Fluminense is considered the club of aristocracy in Rio, mainly because some big shots that rule the game in Brazil are supporters of the “Tricolor”, including João Havelange. The club from Rio was having a bad season, with a last place stand on the table. When October came, Fred’s game started to show up in Maracanã, and Fluminense is now two points behind rival Botafogo, in a fight against relegation, with consecutive wins, some of them against some top placers like Cruzeiro, Atlético Mineiro and Palmeiras.

As far as Palmeiras is concerned, they also are having a year to remember. During half the championship they held on to the first place, and as a consequence, looked like an easy pick to win it all at the end. However, a single win out of the last seven games, plus losses to all four teams currently at the bottom of the table, simply shattered the dream of the “palestrinos” that now have got to see São Paulo and Flamengo battle for the title, with just three rounds before a champion is crowned.

In the same manner that Fred is currently one of the main reasons for Fluminense’s surge, Vágner Love’s poor performance is always mentioned by Palmeiras fans. Midfielders Diego Souza and Cleiton Xavier are being accused by teammates of focusing exclusively upon transfers to European clubs by the end of the year. Nonetheless, Palmeiras’ bad moment can be credited mainly to the defensive players’ performance. Also, the inconsistency of the team managed by Muricy Ramalho hurt their chances beyond recovery. At the other end, Fluminense’s sub-20 star Maicon is proving he is worth all the hype and talented midfielder Dario Conca is the ‘maestro’ of this year’s cast.

In common, these teams have only one thing: ups and downs. This means that now Palmeiras has to pick up the pieces and try to stay among the top four by the end of the Championship to get a place in next years’ Copa Libertadores. Meanwhile, Fluminense is still battling relegation; they will play the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, on a vengeful match against Ecuatorians’ LDU, which beat Fluminense last year in a thrilling Libertadores’ final at Maracanã.

2009’s Campeonato Brasileiro has been an emotional roller coaster ride. Some fans are disappointed, some are relieved, some are hoping for the best: São Paulo’s fans are pretty chatty these days as they look forward to getting one more trophy added to their gallery. Or not. Adriano’s Flamengo may grab the title after all. As someone else has already said, “The game isn’t over until it’s over”.

Photo by www.fluminensefc.com.br.

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

Falling from grace and coming back, just like the Phoenix; One could certainly say these words describe the trajectory of a player that has again reborn to football, now in his native land: Ronaldo.

Ronaldo’s history is well known worldwide: the great football player that Cruzeiro introduced to the world as well as the man with many injuries and controversial headlines.

After almost 15 years playing in Dutch, Spanish and Italian leagues – and three severe knee injuries, he came back to Brazil in 2008 to treat his knee, be with his family and, maybe, put an end to his career, that made him a global superstar and and an idol in Brazil, where he is a role model for those young football players. At first, he was training at Flamengo’s facilities (his favourite club) and they thought of siginig him, but never made an offer.

That’s when a club came up with a plan to have a strong performance in 2009, and prepare for its centennial celebration, in 2010. Corinthians signed Ronaldo with a salary that no other club in Brazil could match. Revenues also come from the sponsors advertising on the team’s shirt: 80% of such revenues go to Ronaldo. All added up, he makes as much money as he would in a top European club, and made Corinthians’ shirt look like a billboard.

Presented with a hype that the Brazilian football doesn’t see very often, soon enough all things related to Ronaldo were in the news, and yet, Brazilians seem not to get enough of him. Everything became a headline: his home, his new-born daughter, the women that keep him company, and – most of all – his weight. Ronaldo clearly has been having weight issues for a long time now. Whenever he’s not playing constantly, he puts on more weight. He reached a reportedly maximum of 105kg in the beginning of this year, and lost a portion of that in training with Corinthians.

Completing his recovery from a banged up knee and getting a place on the squad would be the next logical moves. However, Ronaldo’s weight proved again to be a serious problem, affecting his mobility on the pitch. Corinthians’ coach Mano Menezes had to even pull togheter a physical department that the club had never had, and a plan to make Ronaldo play an incresingly number of minutes at each match, so that he could be in his prime at the end of the regional “Paulistão” (São Paulo State Championship) and the “Copa do Brasil” (Brazilian Cup).

The plan worked well and Ronaldo scored his first goal with Corinthians in the last minutes of a derby against Palmeiras, equalising that game in its very final minutes. Bear in mind that Palmeiras versus Corinthians is one of the most fierce rivalries in Brazilian football and for the fans of Corinthians, having a goal scored by Ronaldo to avoid losing to its rival was like an honorable act performed by a martyr. That goal was the single most showed one of all time on Brazilian TV to the date.

Following some routine muscular stress-related injuries, Ronaldo proved his importance with an astonishing rate of shoots and goals, scoring in almost every match and being key on the winnings of both championships: Brazilian Cup and São Paulo State.

Coach Menezes’ efforts to make Ronaldo play also include different tactics scheme; different from all other clubs in Brazil. Corinthians plays with two midfielders marking, one loose to make the plays and one forward open on each side, with Ronaldo in the middle, always the last touch in front of the goal, so that he doesn´t need to move that much. Besides, he is the only one on the team that does not have a defensive role. It’s safe to say that Ronaldo’s role in the team has been so key that without him, the team is kind of lost all over the pitch, mainly because Corinthians does not have a forward that can replace Ronaldo with his level of quality: hold the ball and kick it to the goal.

What’s going on with him at the moment? Just a little while ago, in another match against Palmeiras, Ronaldo fell over his own hand, breaking some hand bones. After getting a prognosis for recovery, he chose to put pins in his hand so that the healing process could be faster. Since he was already going to undergo a procedure, he also got a cosmectical liposuction surgery, to get rid of some extra weigth he could not lose with hard work.

After some weeks celebrating the titles, and with the team having to sell some important players to pay its debts, Corinthians is curently midtable in the Brazilian Championship. Current games will probably be used to form a squad for “Copa Libertadores” next year, with Ronaldo, Corinthians’ biggest dream, as they are the only big club in São Paulo that has never won this Continental trophy.

His playing style had to be changed because of his figure, but he is still a great player. No matter where he is, he gets to keep crowds entertained: either with his talent in the fields or his own life.