Grêmio Kills a Rival for the Title

By: Bruno Romani | August 18th, 2008

Grêmio gave another important step towards the third Brazilian title of its history. This Sunday, the club beat São Paulo by 1-0. The result left the defending champs very far from the title. In the race against Grêmio, only Cruzeiro and Palmeiras remain alive.

Cruzeiro beat Vitória, another contender for top positions, by 2-1. The blue club remains 5 points behind the leaders. The bad news is that forward Rômulo broke his leg.

After announcing the transfer of midfielder Valdívia, Palmeiras overcame with 10 men on the pitch the rising side of Coritiba. The great 1-0 came through Alex Mineiro, who is one of the top strikers of the league.

The new club on the top 4 is Botafogo. The club from Rio has been having a great campaign since coach Ney Franco took over. Botafogo was the only club on the weekend to win away from home. The victory happened against Sport. Jorge Henrique, in the best moment of his career, scored again.

On the bottom part, the body bumping on the trunk is Ipatinga. 5-0 defeat against Atlético-PR in the first match of coach Mario Sérgio. Among the bigger clubs fighting relegation, two had a good weekend, and two just wish the next match could start soon.

Vasco thrashed the side full of stars of Inter. Old Edmundo led his club to a 4-0 victory. Despite the fact that Inter had Nilmar, Daniel Carvalho, D’Alessandro, and others, the names of the loser side were defender Bolivar and keeper Clemer, who both took part on a play that ended in an amateurish own goal.

In the debut of coach Cuca, Fluminense beat Atlético-MG, direct rival in the relegation escape. The goal was scored by Dodô. Flu, however, remains in the relegation zone.

Santos had an even worse weekend. It tied in two goals with Flamengo at home. The visitors scored first and Santos managed to comeback with one of the goals scored again by Kléber Pereira. Leo Moura tied in a penalty. To make matters more dramatic, forward Maikon Leite, the best man of Santos lately, had a shocking knee injury. Things are tough for the club where Pelé played. Santos is the second to the last.

With the results, Naútico was thrown in the relegation zone after losing against Goiás 3-0. Portuguesa, who lost 2-1 against Figueirense, is the first club outside the zone.