What a season Brasileirao 2008 is. Six rounds to go, after 32 games, two clubs are tied topping the league with 59 points (Gremio and back-to-back title holder Sao Paulo). Two other clubs, Cruzeiro and Palmeiras (both with Italian background) are in the Libertadores qualifying zone with 58. And we still have Flamengo, most popular club in the country, with 56 chasing the leaders.

Sao Paulo is in its way up. They were not between the top four a couple of rounds ago but it is notorious their power near the end of the season since Brasileirao is not played with Playoffs finals, but only regular season (they won two out of five and qualified for every Libertadores since then).

But if I had to put some money, I would say Cruzeiro is strong enough to beat Sao Paulo this time. They have a very good and well coached team, everybody knows exactly what they have to do on the field. In the field, they have everything Sao Paulo has and a plus. Three in fact. They have three very  good players. Players that are probably doing their farewell season in Brazil.

Wagner is the brain. A spectacular midfielder that reads the game and always find the best option. Ramires is the lung. He runs like Usain Bolt and is everywhere. He is a defensive midfielder but got the talent and the skill to run with the ball and pass it. Finally, they have Guilherme. Fast and furious Aguero-Romario style. Kind of player born to score and do the difference in small areas.

I don`t believe Palmeiras, Gremio and Flamengo got a chance to win. But they are three of the most winners in the whole history of Brazil and South-America. Together they have two Fifa World Championship, four Libertadores ands more than ten Brasileirao titles.

I have a clue. But I would never guess.

Gremio tied away against Atletico Paranaense, Palmeiras beat Vasco da Gama 2 x 0 and now Brasileirao, after 2/3 of the leader and vice are just one point apart from each other. Gremio completes three games without winning and saw its huge advantage down to just one point.

But with 12 rounds to play, everything can be even more dramatic next week. The three first in the table will play away. Sao Paulo (5th) x Cruzeiro (3th).

Gremio will play the derby against Internacional at Beira Rio Inter Stadium. Palmeiras will fly the northeast to face Nautico, a club still threaten by relegation.

Flamengo, that came back to the G4 group, will also play home against Sport. At last, Botafogo plays home too, against Fluminense. If every home team wins, Brasileirao would enter the last 11 games with just 5 points between the leader and sixth place.

Complete table and standings for Brasileirao 2008

Season is getting started in most of the National Leagues but in Brazil we are already in a very important moment.  As I told befor here at OleOle, Brasileirao is the most difficult national league to win in the world.

Pick any of the top leagues in the world and you know the winner will be one of four teams max. In Spain, everybody knows the winner will be Barcelona or Real Madrid. They should have a playoff NBA like between them.  Seven games.

Premier League is a little bit better as we used to have four, but everybody knows Arsenal can’t make it never so there are three possible winners, like in Italy. I am not even mentioning France, where only one team can win.

In Brazil, we never know. Twelve clubs start the season as favorites.  All of them have their own crowd, stadium and history.

Of course our best players are in Europe.

Certainly our managers suck.

Definitely our fans are not really well treated.

But nowhere else in the world a championship is so difficult to win.

I am not talking surprising results. I am talking about major and favorite teams.

It is not by accident that in 38 years in the so called Brasileirão, 17 teams were already Champions.
The greatest winners, Flamengo and São Paulo, have only 5 titles, the same number Real Madrid can have in a single decade in the Spanish League.

Brasileirão is always unpredictable. No Boca/River domination! 

Anyway, it is starting to become predictable now.  Fourteen rounds to be played, Grêmio is 6 points ahead Palmeiras and Cruzeiro, tied in second place. Grêmio is 10 points ahead the 6th  place, São Paulo.

Game of the week

Cruzeiro x Palmeiras

Tied with 43 points at the second position in the table, this is a key game for the Championship. They are both 5 points down the leader, Gremio. One loss can make one team eight points back in the table.

To watch

São Paulo x Flamengo

Here is another game ‘of six points’. I think the winner is definitely going to next year Copa Libertadores (top four teams qualify). São Paulo is the defending back-to-back champion. Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo will probably be full as Sao Paulo needs to win to reach Libertadores level, as the fans are very mad if the team, three times Libertadores and Fifa Club World Cup Champions, don’t make the continental competition.

It is not only about another cliche that the fans can make the difference.

Flamengo, the most popular Brazilian team according to the last survery (14% of the country), was ranked 19 in the current Brazilian Championship (Brasileirao) after the end of the first half of the tournament.

It is true that the team had 4 games yet to play due to the Pan 2007, cause Maracana remained focused in the competition during those days. After that, Flamengo had 17 games home. They won 13, tied 3 and lost just one. The results put the team into the third place of the tournament just one round to go. Better than that, Flamengo is already one of the 4 teams to make Libertadores 2008.

The crowd was amazing during that come-from-behind. Game after game, the team set news records of attendence. Numbers that could be compared to the Premiership or the Bundesliga. In the last 6 games home, at Maracanain Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo had more than 60.000 people watching. Last Sunday's game, against Atletico Paranaense, 2 x 0, was attended by 87.000 expectators.

Here some videos about this madness created between Flamengo and its crowd during the tournament that led a not-so-good-team into the final three. The crowd is of the most creatives, starting songs that usually are used by other teams in the country. Feel it.

1 2

Botafogo leads the Brazilian Championship after 6 rounds with a powerfull offensive line and many beautiful goals. But the goalkeeper Julio Cesar is, by far, the problem of the team. He drove mad some of the fans of Garrincha's former carioca club.   Watch it (the game was Botafogo 3 x 1 Nautico at Maracana)

The play, even worst than the one from Paul Robinson, is not the fisrt bad moment for him this season. He was blamed for semifinal lost against Figueirense in the Brazil Cup and also were sent off aftr a penalty kick in one of the important games against Flamengo in the State Championship.

This Saturday the National Brazilian League, Brasileirão, kicks off.

Of course our best players are in Europe.

Certainly our managers suck.

Definitely our fans are not really well treated.

But nowhere else in the world a championship is so difficult to win.

2007 Brasileirão, like every year, starts with, at least, 12 teams with real chances to win it.

I am not talking surprising results. I am talking about major and favorite teams.

It is not by accident that in 37 years in the so called Brasileirão, 17 teams were already Champions.

The greatest winner, Flamengo, have only 5 titles, the same number Real Madrid can have in a single decade in the Spanish League.

In 2007, including the polemic title of Sport Recife in 1987, 14 of the 20 clubs in first division already won a title.

Brasileirão is always unpredictable. There are no Liverpool/Manuted/Arsenal/Chelsea. There are no Real Madrid/Barcelona. There are no Milan/Inter/Juve. No Boca/River domination! 

By the way, the Brasileirão will be played by the following teams:

América-RN
Atlético-MG - 1 title
Atlético-PR - 1 title
Botafogo - 1 title
Corinthians - 4 titles
Cruzeiro - 1 title
Figueirense 
Flamengo - 5 titles
Fluminense - 1 title
Grêmio - 2 titles
Internacional - 3 titles
Juventude
Náutico
Palmeiras - 4 titles
Paraná
Santos - 2 titles
São Paulo - 4 titles (defending champion)
Sport - 1 title (recognized by CBF, but polemic)
Vasco - 4 titles

Four last places are relegated to Serie B, top four plays 2008 Libertadores.  

Teams play all against each other both home and away.

 

The referee for Sunday’s match between Barcelona and Internacional will be Carlos Bartre, from Guatemala. In his official profile, scientist is his occupation. I just hope he is not going to invent anything special for this game. Read his official profile here.

They are not even 20, but tonight they made history scoring for Internacional in the Fifa Club WC 2006 and leading the Brazilian team into final. Alexandre Pato, 17, scored in the first half, and after Al-Ahly had equalised through Angolan striker Flavio, 19 year old Luiz Adriano, scored the winning goal after heading in a corner after some sustained Inter pressure.

On the big screen in the Tokyo National Stadium, for the run through of the players in the starting lineup for Internacional , Alexandre Pato (The Duck) was a bit apart from the rest. Whilst, all the other players' pictures were of them wearing the Internacional jersey, Alexandre Pato's image was a really strange tie and jacket photo! The mystique around the young prodigy continues to grow.

Since both teams wear red uniforms, Internacional will play Match 3 from the Fifa Club WC all in white. The goalie will be in black. The information is from Jose Evaristo Villalobos, press officer from Internacional.

Al-Ahly will play in their first-choice red shirts, and black shorts.