Cruzeiro win the Minas Gerais State Championship (Washington Alves - VIPCOMM)
After months of football, the Brazilian State Championships came to a dramatic close today. Starting in São Paulo, Santos won the local competition for the second successive year, beating Corinthians 2-1 in a tense but ultimately low quality game of football. Continue reading
Grêmio and Leandro (left) got the better of Internacional (Jefferson Bernardes, VIPCOMM)
The afternoon got off to a terrible start with the news that Corinthians would be wearing jerseys with their mothers’ names on the back as a Mother’s Day tribute. I needed to call on all my powers of concentration to get this shockingly lame marketing gimmick out of my head and focus on the important afternoon of football ahead, starting 16:00 local time. And what an afternoon it promised to be: Corinthians vs. Santos, Internacional vs. Grêmio and Atlético Mineiro vs. Cruzeiro to name just a few of the mouth-watering ties.
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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
Shameful scenes in Argentina (Getty Images)
All five Brazilian clubs have classified for the second round of this year’s Copa Libertadores. Santos and Fluminense both squeezed through after wins on the last match day.
In the night’s most emotional game Fluminense beat Argentinos Juniors 4-2 away from home and snuck through on goals scored (eliminating Nacional from Uruguay in the process). 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
100 goals for Rogério Ceni (Luiz Pires/VIPCOMM)
São Paulo goalkeeper (and legend) Rogério Ceni scored his 100th goal in professional football yesterday. And he scored it in the perfect way: in a derby match against local rivals Corinthians. It’s quite an amazing achievement and the player is a true São Paulo and general football legend. The 100 goals are split between 44 penalties and 56 free kicks. Continue reading
Do I really need to do this push-up? (Maurício Val/VIPCOMM)
Local press reports say that Adriano will sign for Corinthians later this week. Continue reading
Carnival in São Paulo 2011 (Brian Davidson)
Carnival is here and that means party time! As for the football, most teams played State Championship games on Saturday. I look at the latest in Rio and São Paulo and more importantly, post some carnival pics. Continue reading