Loading ...Aug 18 2008
Brasileirão Update: A Man Down, Grêmio Beats São Paulo
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| Edixon Perea celebrates with teammates after scoring Grêmio’s winning goal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sao Paulo received a gift in Porto Alegre when Grêmio midfielder Tcheco was sent off before the opening whistle, giving the league’s third place team a head start on closing the eight point gap between them and the league’s leader. Now past the halfway point in the Brazilian season, Sao Paulo’s visit to Grêmio was a six-pointer, from their point of view, and being able to play it 11-on-10 gave their title hopes a boost.
The vagueness of watching football in a different language, with limited resources, had me unaware that Grêmio was playing a man down until well past Edixon Perea’s ninth minute goal. Grêmio did not seem quite their confident, controlling selves, but they were playing a strong Sao Paulo club who needed the match much more than the Imortal Tricolor. It turns out the favorites were playing with ten for the whole first half, making their showing all the more impressive.
Far more than usual, Grêmio were relaying on isolated shots from just outside the area. The one exception was Perea’s goal, which came on a cross from the right of goal amidst Sao Paulo complaints that the Columbian was offsides. Replays would show Sao Paulo to be right, but with eighty-one minutes left and up a man, they would have plenty of time to make up for the mistake which gave Grêmio’s leading scorer his eighth goal of the Brasileirão.
Try as they might, Sao Paulo were never able to build the kind of momentum you would expect from a team with a man advantage. They were naver able to take control of play. Even after each side had a player sent off at halftime (giving Sao Paulo the increased advantage of playing 10-on-9), Grêmio planed their visitors even.
The result - a 1-0 victory against the league’s third place team - would have been impressive had each side been playing with eleven men. That they played a man down gives further credence to the idea that Grêmio’s not only is the best club in the league but will finish as such. The idea is bolstered by the table, which sees Grêmio ten points clear of all teams save one.
The one team is Cruzeiro, who defeated the slumping Vitória, 2-1. Though the score looked more impressive than Grêmio’s, Cruzeiro had a difficult time with the Serie A neophytes, with Vitória having the better of possession, if not more of it. They were more ambitious in attack, demanding strong play from Cruzeiro goaltender Fábio to keep them off the scoreless for the bulk for the match. For his troubles, Fábio took a minor beating, the consequence of having to throw himself into multiple collisions in his box. He would, however, maintain his clean sheet until Ricardinho scored in the eighty-eighth minute. By then, Cruzeiro’s leading scorer Guilherme had scored his eleventh of the season (two off the league lead), giving A Raposa what would be their winning goal. Vitória may have deserved better, as they played an impassioned match, but Cruzeiro affirmed their worth in holding them off.
The result kept Cruzeiro five points back, waiting for Grêmio to trip. Just barely over halfway through the season, there is still plenty of time for a stumble, though Grêmio looks to have hit their stride. Whereas at the middle of July the top of the table had six teams clustered with less than two matches’ worth of points bewteen them, now only one team is within ten of the top. As the schedule has seen the top teams meet up on each other, only Grêmio has asserted themselves, with Cruzeiro barely hanging on. Over the next month, the schedule evens out, and Grêmio will be given an opportunity to lengthen their lead.
Cruzeiro may be waiting for Grêmio to stumble, but if the Tricolor were not tripped up by having to play short-handed against the league’s third place team, an easier schedule is unlikely to phase them. They have declared themselves the best team in this year’s Brasileirao. The rest of the table will have to wait for that to change.
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