Flamengo Blinks and Lets Everyone Else to Catch Up

By: Bruno Romani | July 21st, 2008

Three rounds ago the difference between Flamengo, the first club in the table, and the fifth club was 9 points. Now it is just 3. In a blink of eye, Flamengo got 5 clubs very close to it. This Sunday, the club from Rio was visited by Vitória. The visitors, who are having a great season, won 1-0 goal by Dinei. True that the ref failed to allow a goal by Diego Tardelli, but the truth is that Flamengo produced very little. Vitória not only did good to itself, now it seats in 4th in the table just 3 points away from the leader, but also it gave new life to the league.

Just one point away is Grêmio, who played a key match against Cruzeiro in Porto Alegre. Using its most strong tools, a mix of physical and tactical game, Grêmio dominated the match and won 1-0 in a beautiful volley by Paulo Sérgio. Cruzeiro stayed two points away from Flamengo.

With its third victory in a row, São Paulo has jumped to fifth 3 points away from Flamengo. Despite playing a poor match against Botafogo, who also played its best match of the league, the tricolor won 2-1. Goalkeeper Rogério Ceni scored from the spot and reached the 80th of his career. It was also goal number 1500 of São Paulo in the history of Campeonato Brasileiro, the only club to have that number so far.

Palmeiras went down to 6th. The green club delivered another poor performance as an visitor and was defeated by Goiás, who is in the relegation zone. Goiás opened a 2 goal difference with just 20 minutes, but before the first-half was over, Palmeiras tied through Alex Mineiro, the top striker of the tournament with 8 goals, and defender Jeci. In the second-half, however, Palmeiras’ Kléber was ejected from the match for the third time in just 13 matches (a record). Goiás took advantage of that and scored the third goal with Alex Terra. After the match was over, forward Denilson (yes, that one who used to be a promise and now is a 30 year-old) managed to get a red card after delivering sweet words to the ref. Palmeiras remains with 21 points.

With 19 points and seating in 7th, Internacional visited Náutico and just tied. The ref gave a penalty to the locals after Radamés dove. In the second-hald, Nilmar tied for Inter. Naútico seats in 9th.

Bottom half is no country for defeat

Between the 10th and the 20th club, the difference is just 7 points. Anyone can be in the relegation zone. 5 clubs have 15 points: Vasco, Botafogo, Sport, Portuguesa and Atlético-MG.

The situation for Atlético-MG could be even worse. The fans, Atlético’s best asset, decided to protest by launch a campaign named “zero attendance.” The result was just 6 thousand people in the stadium. Coritiba opened a 2-0 lead in the first-half. Things looked pretty grim. However, conducted by veteran Serbian midfielder Petkovic, Atlético came back in the second-half. It was the first time in 6 matches the club scored more than 1 goal in a match. Coritiba is in 10th with 17 points.

Vasco lost 3-1 against Atlético-PR in Curitiba. The local team played with a jersey similar to Dallas FC, partner of Atlético. Vasco stopped in the good performance of keeper Gallato who even denied a penalty to Leandro Amaral. Since the forward started wearing the number 11 (brought back by Vasco’s new president Roberto Dinamite), he has not scored.

In the relegation zone, the fight is fierce. Fluminense beat Figueirense with a polemic goal by Thiago Neves. Ipatinga, the last club in the table, thrashed Portuguesa 4-1. The result cost the job of Vagner Benazzi, the man who brought back Portuguesa to the first division both of the state league and the Campeonato Brasileiro.

In Santos, coach Cuca finally had its first victory ahead o the local team. And that almost did not happen. The goal came through Kléber Pereira. He took a penalty, keeper Magrão denied it, but Kléber used his head to take advantage of the rebound. The ref also failed to give Sport a legal goal. Both clubs missed many chances and the victory finally stayed with Santos. That was the debut of Paraguayan forward Nelson Cuevas at Santos.

All goals here