Cruzeiro win the Minas Gerais State Championship (Washington Alves - VIPCOMM)
After months of football, the Brazilian State Championships came to a dramatic close today. Starting in São Paulo, Santos won the local competition for the second successive year, beating Corinthians 2-1 in a tense but ultimately low quality game of football. Continue reading
And the winner is.... (photo: Getty Images)
I have finally finished the most complex piece of work in this blog’s history: a list of the top 10 youngsters playing in Brazil. In order to compile the list, I have followed countless rumours and leads, gone through player dossiers, match reports, television footage, trawled the state championships, lower leagues and youth divisions up and down the country, interviewing coaches, fans and scouts alike. All in the hope of finding the best up-and-coming talent in Brazil in order to report to you, this blog’s readers. Continue reading
Lucas' São Paulo are out of the Brazilian Cup (Luiz Pires - VIPCOMM)
One day after Coritiba and Ceará progressed at the expense of Palmeiras and Flamengo, São Paulo are the latest big name to be knocked out of the Brazilian Cup by supposedly inferior opposition. They lost to Avaí in Florianópolis 3-1 (3-2 on aggregate). Vasco are the only ‘big name’ left and are through to the semi finals after beating Atlético Paranaense on away goals. The semi final first legs will be played next week.
In other news, Neymar is going to be a father for the first time and São Paulo is not going to be a host city in the 2013 Confederations Cup. The five cities that will be hosting the competition are: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Brasilia and Salvador.
Alan Patrick (Getty Images)
Santos beat Once Caldas in Colombia 1-0 thanks to a goal from Alan Patrick who only played due to the injury to Ganso. Zé Eduardo was once again utterly useless up front for Santos. Watch out Genoa fans: you have signed a donkey! Continue reading
Grêmio and Leandro (left) got the better of Internacional (Jefferson Bernardes, VIPCOMM)
The afternoon got off to a terrible start with the news that Corinthians would be wearing jerseys with their mothers’ names on the back as a Mother’s Day tribute. I needed to call on all my powers of concentration to get this shockingly lame marketing gimmick out of my head and focus on the important afternoon of football ahead, starting 16:00 local time. And what an afternoon it promised to be: Corinthians vs. Santos, Internacional vs. Grêmio and Atlético Mineiro vs. Cruzeiro to name just a few of the mouth-watering ties.
Continue reading
Teflon-hands Rafael had a good game (Getty Images)
Santos put in all-hands-to-the-pump performance and clung on to their first leg lead in tense and dramatic fashion to beat América from Mexico 1-0 on aggregate. They now progress to quarter finals of the competition where they will probably face Cruzeiro and their deadly marksman and intimidatingly named…… Wallyson. Continue reading
Can Felipe stop Flamengo? (Alexandre Brum / FOTOCOM.NET)
With the long winded State Championships finally coming to an end, there were no major surprises in this weekend’s fixtures (sorry about this report being a few days late). In São Paulo, with the league format finished, the top eight teams played each other for a place in the semi-finals. Continue reading
Shameful scenes in Argentina (Getty Images)
All five Brazilian clubs have classified for the second round of this year’s Copa Libertadores. Santos and Fluminense both squeezed through after wins on the last match day.
In the night’s most emotional game Fluminense beat Argentinos Juniors 4-2 away from home and snuck through on goals scored (eliminating Nacional from Uruguay in the process). Continue reading
Young Neymar was once again the star of the show. This time, however, he was wearing the famous yellow and green of Brazil as opposed to the white and black of Santos. In his third appearance for the seleção, Neymar scored two goals and showed off his skills to the world in London. He also showed off his full array of dives, which angered Scotland players and fans alike. Continue reading
Ganso slips in Neymar for Santos' second goal but it wasn't enough (Getty Images)
Santos were beaten 3-2 by Colo Colo in the Copa Libertadores and their qualification hopes for the second round now hang by a thread (and possibly their hopes of hanging on to Ganso and Neymar beyond June too). Continue reading