Things didn't exactly go to plan (Wagner Carmo/Vipcomm)
Flamengo didn’t read the script. With Luis Fabiano making his long awaited (re)debut for São Paulo in front of 70,000 screaming fans, it was meant to be São Paulo’s afternoon. Sadly for them though, Flamengo had other ideas and won the match 2-1 thanks to a Thiago Neves header and deflected Renato Abreu shot.
They had a party of their own (Wagner Carmo/Vipcomm)
The São Paulo fans didn’t like the result one bit and decided to vent their frustrations on coach Adilson Batista who substituted Luis Fabiano (for midfielder Carlos Paraíba) after 60 minutes. It was an understandable substitution really since Fabiano is short of match fitness and they were also down to 10 men after Brazil international winger Lucas Moura had been sent off. What a goal from Dagoberto by the way!
Full match highlights including Lucas’ red card. A bit harsh if you ask me. Just thinking, shouldn’t Rogério Ceni have saved both of those goals??
Meanwhile in Rio, Corinthians came from behind and drew 2-2 with league leaders Vasco. Great afternoon for Danilo: he scored one and set up another. Dedé and Fagner scored for Vasco.
So just two points continue to separate these two at the top of the table. All to play for and good result for Corinthians if you ask me: playing away from home; coming from a goal down; just behind Vasco but with the league leaders pressure on Vasco. Even better result for them if you consider São Paulo’s hiccup at home.
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I’ll send you some pics I took soon… they didn’t come out good as the rain was heavy and my cam was my cellphone.
About the game, it was a good one. SP created much more than Flamengo, but LF was unlucky and the referee absurdly inverted several fouls, ridiculous. Anyway, it was a good return for LF, looks like he will soon be back to seleçao (by far better than Fred).
For those who say there is no earthquakes in Brazil, they surely have never been in Morumbi with Luis Fabiano in the field.
Great stuff Gil.
Theoretically (at least in my opinion) the LF sub made sense but every single São Paulo fan I’ve heard from says it was crazy and that he invited pressure on his team. It sure backfired because Flamengo then scored just afterwards. Unlucky perhaps.
The old master Luxemburgo seems to have got it just right for this game.
Looking forward to the pics. I can put them on a separate post if you like or put them on the blog page on Facebook. Let me know.
You must have got soaked in all that rain yesterday?!!
Yesterday, Sao Paulo(3rd) played against Cruzeiro (16th). Brazilians watched live a very good game, with lots of opportunities!
Luis Fabiano is 100%, knows a lot about positioning and time of play. But… he didn´t scored and loose a penalty kick. Rogerio Ceni, the official penalty kicker of Sao Paulo asked him if he was certain that he could kick it and, unfortunatelly, Cruzeiro Goal keeper Victor didn´t allow the goal!
Luis is back – but he didn´t shine yet.
Maybe… next week.
Why didn’t Rogério Ceni take it?