SP State Championship: Santos draw and their coach is fired

After a poor run of games culminating in a 1-1 draw at home to São Bernardo, Adilson Batista is fired by Santos

Adilson Batista is fired by Santos (AE)

Santos coach Adilson Batista has been fired following a poor run of results culminating in a 1-1 draw at home to the lowly São Bernardo on Saturday night. Corinthians continued their recovery in the post Ronaldo era, winning 4-0 (Liedson scored another two) and São Paulo and Palmeiras drew 1-1 in a rain drenched Morumbi stadium. Little-known Mirassol now top the table after ten games.

Santos have dropped points again. This time, they drew at home 1-1 to the humble São Bernardo. Elano scored his eight goal of the competition from the penalty spot but São Bernardo equalized in the second half. Adilson Batista was subsequently sacked by Santos on Sunday night after being booed and insulted by angry fans. Santos have been poor recently to be honest. Ironically their poor form coincides with Neymar’s return to the team after his exploits for Brazil’s under 20’s.

For some reason, Adilson Batista changed his tactics and left Maikon Leite on the bench for recent games. Before being left out, Maikson Leite had scored six goals in eight games and was, at one point, the competition’s top scorer. Santos are currently playing a 4-4-2 system with Neymar as one of the central strikers. Zé Eduardo partnered him up front on Saturday but neither player has the characteristics of a central striker. That position should in theory go to Diogo but he didn’t play against São Bernardo and has struggled for form and fitness since arriving at Santos on loan from Olympiacos earlier this year. Now that Adilson Batista has been fired, we’ll see who the new coach is and what formation he chooses to play. I really think Santos need a new centre forward. Diogo just doesn’t hack it for me. I suppose Keirrison is the other alternative at the moment. Any thoughts?

The São Paulo and Palmeiras match somehow went ahead after the skies had opened and all hell broke loose (it rained!). Fans were even swimming in the huge pools of water that had accumulated in the stands.

Despite the rain the match between São Paulo and Palmeiras went ahead

Despite the rain, the match went ahead (Wagner Carmo/Inovafoto/Vipcomm)

Fernandinho opened the scoring for São Paulo with a great strike midway through the first half. The game was being hotly disputed with plenty of commitment and fouls from both sets of players. It was entertaining stuff though and the game had a good rhythm and quality to it.

São Paulo were well worth their lead until Alex Silva (on loan from German club Hamburger-SV) lost his head and got sent off 15 minutes into the second half. He thought that Palmeiras forward Adriano had dived and confronted him angrily. His reaction was border line red card but was stupid none-the-less.

Palmeiras no had the wind in their sails but they had to wait until the 85th minute before they managed to beat the imperious Rogério Ceni. Palmeiras sub Adriano Michael Jackson equalized in the 85th minute after neat passing exchange on the end of the São Paulo box. Probably a fair result in the end. São Paulo captain Rogério Ceni was great for São Paulo while tight back Cicinho and midfielder Tinga for Palmeiras both look like excellent players. Lucas had a quiet game and was replaced by Rivaldo in the second half.

Corinthians had no difficulty beating bottom team Grêmio Prudente on Saturday night; they won the game 4-0. Liedson continued his fine form since joining from Sporting Lisbon and scored another two goals (he now has seven in five games). Dentinho scored a good goal and Fábio Santos, the left-back who took last week’s derby by storm, scored one from the penalty spot. Corinthians topped the table over Saturday night but where overtaken by the surprise package Mirassol on Sunday. It’s onward and upward for Corinthians now and they are looking a lot better with Liedson instead of Ronaldo up front.

Mirassol are the surprise package of the São Paulo State Championship so far and are the new league leaders. Well done to them and long may it continue. However, they are a lowly third or fourth division team (I can’t even find the information to confirm this on their website) so we won’t worry about them on this blog for now.

2 thoughts on “SP State Championship: Santos draw and their coach is fired

  1. Adilson’s results in Corinthians and Santos are pretty similar… in both he had good players and an already set squad just to keep running….. and he simply blew it! He is a big joke!

    Adriano Michael Jackson was a good surprise.

    …. and Corinthians is evolving very well after losing some deadweight!

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