With a little under ten games to go, it is clear that this year’s Campeonato Brasileiro (Brazilian Championship) is one of the all time greatest.
A couple of reasons “helped” the competition along the way. São Paulo’s change in management and slow start gave the chance that rivals were waiting for over the last three years to finally end their winning streak.
Almost all teams changed coaches during the competition, giving some clubs the opportunity to regroup halfway through the tournament. Some clubs, like Palmeiras, Internacional and Grêmio learned São Paulos’s lesson and maintained the majority of their players from last year, with some important arrivals such as Vágner Love and D´Alessandro.
Palmeiras is at the top of the table. They hired Muricy after his dismissal from São Paulo, they have the best midfielders in Brazil (Cleiton Xavier and Diego Souza), a fierce defense and a couple of good strikers, not to mention their captain and most important player of all time protecting the goal: Marcos. Palmeiras is managing to get points even through the most difficult games, like some weeks ago when they got a victory in Santos and at Mineirão, over Cruzeiro.
Internacional had great expectations for this year. The Colorado side is having a season to forget though. And yet, they managed to hold a top 5 place at the table all year long.
This season surprises are Goiás and Atlético Mineiro (from the state of Minas Gerais), both teams were considered candidates for relegation and are fighting for a top 4 spot, a place that could give the club the classification to Libertadores next year.
Last decade’s downside has got to be the clubs from Rio de Janeiro. Fluminense and Botafogo are in the relegation zone, or real close to it, with Vasco already in the second division, comfortable to come back next year, and Flamengo always struggling politically. Maybe we will never see again rooters like the ones they had in the 80s, competing head to head with the greatest clubs in the country.
Nonetheless, this year’s championship remains one of the all-time greatest. Some intense rivalries, rallies for all important places and a fair amount of good players in the league.
Here are some games to keep an eye on, should you be able to catch them on TV or over the internet be aware that those dates can change:
17/10 – São Paulo x Atlético Mineiro
18/10 – Palmeiras x Flamengo
25/10 – Santos x São Paulo
25/10 – Internacional x Grêmio
25/10 – Botafogo x Flamengo
28/10 – São Paulo x Internacional
29/10 – Palmeiras x Goiás
31/10 – Flamengo x Santos
01/11 – Palmeiras x Corinthians
01/11 – Náutico x Sport
04/11 – Grêmio x São Paulo
08/11 – Atlético Mineiro x Flamengo
08/11 – Fluminense x Palmeiras
14/11 – Cruzeiro x Grêmio
14/11 – São Paulo x Vitória
22/11 – Grêmio x Palmeiras
22/11 – Flamengo x Goiás
22/11 – Botafogo x São Paulo
22/11 – Flamengo x Goiás
29/11 – Corinthians x Flamengo
29/11 – Palmeiras x Atlético Mineiro
29/11 – Goiás x São Paulo
06/12 – Flamengo x Grêmio
Picture by Rubens Chiri
Written by Fabricio Presilli
Tags: Campeonato Brasileiro, D'Alessandro, Flamengo, Fluminense, Goiás, Muricy, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Vágner Love, Vasco
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 and is filed under Brazil. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Thanks for the heads up Fabricio – hopefully we’ll get to hear about the stand out players from the league, especially ones which have a future in Europe and on the International scene!
Fabricio, what has gone wrong at the Rio clubs? I don’t know much about Brazilian club football but were they not traditionaly some of the big hitters?
Hey Geoff good to hear from you! From some 15 years the carioca clubs have not been at the top of their game. Some say that the problem is the lack of training, in Rio the usual is to train only in the afternoon, others that the local chamionship (Campeonato Carioca, from january to may) is really packed with bad teams and helps underdevelop the big ones. In my opinion the main problem is administrative, the clubs are often managed by elected presidents that either make really bad business and/or just “take” money from the club. now the clubs are poor, this happens alll over Brazil, but in a much larger scale in Rio because of the dimension of the team and the number of supporters. Now Flamengo is kind of well, Botafogo is sttrugling but I think they will stay in Fist division. Fluminense is doomed and I don’t really know if they will came back. Vasco were relegated last year and ‘sanitized’ this year and it is coming back for sure. I maybe write a colunm about that just to clarify some points.
Regards.
Ah yes, the Campeonato Carioca. I was lucky enough to catch a game or two in the Maracana a few years back. One was a CC game between Flamengo and Olaria. Flamengo lost 0-3! What fans there were in the stadium made their anger known to the board that day. For both games i saw in the Maracana the crowds were tiny in such a huge stadium and there wasn’t much atmosphere. Do you think that has an negative effect on how they perform? Looking forward to hearing more!
Geoff thank your for getting back! I don’t think that the slim presence has a big effect in the performance, obviously they love to play in bigger crowds but for games of the regional Championships and even some of the Brazilian League it is normal to get an attendance of less than ten thousand. It is sad but true!