Being from Rio Sucked on The Weekend

By: Bruno Romani | September 15th, 2008

Being from Rio in the 25th round of Campeonato Brasileiro sucked. The four clubs 4. 2 of them are in the relegation zone and the other 2 fighting for the top spots lost key matches against direct rivals.

In the two matches involving the best clubs, Botafogo and Flamengo took on direct rivals for the top spots. Botafogo was visited by Inter-RS and suffered its first loss in 11 matches. The trio Alex, D’Alessandro and Nilmar were efficient in the 2-1 victory, with the first two scoring and the third giving a pass for one of the goals. Not only Bota loses after 11 matches, but also now it got São Paulo with the same 42 points. São Paulo which, by the way, was the responsible for beating the other club from Rio fighting for the top positions. Flamengo visited the tricolor and lost 2-0. The result sent Flamengo down to the 6th spot.

At the bottom of the table, the situation is critical for the clubs from Rio. Fluminense visited Santos in the return of coach Cuca to Vila Belmiro. The man who heads Fluminense is not in a good moment of his career, and Santos the top striker of the league. Kléber Pereira opened the score board in the match that ended 2-1 for the locals. Fluminense remains in the relegation zone, and now it has the company of Vasco. Vasco lost at home for Naútico, direct rival in the fight for not going to second division. The 3-1 ended with Vasco having to send another forward to play as a goalkeeper. Leandro Amaral became the goalie after Roberto was ejected. Vasco had already made the 3 subs. Leandro, who scored the only goal for Vasco, could not avoid the third goal of the visitors scored by Felipe.

On Saturday, the two biggest surprises of the round. Ipatinga beat Atlético-MG 3-2 and left the last position, which now belongs to Portuguesa after the 2-0 loss against Atlético-PR The biggest surprise, however, happened in Porto Alegre. Goiás visited the leader Grêmio and came back to win 2-1. The victory not only shows how good has been the recovery of the winners, but also brought new life to the league. The distance between Grêmio and the rest has decreased. Only 3 points separate Grêmio from Palmeiras, the second team.

Palmeiras visited Cruzeiro to play the best match of the round. It was another “final”. Palmeiras won with a incredible goal by Diego Sousa. Palmeiras played the second-half with only 10 men, after Lenny was ejected. Palmeiras was not ashamed to defend. And it also relied on goalkeeper Marcos, whose save at the end was as important as a goal. The team headed by Luxemburgo is very much alive.

The largest result of the weekend was the 5-0 victory of Sport over Figueirense, which cost coach PC Gusmão his job.

In the match with the great surprises Vitória and Coritiba, the first took home the 3 points with a single goal victory.