Corinthians are Serie A Champions

Willian wheels away in celebration at the final whistle (Getty)

Corinthians have won the 2011 Brazilian Serie A. They won the title (their fifth nationally) on Sunday after taking the point they needed from their match against Palmeiras. Vasco needed to win going into their match with Flamengo (and hope Corinthians lost) but could only manage a 1-1 draw.

It was an emotional afternoon for Corinthians supporters after one of their great idols Sócrates passed away early on Sunday morning. Doutor Sócrates as he is affectionately known is a global icon having played for Brazil at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. He was remarkable not only because of his talent and stature (1.91m tall) but because of what he stood for off the field as well; he came from a left wing middle class family and was one of the first footballers to openly criticise the military dictatorship in Brazil in the early 1980’s. He died aged 57 after health complications related to drinking and smoking. RIP Doutor Sócrates. Tributes welcome.

With over 250 games for Corinthians and bucketloads of goals (297 games and 172 goals according to Wikipedia), it was fitting that Corinthians won the title on the day he passed away.

The style of the performance perhaps wasn’t fitting of the great man and it was 11th placed Palmeiras who dominated the match. But this Corinthians team doesn’t have a player like Sócrates and sadly gems like him are normally flogged off to Europe before they achieve much with their clubs in Brazil. As a result, grinding out results with substance over style is the way to win a national championship. That is Corinthians’ strength and they did that again on Sunday.

Another thing you can say about this Corinthians team this year is that it looked like they always had a little in reserve. Had they needed to, they could have brought Adriano off the bench. In the end they didn’t even need him on the field. And in their match against Palmeiras they coped well with the loss of three of their better players this year in Ralf, Danilo and Emerson who were unavailable due to injury and suspension.

Vasco could only manage a 1-1 draw with Corinthians Flamengo despite taking the lead through Diego Souza. They dominated the first half but Flamengo came back strongly in the second with Ronaldinho on form. Flamengo got their point and with that made sure of Libertadores qualification.

Clash of the Titans - Dedé and Ronaldinho (Maurí­cio Val / Vipcomm)

Despite finishing second, I have to take my hat off to Vasco. They have been fantastic this year. After a dismal start in the Rio State Champs they fired their coach and hired Ricardo Gomes. He turned things around almost immediately and the team went on the play the Guanabara Cup final as well as win the Brazilian Cup. Normally, in Brazil, when teams win the Brazilian Cup they switch off in the national championship (just like Santos did after they won the Libertadores this year). But Vasco kept going and even got to the semi final’s of the Copa Sudamericana and played that competition at the same time as the latter stages of the Brazilian Serie A. Their coach Ricardo Gomes was hospitalized with a stroke in August. But if anything that galvanized their players. Well done to them. Fortunately Ricardo Gomes seems to be on his way to a full recovery.

Internacional claimed the fifth Libertaodres spot after they beat Grêmio 1-0. Sadly for Coritiba they blew their chance of a Libertadores spot after losing to Atlético PR who were relegated following Cruzeiro’s 6-1 thrashing of Atlético MG. Figueirense also blew their Libertadores chances with a draw against Avaí­.

Ceará were the fourth team relegated after losing to Bahia. Even if they had won, they would have gone down due to the Cruzeiro result. So much for trying hard to get your rivals relegated hey Atlético Mineiro?? I used to like you lot before that result. Either they are an utterly useless bunch of donkeys or they were paid to lose that match. Shameful. Shocking.

Finally, I have been getting some stick from Corinthians fans for not publishing this report sooner. I do apologise for the delay and they don’t believe me that my graphics card stopped working and I needed to take my computer in for repairs. Let me once again reaffirm that this blog is a neutral place.

To all the Palmeiras fans who are bitter about the loss against Corinthians to grow up and read this blog report. And my question to those Corinthians fans obsessed with going on about how big their team is: Are you lacking for size in some other departments?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 thoughts on “Corinthians are Serie A Champions

  1. It was a fine game in Sao Paulo. Palmeiras started playing better than Corinthians, and at the end of the first half I honestly believed they would win the game. The pressure was over Corinthians, as Vasco was beating Flamengo by 1-0. In my opinion the turning point was the expulsion of Valdivia in the beginning of the second half and, off course, Flamengo´s goal. The result you already know …
    Cheers!
    Gustavo – São Paulo – Brasil

    • You’re right Gustavo, it was good entertainment. Palmeiras were on top and Vasco were winning 1-0. I watched it in a bar in London and you could feel the tension among the Corinthians fans during the first half. That was until the Flamengo fans arrived late and started playing live samba drowning out the commentary. No sooner had the samba started when Flamengo equalized and Valdivia was sent off. Flamengo fans, samba and Valdivia – that was the turning point.

  2. 1- “Vasco could only manage a draw with FLAMENGO” would be the right sentence on 6th paragraph.
    2- Is hard for me to believe in the “independent jornalism” of a text with so many “buts”, like the embarassing ending of yours. Someone who is really independent should write aware that he can’t please everybody, sports fans specially. But the quality of his ideas will make his inteligent readers notice that they are getting good stuff. If you do that so, you don’t need do many “buts” and explanations all over your blog, or high school jokes in the end of your texts.
    3 – You lost the chance of talking more about the great and unique athlete that Sócrates was. I would dare say that his dead was more important in that sunday than Corinthians’ championship. Just because he inspired much more than millions of corinthianos: he was a symbol for the whole country.

    • Igor,
      1/ Changed, thanks.
      2/ Its a blog at the end of the day not a news website. As well as the facts, I’m going to give opinion based on what I see and what I think is reasonable. I give credit where its due and give both sides of the arguments which is why I use the word BUT quite a lot. About the joke… who said that was a joke? No, just kidding it was a joke. I’ve got lots of friends who are Corinthianos (yourself included) that read this blog. Some of them (not all of them) and can be very annoying, constantly going on like a broken record about how Corinthians are the biggest and greatest on the face of the earth. The joke at the end was for them.
      3/ You might be right about his death being more significant than Corinthians’ Championship. I don’t know much more about Sócrates – I was too young to remember him at the 1982 or 1986 World Cups and obviously I didn’t grow up watching Brazilian club football. Perhaps I’ll do a follow up tribute when I’ve got more time to do more research.

      • Corinthianos are annoying because of the same simple reason that Boca Juniors supporters, Manchester United supporters or Milan supporters are: We are majority. It’s clear as water. We are rejected by most part of people not because fellas like Denis and Tadeu can’t control their megalomaniac behavior – every team has your own denis and tadeus. But we have more of them. We have more rich supporters, poor supporters, journalist supporters, physicians supporters, gay supporters, criminal supporters than every other team in Brazil (I would dare say that even more than Flamengo, but this is another discussion). We have more annoying supporters too. But you shouldn’t say that it’s a typical trace of corinthianos, it’s not true. We are not proportionally more annoying than any other soccer fan in Brazil.
        The kind of joke that you made doesn’t fit in independent journalism. Maybe it would if you did that in most part of your writing, but you don’t. Even though, you would have to be carefull to not turn it into a humor-news blog. And when you make fun of something in a isolated way, it seems that you have some kind of particular hatred against the target of your joke. And once you do that, don’t start saying that you make independent jornalism. Independent jornalism is not about blogging. It’s a serious business that demands even more effort than the kind of reporting supported by news corporations.
        Besides, the joke isn’t funny at all. It’s older than Charles Miller.

        • Come on Igor, where is your sense of humour?

          Are you saying its my perception that Corinthianos are annoying because they are the majority or are you saying that Corinthianos ARE annoying because they are the majority?

          Look, I don’t think we should stereo type too much. As I said in my comment, some Corinthianos are annoying, not all of them. As for my joke, if I lived in Rio and knew megalomaniac Flamengo fans who read my blog I would say the same thing. If you think I’ve got some kind of vendetta against Corinthians you are wrong! Perhaps being a Corinthiano yourself you are too biased and sensitive to any criticisms or jokes about your team. As you said, my blog is about sports so it won’t please everybody all of the time. I’m constantly posting criticisms of teams and players. Flamengo, Luxemburgo, Palmeiras, Neymar, Ronaldo, Atlético Mineiro, São Paulo are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. I also give credit where it is due.

          • Ok, case closed.
            Just answering your question (“If corinthianos are annoying because they are the majority or if there are more annoying corinthianos because they are the majority”): BOTH. 😉

  3. I can see that the blog patrol has already hit you. Insults will grow along with your page views. Welcome to Brazil!

  4. One corinthiano complains about others claiming their annoying behaviour by annoying again, thats funny LOL
    My view is that modern journalisms requires the writer’s humour and own opinion, mainly sports-related, given it is also entertainment. If you don’t like it, you should read some Bloomberg or BBC news.

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