Cariocão Round 3 or Is Never Too Early for a Good Thrashing…

Tags

Botafogo, Flamengo, Soccer, South America, Vagner Love, Vasco

I was originally going to refrain from commenting on the Rio State Tournament. It is a relic, like all the other State Tournaments, from the time there was no National Tournament, but we Cariocas love our little relic. We just feel other people don’t understand the appeal.

Then, something like this happens.

The first derby of the year: Botafogo vs Vasco, the Friendship Derby. That name will have to change soon if Vasco keeps beating on Botafogo like a rented mule every chance they get (Thanks for the metaphor, German.) This time it was 6×0, inside the beautifully built but perpetually empty Botafogo’s stadium the Engenhão. Dodô, who used to play for Botafogo, and who was suspended for two years for steroid use due to some nutritional supplement given by the team, had his revenge this weekend, scoring a hat-trick in the first half and opening the floodgates for the historic thrashing of the Lone Star.

All the while, in Flamengo…

Vágner Love is home, but the home is not yet complete.

Our defense is shaky, since the midfield is where we lost most players since last year (Aírton and Everton -sold; Zé Roberto – loan expired; Maldonado, Williams – injured). So, while we have won the past three games, we got scored on 4 times total, a worrisome number.

Love, who has nothing to do with that, played his first game and was the happiest man I ever seen score a goal for Flamengo. And then he scored another one, guaranteeing our victory for 2×1.

It’s the beginning of a new year, we can expect much more than the little pleasures…

Brasileirão Round 29 or The Revenge of the Jedi

Tags

Botafogo, Flamengo, Soccer, South America

Petkovic is a Jedi Master.

The game Saturday against São Paulo was one of those games that would end very well or very badly. We started the game aggressively, hounding the São Paulo area and making their goalie work. But we didn’t had Adriano (thank you one more time, Dunga), and Denis Marques have not found the way to score yet. So while we kicked towards the goal 12 times in the first half, São Paulo kicked once. But their one time made into the net.

Andrade took Denis Marques out, fixed our midfield and left the team without a center-forward, a lighter and normally risky formation. But it worked. Jorge Wagner kicked Toró in the area, and the ref gave the penalty. Petkovic scored á la Panenka, after the first miss had to be repeated because their goalie moved forward. Petkovic, again, gave Zé Roberto a milimetric pass between the stunned São Paulo defense, and Zé wasted no time to send their goalie scurrying for the ball inside the net. Flamengo 2×1 Evil Empire.

Fluminense won, an away game, yet it didn’t leave the 20th and last place, because Sport tied and held on to the 19th place. Botafogo tied, but stayed outside the relegation zone. All in all, of the 10 game we had 4 ties, which is a pretty high number.

To make this round even sweeter, leader Palmeiras went to the northeast and came back with a 3×0 loss against 18th placed Náutico. Actually, none of the five team above Flamengo won this weekend. They better remember with Flamengo is always DCF (deixou chegar, fudeu*)

*If you let us get close, you’re fucked

Brasileirão round 22 – A proletarian victory

Tags

Adriano, Botafogo, Brazil, Emerson, Flamengo, In the news, Soccer, South America

No Emperors or Shieks. Without Adriano (suspended) or Émerson (sold to Al-Ain) – Flamengo depended on a team lead by the old Serbian warhorse Petkovic, full of new hires (Álvaro – first game; Maldonado – first game; Dênis Marques – 3rd game) and a peppering of young kids, age 17 to 19, coming from Flamengo’s juniors team.

Petkovic showed that he meant business when he said he was going to earn his place back on the team. The old warhorse completly ruled the midfield, and ran from start to finish, and showed that skill does not diminish with age.

Another delightful surprise was the reappearance of Zé Roberto, totted in the begining of the year (before Adriano) as the best hiring Flamengo had done yet – but until this weekend a complete disappointment. Apathetic, slow and appparently conformed, there were at least two attempted negotiation to sell him off, both blocked by the player himself. The general consensus is that he just wanted to pocket his salary of over U$ 50.000 a month and relax in Rio without having to actually put the effort.

The Zé Roberto of this weekend was the old Zé Roberto from his Botafogo days, dazzling fast, agile and bold – and made his peace with the ball by geting fouled on and giving us a penalty, and scoring the last goal – although, in all justice, Petkovic deserved that goal for the beautiful run in the last 2 minutes of the game.

It’s a start. After seeing the team lose three games in a row, the flamenguistas are a little weary of taking this game as a measure of what the team can do. We do hope, however. As Gramsci would say, pessimism of the intellect, optismism of the will.

There are things that only happen to Botafogo

Tags

Botafogo, Flamengo, Soccer

In the first match of a two legged game, it was a typical Flamengo vs. Botafogo derby. Not necessariry with the best technique, but an open air war. And could only have ended like most of the last confrontations in the past four years between these two have ended – in a draw.

Flamengo started better and scored a goal in the beggining of the game from a penalty kick. And then it did what it has been doing for the past three years and that it pissed me off every single time – it slowed down. No game can be considered won with a one-nil score, unless is over.

They came at us and turn it around. 2×1. They were dominating the game, and we were scrambling, unorganized trying to score and leaving the defense wide open. But then, Botafogo’s legendary bad luck came into play, and their two star attackers got injured at the same time. The second stringers came in and they are hella shit. We start taking the game over again, and then, it happened again. Flamengo’s number 8 Willians tries to cross the ball in front of the Botafogo’s goal. The ball hits their defender Emerson (number 3, the same from the own goal on the last game) and kills any chance of  defense from their goalie. 2×2. End of the first game, which means that no one has an advantage coming next Sunday.

By the way, their main player – Maicossuel, number 10 – is down for the count. The injury is too severe, he wont be able to play for another month. Reinaldo, their other injured player, was given a 50/50 chance of playing Sunday by Botafogo’s doctors.

There are things that only happen to Botafogo.

An Odd Weekend

Tags

Botafogo, Brazil, Flamengo, Soccer, South America

One came from a game in which they massacred the rival tatically, yet the final tally was only 1×0. The other from two consecutive victories, one of 4×0 on a derby against Vasco, the other 2×1 against a much weaker team. Yet the 2×1 felt like a defeat, because it got them disqualified in the Brazil Cup. We all expected a great game, for both teams were playing reallly well.

The game sucked. It was ugly, truncated, an European game without the South Americans and the Africans. It would have ended 0×0 – if it wasn’t for an own goal.

There are things that only happen to Botafogo.

Flamengo is the champion of the second stage of Campeonato Carioca- the State of Rio’s Tournament – the Taça Rio, for the 7th time only. We don’t like Taça Rio very much, we are more of first stage guys – 18 times. But this year we didn’t get the Taça Guanabara, so the Taça Rio is more than welcome.

We are in the final. Against Botafogo, champion of the first stage. Oddly enough led by the coach whom we beat in the last two years. He helmed Botafogo then.

Botafogo’s coach is Ney Franco, who was the Flamengo coah two years ago. When we beat Botafogo. It’s like Bizarro World.The left one is ours. The right one, it’s a matter of time.