Kléber won't be signing for Flamengo this year
I went down to the Palmeiras vs. Flamengo game on Wednesday night. It had all the ingredients for a great match: fourth against third, a crowd of around 35,000 people (very high by Brazilian standards), two of Brazil’s best coaches going head to head (Luis Felipe Scolari or Big Phil at Palmeiras and Vanderley Luxemburgo at Flamengo) and former world player of the year Ronaldinho on show. Continue reading
Liedson is the man for Corinthians (Getty Images)
Corinthians thrashed the league leaders São Paulo 5-0 on Sunday afternoon thanks to three goals from Portugal international striker Liedson. Corinthians have become something of a bogey team for São Paulo and so it proved again on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading
They are State Champions but can they be National Champions? (Lucas Uebel - VIPCOMM)
The Brazilian National Championship kicked off yesterday afternoon which makes my report at least one day late. Sorry about that! Better late than never, right? In my report, I give a short comment on each of the twenty teams and my prediction about where they will finish in the league table. For a full explanation on Brazilian football and all of the club competitions see this link. Continue reading
A kick in the teeth? (Alexandre Loureiro/VIPCOMM)
Ceará, the team from the state of… you guessed it… Ceará, beat Flamengo in the Brazilian Cup to reach the semi-final of the competition. They drew 2-2 on the night but progress thanks their 2-1 win in Rio last week. Pretty big upset this considering the difference in the size and cost of the two teams. They will play Coritiba in the semi-final, after they also caused an upset by beat Palmeiras 6-2 on aggregate. They won the first leg 6-0 last week. Continue reading
Thiago Neves scores the winner for Flamengo (Maurício Val/VIPCOMM)
After three months of mind numbing State Championships, nearly all of the 24 odd Brazilian State Championships kicked into life yesterday as their reached their finale with a number of historic derby matches deciding trophies and finalists. All of the three main derby matches played on Sunday (Palmeiras x Corinthians, Internacional x Grêmio and Flamengo x Vasco) were decided on penalties while a day earlier Santos beat São Paulo 2-0 away from home to reach the São Paulo State final. 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
Could be going to Corinthians (Getty Images)
Corinthians are stealing the show in the transfer market rumours space at the moment. Their ambitious (and annoying) president Andres Sanchez is up for re-election later this year and a few big name signings would do his hopes no harm at all. Continue reading
Ronaldinho and Flamengo have it all to do against Botafogo (Ricardo Ramos/VIPCOMM)
In the Sao Paulo State Championship Palmeiras deservedly beat Santos 1-0 with some good defending and counter attacking football (okay it was somewhat bureaucratic). Kleber scored their goal in the second half. Continue reading
Leandro Damião has now scored 13 goals in 8 games for Inter (Alexandre Lops/SCInter/VIPCOMM)
Cruzeiro smash six past Deportes Tolima, while Internacional win away from home 4 x 1 in Bolivia. Santos lose 3 x 2 in Chile against Colo Col. Flamengo and Palmeiras both win and progress in the Brazilian Cup. Continue reading
Adriano Michael Jackson (Getty Images)
Adriano Michael Jackson -named so because of moonwalk goal celebrations – scored four goals versus Comercial from Piauí last night in the Brazilian Cup. Palmeiras comfortably progressed after winning the match 5-1 and 7-2 on aggregate. Definitely, the most interesting thing about this game however is the interesting technique adopted by Comercial’s masseur. Forget the injured player, this guy wants to get on TV and this sort of opportunity doesn’t come along too often. Check it out. Brilliant!
In other Brazilian Cup results, Botafogo from Rio rode their luck to get past River Plate from Sergipe (That’s like a team from Hackney Marshes being called Manchester United) on penalties. Atlético Mineiro destroyed Iape from the Amazon jungle 8-1. First division team Atlético-GO beat Brusque from Santa Catarina on away goals to progress and a team called ABC are also in the next round. Very creative name that.