Fred likely to be a Championship winner with Flu again (Fotocamera)

Good morning sports fans! Its been a little while so just a quick post with an update from the Serie A and other Brazilian football news. There are now just four rounds of the Championship left and it is now a question of when, not if, Fluminense will be crowned Champions.

They were beaten by Atlético-MG the weekend before last but while they won their midweek game last week and drew with São Paulo on the weekend, Atlético drew with Flamengo and lost to Coritiba. In numbers that is four games left with a nine point advantage. Flu could wrap it up all this weekend as they take on sorry Palmeiras who look as likely to be relegated now and as Flu do be crowned Champions. Oh dear, more to come on Palmeiras in the coming weeks.

Neymar made headlines all over the world when he scored a hat-trick in Santos’ away match against Cruzeiro. Nothing too surprising about this but Cruzeiro fans got on their feet and applauded Santos and Brazil’s best player. That sort of thing doesn’t happen very much anywhere, nevermind Brazil. Reminds me a bit of when Real Madrid fans were on their feet applauding Ronaldinho after he ran their defence (and Michel Salgado in particular) ragged at the Bernabéu.

In our recent polls, Ronaldinho was confirmed as a legend with all but one miserable reader confirming this. It was really quite an obvious question but even so not many players will get a 96% vote in their favour. I bet Barack Obama wishes he could do the same….

In a previous poll with a less obvious question, 45% of readers thought Clarence Seedorf would definitely be a big hit at Botafogo. 40% said yes, probably. That’s 85% giving him a positive appraisal, not bad! 10% thought he was a has-been while 4% thought that he and/or Botafogo suck. After almost one full season at the club it looks like the majority were right: his form has been good and he has scored goals but Botafogo lie 5^th and are likely to miss out on the final Libertadores spot to São Paulo.

Vasco da Gama’s form has been terrible recently and their Libertadores hopes are now gone. Dedé’s form has been poor so I’m lead to believe. Shock horror! I don’t believe it! São Paulo, under Ney Franco, have become one of Brazil’s top teams again and look like they will get that 4^th Libertadores spot. Lucas Moura will be missed next season (when he will be playing at new club PSG) but they will have Ganso of course. Luis Fabiano’s form has been good and he is fighting with Fred to be the Serie A’s top scorer.

All going well at São Paulo although Ney Franco was less than impressed when in a recent match Rogerio Ceni asked him to bring on Cí­cero. The coach opted to bring on Willian José instead and said after the game: ”I don’t approve. Everybody is doing their own job. If I thought Cí­cero should come on, I would have put him on so I don’t approve (of Ceni’s attitude)”. Well done, Ney Franco. Ceni is a São Paulo legend and rightly so for his goalkeeping heroics. But who does he think he is? John Terry? No, Franco is the coach and he calls the shots. Well done, Ney Franco, that’s why you are a good coach – previous São Paulo coaches, Sergio Barési for example, allowed Ceni to dictate certain substitutions and look where that got them (fired pretty quickly).

Jobson, the talented Botafogo striker who had a bit of a drug problem, has moved into his clubs training headquarters. The player is currently short of a few bob and since his club have not paid his salary for a while, he decided to move out of the hotel where he was staying and into the team’s training headquarters. Fair enough I say.

Adriano has been fired by Flamengo after being seen at a nightclub in the early hours of the morning after missing training. They have given him chance after chance but the player just can’t get his head right citing emotional problems. He missed training at least six times this year giving Flamengo the right to tear up his contract. The player, once one of football’s most feared strikers, said he is going to retire from football. Just no more motivation and it’s a sorry story. Look at him here, sorry sight: Adriano.

Finally, Larissa Riquelme – the babe who came to fame during the 2010 World Cup, nowhere more so than Brazil – said that she will not pose nude again! Why is she doing this to men around the world? Because her boyfriend, Johnatan Fabbro, an Argentine who plays for Cerro Porteí±o would be upset if she did. Outrageous! I’ve never even heard of this guy before but what an arsehole! Why Larissa Riquelme, why? Never heard of Larissa riquelme? Have a look here: Larissa.

Key matches this coming Sunday (11 November):

Palmeiras v Fluminense

Grêmio v São Paulo

Vasco v Atlético-MG

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