Tricolores Go Up!

By: Bruno Romani | October 12th, 2008

Because of the round of the WC Qualifying, the matches of the 29th round of Campeonato Brasileiro were spread throughout this past week, with matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Three clubs known as “tricolor” (three colored) benefited the most.

Grêmio returned to the first spot. The club beat Santos 2-0 and Palmeiras visited Figueirense to just get a 0 draw. Now Grêmio has 56 points and Palmeiras 54. Soares scored the first for Grêmio with just two minutes into the match. The clubs missed a few chances, with each hitting the post once, and at the end of the match Soares scored for Grêmio.

São Paulo joined the top 4. The club received Naútico and won with a long range by Hernanes. São Paulo has 52 points. São Paulo also had the help of Atlético-MG, whose visit to Flamengo was a disaster for the home team. The 3-0 kept Flamengo with 49 points and almost killed the chances of the club from Rio to lift the trophy. All this took place in front of 77 thousand Flamengo fans. The goals by Atlético were scored by Castillo, Renan Oliveira and Leandro Almeida.

Fluminense left the relegation zone. The match Flu played was against a direct rival against relegation. Washington “The Braveheart” pulled a hat-trick against Atlético-PR, club for which the striker made fame in 2004. The 3-1 over Atlético playing away from home sent Flu to the 16th position and pushed Atlético to the relegation zone.

Besides the victory of Cruzeiro, goal by Ramirez, against Ipatinga, which kept the blue team in the third position, the other results of the round were not good for the plans of many clubs.

The 0 draw between Portuguesa and Coritiba was a major blow for clubs – one trying to escape relegation and the other one join the top 4. The 1 draw between Goiás and Inter (goals by Fahel - GO and Andrézinho – IN ) killed the chances of the two clubs to reach the top 4. The 2-2 between Sport and Vasco, despite being a good result alone, kept Vasco in the relegation zone. What’s worse for Vasco is that the club from Rio found two nice goals through Leandro Amaral, but saw Sport tie through Ciro in the 90+ minute.

Finally, the comeback of Botafogo over Vitória 3-1 kept the dream of Bota joining the top 4 alive, but definitely killed the chances of Vitória. The final 9 rounds are very promising. Stay tuned.