians was forced to attack Palmeiras, it failed and was blocked by the lack of creativity of its midfielders.

Botafogo 2 x 1 Fluminense

Botafogo and Fluminense played the opening match of the new and overpriced João Havelange stadium (knows as Engenhao), built for the unimportant Pan-American Games (the Fifth Division of the Olympic Games). Botafogo won by 2-1 with Dodô scoring twice, but the historical first goal of the stadium was scored by Alex Dias from Fluminense. The comeback ensured the black and white side the first position in the table, something unheard of in recent years.

Now the two sides will fight to buy the 20 year concession of the stadium, along with Flamengo.

Other matches
Internacional, without Alexandre Pato, just tied by 1-1 with Atlético-MG without Tchô. The club from the South keeps flirting with relegation.

Paraná and Atlético-PR played the derby from Curitiba. The latter has Roberto serving the U-20, and with that the 2-2 didn’t change the situation of both clubs in the table. Josiel from Paraná scored again, and is the top-scorer.

The Goals