They did it again…

By: Bruno Romani | July 27th, 2007

As usual, one post to save time about the two days of the 14th round of the Brasileirão. The round had many incredible moments.

Alexandro Pato did it again. On Wednesday, the goal, the only one in the match between Inter and Paraná, he scored in Porto Alegre was another rare jewel. The dribble, the movement of his body, the shot. And he is only 17.

Rogério Ceni finally did it. The 34 year-old goalie scored the 74th goal of his career at the Morumbi on Thursday. The first from a free-kick. With his help, and goals by utterly criticized Leandro and Souza, the tricolor beat Sport by 3-1. Ceni had on his face the same happiness of Pato, half of Rogério’s age.

Botafogo did it again, and did it without Dodô. In a match without a crowd, as a consequence of a punishment by the Deportive Court, Botafogo killed Juventude this Thursday with a 3-1. André Lima scored again for the leaders of the tournament.

Cruzeiro did no different this round. It conceded another two goals for Atlético-PR in the 2-2 draw. Araújo scored again. But the defense of the blue team is not helping. Ex-coach Rubens Minelli used to say, “It doesn’t matter that my team concedes lots of goals, as long as it scores one more than the adversary.” Maybe Cruzeiro needs to learn this.

Corinthians did it again. Or it didn’t do anything. Another match without a victory. The 2-2 draw against Figueirense in Florianópolis in a different situation would not have been a bad result. But in the actual circumstances, it was terrible. Carpegiani is shaking.

Leão decided to do it. In the first game ahead of Atlético-MG, the victory came easily. A 3-0 against Fluminense that leaves no doubt about how much Leão loves landing on teams fighting relegation. He is so lucky that Coelho finally scored again, and even Thiago Neves, whose performances for Fluminense in recent matches have been outstanding, scored an own-goal.

Grêmio did it again by visiting Naútico in Recife and winning again, 2-0 (Tuta and Carlos Eduardo). They’re already in third…

Santos did not do it. The recovery from Luxemburgo’s team stopped on the efficient Goiás, who won the match by the minimal difference.

Obina, returned and id it. He scored the third goal on the match he was returning from the knee-injury. With the 3-1 against América-RN, Flamengo wins after 8 games, and sends Naútico to the last position in the table.

Despite all this, the best thing of the round was the match in São Paulo between Palmeiras and Vasco.

It took sweat, blood and heart. It was heroic. Palmeiras fans had forgotten how much fight it takes to win. The match started with Vasco getting a 2-0 lead in a little more than 20 minutes. The team with the coolest names in the Brasileiro had Rubens Júnior and Leandro Amaral scoring the two goals.

Palmeiras fans were facing another poor performance at home and stared at a side that watched its self-esteem to slowly vanish, like water in the desert. But before the first-half was over, Valdívia found an oasis of hope.

The second-half started and for 20 minutes Palmeiras wandered on the pitch, waiting passively for a defeat. And Makelele, not the famous one, decided to help by being sent-off and leaving Palmeiras with only 10 players with 25 minutes to go.

Martin García almost scored the third in the 34th mark. The chance missed was the final ingredient to boost the energy of the home team. Two minutes later, defender Nen tied the match.

Not satisfied with the draw, Palmeiras grew and set free the mystique of the green jersey. Luis Henrique, the lucky new transfer, scored the third, making real the comeback of the home team with only 4 minutes in the match. The 3-2 victory keeps Palmeiras on the top, but more than that, it brought confidence to the team.

the goals:

http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM706810-7824-ASSISTA+AOS+GOLS+DA+RODADA+DO+BRASILEIRAO,00.html