Happy Sunday for Cruzeiro

By: Bruno Romani | August 12th, 2007

São Paulo was just 2 minutes away of a perfect weekend. But Alecssandro with a header added a new color to the 19th round of the Campeonato Brasileiro. The color is blue. Blue from Cruzeiro. Blue from the only team chasing São Paulo to win. The 2-1 in Natal against América was very important for Cruzeiro.

Without six players, Botafogo visited Figueirense in Florianópolis and tied 1-1. Dodô scored again after the doping trial, but the main character of the day in Floripa was the referee. He did not give a penalty to Botafogo and said ok to the offside goal scored by Otacílio Neto from Figueirense. Some fans believe that this is the karma coming back to Botafogo after Dodô was absolved. Never a popular saying made so much sense: “a thief who robs a thief has 100 years of excuse” (ladrão que rouba ladrão tem 100 anos de perdão).

Paraná tied with Vasco in Curitiba. The score was 0-0. Paraná played another horrendous match. Could Cruzeiro be any happier? Yes!

Despite a great performance by goalie Harley, Goiás lost to Inter in Porto Alegre by 1-0. In his return to Porto Alegre, coach Abel Braga watched Adriano score with a header in the second-half. Will Abel be the man again for the Colorado?

In São Paulo, Corinthians had the chance to escape the relegation zone. The team played another poor first-time, and Grêmio scored first with the youngster Carlos Eduardo. In the second-half, it was all in Corinthians style. A lot of struggle, sweat and fight. The locals needed only two minutes to comeback with two players who were returning to the timão. With 36 minutes, Finazzi with a header after a corner-kick tied the match. With 38 minutes, Gustavo Nery made an 1-2 with Finazzi and scored with a beautiful shot. Corinthians is outside the relegation zone. Grêmio watches the leaders to increase the distance.

At the Maracanã, Fluminense and Santos played a lethargic match. It dragged, it was slow, it bored the audience. For the first 15 minutes, Santos dominated the midfield, but did not shoot. For the next half-hour, Fluminense had more possession, but it was heavy and slow, like a team of rock men. The home team had one chance: a free-kick followed by a header of defender Luiz Alberto. It was the local’s goal. Last year, when at Santos, Luiz Alberto scored two own goals in the two matches against Fluminense. It seems the man likes scoring against Fábio Costa when the match involves Flu and Santos. No matter his side.

In the second-half, another 45 minutes of boredom. Fluminense had another 2 chances. Another 2 goals, by Thiago Neves, who seems to carry this team alone. After 3 scoreless matches, Fluminense had 3 chances and scored 3 goals against a team that had won 3 matches in a row.

To make Cruzeiro’s weekend complete, it watched its rival Atlético lose at home against Palmeiras. With 4 minutes Éder Luís scored for the locals, but 4 minutes later Martines, who spent some time with Cruzeiro, took a free-kick and tied the match. Then Atlético grew, but 2 characters saved Palmeiras: keeper Diego Cavalieri and defensive midfielder Pierre. For Palmeiras it was worthy the wait the right counter-attack. In the second-half, Edmundo served Martines who fired a powerful shot to seal the visitor’s comeback. Atlético attacked in unorganized fashion, fruit much more of despair than skills. The two times the ball kissed the post killed the expectations of Atlético. Thrill lasted until the last minute, but Palmeiras won again away from São Paulo.

Cruzeiro is smilling. Watch the goals that cause that:

http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM713669-7824-ASSISTA+AOS+GOLS+DA+RODADA+DO+BRASILEIRAO,00.html