Palmeiras put up a horrendous display against Bahia but pulled off an undeserved 2 x 1 win. I don't get it. These players have had so much rest in the past 2 months and they play like they are exhausted as if they are playing in 3 competitions for 2 months. At a point during the match I had to check the temperature in Salvador to see if it was 40 C. With this result we stay in the fight for the title with Botafogo playing Atletico in a few mins. But Atletico are lining up with a mixed team resting Hulk, Scarpa .... Corinthians are now with a chance to qualify for the Libertadores after winning another match. Depay scored a nice goal.
Funny typo in the post-game paragraph of UOL's PBP for Cuiabá x Flamengo: "O resultado mantém o Flamengo na vice-lanterna, com chances remotas de permanecer na Série A. O Flamengo, por sua vez, já está classificado para a Libertadores e busca, neste momento, alcançar o Fortaleza." Flamengo won. But more importantly, Botafogo is playing at Atlético-MG right now and Palmeiras won earlier. Botafogo need to win, or Palmeiras will be less than 3 points behind them.
Botafogo drop a couple points. Scoreless draw. Was not expecting this after Atletico went down a man. Botafogo dominated but Atletico defended well ... Botafogo didn't really create many great scoring chances.
Fortaleza lost an opportunity to make the race for the title even more interesting. Had they beaten Fluminense yesterday, they'd be only 3 points behind Botafogo and 1 point behind Palmeiras with their direct matchup coming up. You could have had a situation where Botafogo drop points today, and Fortaleza, assuming they beat Flamengo at home, could have leap frogged both with a draw in their match.
Botafogo are in a weird stretch in this Brasileirão. Aside from the Vasco game, they scored only 4 goals in 7 matches. Barely enough to keep gaining points. 3 of those goals also came in the dying minutes of games. They've only conceded 1 goal in that stretch.
Palmeiras win their game 1 x 0 on a rain drenched pitch. Botafogo were losing until the very end and again pulled a goal back in the final minutes to save a point with an own goal. Both are now level on points but Palmeiras lead on number of wins and they play on Tuesday. It's a home game but we've done badly against all teams in the top 5. No wins, 4 draws and 3 losses. A win would probably seal the title given the tie breaker advantage ... given I am pretty sure we'd get one win in the final 2 games. A draw leaves things wide open.
Gomez misses a free point blank header and then Botafogo score on the first time they come forward from a corner. And Abel keeps insisting on Rony ... who also didn't even put the ball close to the goal on a nice cross. FML
Oh well. Botafogo do still need 4 points to guarantee the title, because as you pointed out, Palmeiras have the tiebreaker, so if Botafogo lose one of the last two matches and Palmeiras win out... Palmeiras have Cruzeiro (away) and Fluminense (home) Botafogo have Inter (away) and São Paulo (home) Botafogo's matches on paper are tougher, and with the Libertadores pressure that makes it tougher too... but it feels like Palmeiras could drop points too. Inter are still in it mathematically, along with Fortaleza, who drew 0x0 with Flamengo today. Both are 8 points behind and have 3 matches left. To win, they'd have to win all 3 of their matches and watch Botafogo lose 2 and Palmeiras lose at least 1.
Estevão with a nice late FK goal to push the title decider to the last round. But Botafogo are virtual champions. They beat Inter today to keep the gap at 3 points and play São Paulo at home in the last round ... São Paulo have nothing to play for and no way in Hell they are helping us. First because of natural rivalry and second because they are the only tricampeão in a row. Our hope was Inter today. But Inter also had nothing to play for.
Congrats to Botafogo not only for the league title, but for the the double with the Libertadores. Not easy to do, but also not impossible as some managers tried to make many believe over the years.
Athletico draw the short stick and get relegated. Disastrous season for them. Bahia snatch the final Libertadores spot over Cruzeiro. Corinthians close the season with 9 straight wins finishing in 7th. Depay started paying dividends after getting a bit in shape. Palmeiras ... we need to rebuild. This team has done all that it can. Last year Endrick saved the season, this year Estevão almost did the same. Really the only play showing quality on the field. Too much reliance on one youth player who will be gone midway next season. But much of it has also to do with Abel. I've always questioned his competency if he had to play a different way. Much of the disconnect between players is his fault. There are way too many players underperforming for the problem to only be their fault. I wouldn't mind seeing him gone. He has been signaling since last season that he is fed up talking about lack of time to "enjoy life". But he will only leave before the end of his contract next season by his own accord ... because him, Leila and Anderson Barros are all in synch.
Crazy to think they only just came up a couple of seasons ago. Can't believe I'll be seeing them play here in Qatar in just 3 days time v Pachuca in the club world cup. I don't know how they'll fare having to fly all the way here in such a short time. Done this flight before (well Sao Paolo-Doha) The jetlag is brutal. Hope they can recover in time.
Botafogo deserved it, and with this double title achievement, they head to Qatar to face Pachuca in the reformatted Copa Intercontinental. All the best to them and I hope they win it all. SPFC had a decent year and we'll be in the Libertadores again, but we're still below the top echelon - which for a while was Flamengo, Atl.-MG, and Palmeiras. Now it's Botafogo in, Atl.-MG out. Galo is still a very good team, but they have to ask themselves some serious questions after the Libertadores final. I can see Milito gone before the next season kicks off. Flamengo salvaged their year by winning Copa do Brasil after sacking Tite, but your team, as you said, needs to rebuild. Abel's limitations notwithstanding, your team still has an amazing roster and with wise decisions, Palmeiras can realistically contend for every tournament it plays in next year - even the steroid-ed Club World Cup. Internacional and Corinthians are on their way up, as is Fortaleza. It will be an interesting 2025. If John Textor continues to do his thing, Botafogo has the potential to start a title dynasty not unlike what your team and Flamengo have done since 2019. This only speaks of the competitiveness and strength of domestic Brazilian soccer, by far the most difficult league in all of South America. I only hope the solidity our clubs have displayed in recent years ultimately does transfer to the national team, although these are two different situations altogether.
Good chance they will be exhausted not only because of that, but of their whole schedule at the end of the year.
Milito is already out at Atlético. And now Diniz is predictably out at Cruzeiro. The problem with Palmeiras right now is that I don't have any faith in Leila, A. Barros, and Abel in the transfer market. If it wasn't for Estevão this season, we'd be out of the top 4 IMO. And there isn't another Endrick or Estevão coming up through the youth system any time soon AFAIK. You guys probably don't pay attention, but many of Leila's public statements are arrogant and atrocious ... like saying we weren't a rehab house when commenting about Neymar. Yeah we are not getting Neymar, but that's just not something you say. Just shows a lot of arrogance. Textor will be interesting. I think he needs to move players like Almada and Igor Jesus ... but says he will keep spending to bring in talent. I don't doubt he will spend, just wondering if they can hit lighting again with Savarino, Igor Jesus, Luis Henrique type of signings. Almada was known to be a good player already.
Well, what an ignominious end to what started out so promisingly. I wonder who will replace Milito at Atl.-MG, but barring a victory over Botafogo, it wasn't likely he would have stayed given how bad the team had played in the past several weeks. I wonder who will replace him. Any team can use players of the caliber of Almada, Igor Jesus, Luis Henrique. They're not abundant - at least not in terms of availability to Brazilian teams. As for Lelia, well, if your team rebuilds and wins at least one title in 2025, she's likely to remain arrogant. Given her bank account, she'll likely be arrogant no matter what fate awaits Palmeiras in 2025.
I don't mind arrogance if it comes with competence and the ability to shake things up. IMO she is still riding the coat tails of previous administrations and is being too safe. She was a good sponsr, but not a good President. I think her arrogance blinds her view that everything is OK and she is doing things right (football wise) and she isn't seeing the obvious problems creeping up. I think São Paulo's front office got in that mode after the success of the 90s up until mid 2000s and got comfortable ... which lead to the club falling off.
Congratulations to Botafogo. Flamengo ended up one place below where they aimed budgetwise, which of course is saved by Copa do Brasil. I'd like to talk about next year too, but the first thing that comes to mind it that it's all going to be one horrible mess because of the CBF calendar adjustments and the Club World Cup. I wonder if there will be a major strike or reform between now and the 2034 World Cup, considering how bad schedules are getting. Still, I'd like to see Flamengo fight for the double again. I do think that sooner or later a Brazilian club will get the modern treble (Brasileirão, Copa, Libertadores) and of course I'm hoping it will be us. But I don't think it will happen during such a crowded year. So, as far as 2025 goes, let's take it one step at a time. First we need a center-forward and to survive the first half of a brutal season. I hope we win the Brasileirão or Libertadores with Filipe Luís. The Copa do Brasil, even if it's the big financial win for administrators, is just a bonus for fans.