Trio Benefits from the Weekend

By: Bruno Romani | July 30th, 2007

Only 3 teams benefited from the weekend round of the Brasileiro. And everything I say in one round happens exactly in the opposite way in the next. Just to show you how good I’m at this. Coincidence, or not, 2 out of these 3 clubs have blogs here on the Offside. Go ahead and check them out.

The first one to benefit was São Paulo, who visited América in Natal and despite the fact of not putting on a good performance, it won by the minimal score. The controversial midfielder Richarlysson scored with a header in the first-half. São Paulo reached the same 28 points of the leader Botafogo. América returned to the last spot.

The defeat of Botafogo this weekend benefited not only São Paulo. Cruzeiro , the club that killed the leaders, reached the 5th spot. The match in Belo Horizonte was amazing. Cruzeiro conceded another two goals, but this time around it managed to score one more. The home team played with only 10 men since the end of the first-half. The young talent Guilherme scored almost from the midfield, and Wagner got a nice shot after a free-kick. To ensure that the yo-yo from Cruzeiro is going up, the goalkeeper Fábio had an excellent performance. For Botafogo, the only good news is that André Lima scored again.

The third team to take advantage of the weekend was Vasco. And the carioca team defeated a direct rival on the top of the table. On Saturday, the side with coolest names of the league (not tired of repeating this) crushed Goiás with a 4 – 1. Goiás fell to the 7th spot and Vasco moved to the 4th.

Making the weekend even more beneficial to these 3 sides, Grêmio just tied at home with Atlético-PR by 1-1. That was the same final score of Juventude and Palmeiras, the other relevant match for the top of the table. Juventude’s goal, score through Marcão, was beautiful.

A team that is having a silent recovery is Inter. It visited Sport and crushed the home team by 5-1. Iarley scored again. Alex scored again. And Pinga scored an olympic goal. Inter is already on the 6th spot. It will fight for a Libertadores spot.

Sport’s rival, Naútico, is in the relegation zone, but showed again its main specialty: killing teams from São Paulo. The red and white team visited Santos at Vila Belmiro and won by 2-1. Out of the 4 paulista teams, Naútico won against 3. Santos is stuck in a mid-position, and the only good news is that Kléber, the striker, scored again.

Corinthians and Flamengo played an emptied derby of the masses. Only 5 thousand people showed up at the Morumbi to watch the two most popular Brazilian sides hold hands and stay together close to relegation. The 2-2 draw wasn’t good for both. For Nike, it was a special day, given that the 2007/08 jerseys of both clubs debuted today. But the atmosphere was closer to the one of a funeral. Corinthians got a 2-0 lead, with Clodoaldo and Dinélson, but Flamengo tied with Souza and Moisés. The midfielder Roger debuted for Flamengo against his last team, but could not do much. After the match, the coach Ney Franco was fired. Flamengo replaced him by the endless, carioca lover, Joel Santana.

Ahead of Atlético-MG, Leão won the second match in a row. He really enjoys recovering teams. His team visited Paraná and got a 3-1. Paraná’s goal, however, by Vinicius Pacheco was worth the ticket.

To close the round, Fluminense and Figueirense repeated the final of Copa do Brasil. Playing in Brasília, the two sides ended with a boring 1-1 draw. Somália scored again, and the efficient defender Thiago Silva scored another own-goal against Fluminense this week.

Goals:

http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM707939-7824-ASSISTA+AOS+GOLS+DA+RODADA+DO+BRASILEIRAO,00.html