Fluminense Makes History in the Copa Libertadores

By: Bruno Romani | May 22nd, 2008

Renato Gaucho

There are stadiums that are meant to be the place for historical matches. Last night, Maracanã watched another piece of history on the make. São Paulo had its ticket to the semifinals until the very last minute, but Fluminense managed to score in the stoppage time the goal that eliminated the once powerful paulista club. Time stopped.

Playing in front of 80 thousand fans, the first-half was all Flu’s. The first 15 minutes were suffocating for the visitors, and with 12 minutes Washington opened the score board. Left-back Júnior César had tons of space, thanks to Jancarlos. When the first portion of the match ended, São Paulo was happy that it was losing only by a one goal difference.

The second-half started with both clubs taking less risks. Renato Gaúcho, then, made a move that could be very intelligent or a complete mistake. He sent forward Dodô to the match by taking out defensive midfielder Arouca. São Paulo gained the midfield. It seemed that Renato had made the wrong choice.

The visitors started to show a good game, and a goal as a matter of time. Back to Maracanã, Adriano was the man in charge for scoring this goal. 1-1 forced the locals to score another 2 goals.

The first came just a minute after São Paulo tied. Dodô miscalculated his shot, but Rogério Ceni conceived the goal anyways. The 2-1 was going to make the next 15 minutes feel like 40 days in the desert for both visitors and locals. Fluminense put pressure and São Paulo seemed to have forgotten all their past experiences in Copa Libertadores. The club was in despair, and what was impossible for Flu just after São Paulo scored was coming to reality every second.

In the last minute, Adriano had a ball in the midfield. The forward, with tons of experience, lost the ball that resulted in a corner-kick. Fans of both clubs could not breath. Thiago Neves took the last corner. The ball traveled in the air and for a fraction of a second the entire stadium was in silence. And, then, the explosion of joy. Washington used his head to push the ball against the net of Rogerio Ceni. 3-1. Fluminense is in the semi-finals in the most heroic way possible. Coach renato Gaucho (pic), who had great moments as player with Fluminense, knows well how big this moment was. His tears still on the pitch tells eveyrthing about it.

The club from Rio now waits for tonight’s matches to have the next rival decided. One thing is clear: this was one of the biggest moments of the club’s history. And Maracanã was the stage for that again.

goals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM9E0Uee1Qw

Fluminense fans