Where is he? - Ronaldinho

Where is he? - Ronaldinho

When Brazil was eliminated by Netherlands on the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I heard this phrase a lot:
"That wasn't a surprise. How could the Brazilian coach not pick Ronaldinho?"

Well, on these cases, I didn't know what to answer, due to the fact that I couldn't agree more. Though he isn't living the greatest moment on his carrer, Ronaldinho stills being one of the greatest Brazilian players.

Born March, 21st 1980 in Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil,  Ronaldinho started his brilliant professional carrer at  F.P.A. Gremio. During this time, he played against former Brazilian coach Dunga several times. Dunga was a defense man for Gremio's arch rival S.C. Internacional.

Some might say that Dunga doesn't like Ronaldinho because of the following:

In 2001, Ronaldinho signed a five year contract with French team Paris Saint-Germain, where he was one of the team's highlights. Though, he didn't reach the spotlight until 2002 FIFA World Cup.

2002 FIFA World Cup - The Beginning of the Glory

Though the team had great names in it's schedule, Brazil had a hard time qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, played in Korea and Japan. The team just secured a spot in the Cup after the last round of the qualifying, when coach Luiz Felipe Scolari took over as coach.

The history in the World Cup, though, was might different. Counting with experienced players such as Ronaldo and Rivaldo and debuting players such as Kaka and the promising Ronaldinho, Brazil finished the group phase on the first position.

After beating Belgium at the eight-of-finals,Brazil faced the dangerous England. It was one of the best games of that World Cup. Or better saying: nerve hacking. That's the best definition for this match.

England scored first with Owen, after a mistake of one of the best Brazilian defense man Lucio. But the Latinos didn't lowered their heads.

That was the time for him to emerge. Ronaldinho got the ball on the middle field, and went all the way to the goal area, finding invisible spots between the English players. He passed the ball to Rivaldo, that kicked hard and tied the match.

On the beginning of the second half, though, Ronaldinho decided to win the match for the Brazilian team, doing THAT:

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Four rounds, three names

Four rounds, three names

The 2010 Brazilian Championship is slowly coming to an end. And at this point, only three teams have true chances win: Fluminense, Cruzeiro and Corinthians.

Little changed during this weekend round, since the three teams won their games.


Fluminense leads the Championship with 61 points. Only one point over Corinthians and Fluminense, that are  tied on the second place with 60 points.

Still, there are nine points to be disputed, and lots can happen.

The last three Brazilian Championships (2008,2009 and 2010) showed a new tendency. On these years, the champion was decided on the very last round.

That didn't happen for example, on 2003 and 2007. On these years, Cruzeiro (2003) and Sao Paulo (2007) mathematically won the championship way before the last round.

That's the Weekend Round Overview:

Saturday:

Ceara (Ceara) 1 x 5 Gremio (Rio Grande do Sul)


Internacional (Rio Grande do Sul) 2 x 2 Atletico - GO (Goias)


Santos(Sao Paulo) 2 x 2 Atletico - MG (Minas Gerais)

Sunday:


Goias (Goias) 1 x 4 Gremio Barueri (Sao Paulo)



Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro) 0 x Avai (Santa Catarina)

Corinthians(Sao Paulo) 2 x 0 Sao Paulo(Sao Paulo)


Cruzeiro(Minas Gerais) 1 x 0 Vitoria(Bahia)


Atletico - PR(Parana) 1 x 0 Flamengo(Rio de Janeiro)


Fluminense(Rio de Janeiro) 1 x 0 Vasco(Rio de Janeiro)


Goias(Goias) 0 x 1 Palmeiras(Sao Paulo)

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Corinthians: the perfect round

Corinthians: the perfect round

Corinthians(Sao Paulo) is mighty happy with this weekend round.

The team was tripping on the last rounds of the championship. But with the victory over its arch rival Palmeiras(Sao Paulo) and the failure of its close opponents on gathering good results, Corinthians reemerged as one of the favorites to win the Championship.

Traditionally, two rounds of the Championship are separated specially to carry classical matches between teams of the same state. That was the case of this 30th round of the Brazilian Championship. Other than the classical matches, other exciting games were played on the round.

Saturday Matches: 

Vitoria(Bahia) 0 x 1 Botafogo(Rio de Janeiro)

Atletico Goianiense(Goias) 1 x 0 Goias(Goias)

Sunday Matches:

Palmeiras(Sao Paulo) x Corinthians(Sao Paulo)
On August 1914, a group of dissidents from Corinthians resigned from the club and founded Palestra Italia, later renamed Palmeiras.

That was the beginning of a huge rivalry that continues until modern days.

On this round duel, Corinthians ended up with a much needed and deserved victory. The team played much better, creating many goal opportunities and defending well, mostly preventing Palmeiras from entering on the goal area.

On the first-half, Roberto Carlos (ex-Real Madrid) found a good spot and passed the ball to Bruno Cesar. The forward shot the ball, which deviated on a Palmeiras' Marcos Assunção and fooled the goal keeper.

But, unlike is shown by many Brazilian's websites, the name of the game wasn't Bruno Cesar. The best player on the field was Corinthians' goalie Julio Cesar. He made incredible defenses and prevent Corinthians from conceding the tying goal.

Final score: Corinthians 1 x 0 Palmeiras

With this result, Corinthians reapproaches the leaders and becomes a strong favorite to the title.

Watch the game highlights:

Avai(Santa Catarina) 0 x 1 Guarani (Sao Paulo)

Sao Paulo(Sao Paulo) 0 x 2 Ceara(Ceara)

Fluminense(Rio de Janeiro) x Atletico Paranaense(Parana)
Long time leader Fluminense begun the round at the second position, 1 point away from the leader Cruzeiro.

It didn't seem, anyway, that they were up to recover the first position.

They started the game loosing to Atletico Paranaense, and after tying the match, they conceded another goal.


SPECIAL BONUS: Long Live the King!
 Soccer's most iconic player of all times, the king Pele, celebrated his 70 years


Thought out the country, various teams honored Pele with banners and commemorative jerseys.

That's my humble way to pay honor to my favorite player of all times.

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Leaders disappoint, get bad results and Championship still uncertain

Leaders disappoint, get bad results and Championship still uncertain

The 30th round of Brazilian Championship could've changed many championship perspectives, but little changed about it.

The leader, Cruzeiro (Minas Gerais) could've opened four points in advantage on the top of the standings, but missed the chance by losing the game to Gremio (Rio Grande do Sul).

On another match, Santos would've overcomed Corinthians(Sao Paulo) and get to the third place on the Championship by beating Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo), which didn't happened.

Despite the lack of competence of the leaders, we had exciting matched this weekend, that brought opportunity for even more teams to fight for the championship.

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Saturday Games:


Internacional (Rio Grande do Sul) 0 x 3 Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro)


Goias (Goias) 1 x 2 Atletico Paranaense (Parana)

Sunday Games:

Cruzeiro (Minas Gerais) x Gremio (Rio Grande do Sul)
Looking forward to get some safe distance from the runner-up on the champioship standings, Cruzeiro went south to face Gremio on Olimpico Stadium.

On the other hand, Gremio was trying to continue a victorious phase, and get the three points worth for the victory to approach the leaders.

The Argentinean Montilo, one of the best players of the championship until this point, opened the score to Cruzeiro. But championship top striker Jonas helped Gremio to overcome the odd.

Final score: Cruzeiro 1 x 2 Gremio.

Gremio continues an increadible climb towards the top, reaching the 7th position.

Despite the loss, Cruzeiro keeps holding the first position with 54 points gained.

Watch the game highlights:

 

Vasco da Gama (Rio de Janeiro) 0 x 2 Atletico Goianiense (Goias)

Avai (Santa Catarina) 0 x 2 Atletico Mineiro (Minas Gerais) 

Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro) x Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro)
Cruzeiro's loss biggest benefited would've been Fluminense, since a victory would've put Rio de Janeiro's team back on the top of the standings.

But Fluminense let the change go by tying the game against Botafogo on a boring and disappointing match. It makes it even worse to say that Botafogo x Fluminense is one of the biggest Rio de Janiero's classical matches.

Final score: Botafogo 0 x 0 Fluminense 

Ceara (Ceara) 0 x 0 Palmeiras (Sao Paulo) 

Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo) 4 x 2 Santos (Sao Paulo) 

Gremio Prudente (Sao Paulo) 0 x 2 Vitoria (Bahia)
Gremio Prudente has been strugling on the championship since the beggining of it.

With 21 points, the team is closer than ever from disputing Divison B of the Brazilian Championship next year. The lost to Vitoria sealed even more what seems to be Gremio Prudente's coffin.


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The 2010 Brazilian Championship has eight rounds letf and mathematical studies show that the ten better positioned teams on the standings still have chances to win the championship. 


The fight for a vacancy on the Libertadores Cup is also getting hotter. The Latin American Soccer Confederation has annonced that, one more, the four better teams on the Brazilian Championship will have the chance to play the most important championship on the continent.

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With nine rounds to go, Brazilian Championship title is more opened than ever

With nine rounds to go, Brazilian Championship title is more opened than ever

Though five Brazilian soccer elite teams have nailed themselves to the pursuit of the Brazilian Championship title, the possible trophy holder has never been in such a blur.

After four teams played important delayed matches, the Wednesday night brought even more doubts about the end of the ongoing championship. 

Santos (Sao Paulo) x Internacional (Rio Grande do Sul)
The two teams delayed this match, previously scheaduled for the 32sd round of the championship, since both were disputing the finals of other championships. Santos faced Vitoria (Bahia) on the Brazilian Cup finals, and Internacional faced America (Mexico) on the Libertadores Finals.

Both teams ended up being the champions on these disputes.

Santos is trying to end up a brilliant year with the triple crown, since the team conquered the Paulista Championship (Regional) and the Cup of Brazil for the first time.

On the Brazilian Championship, not such a brilliant campaign. The team lost important and easy matches, moving away from the top. But three winnings in a row gave Santos the motivation they needed to start fighting again.

Though Internacional is not in a bad position on the Brazilian Championship, it is clear that their main focus is the dispute of the Club World Championship, to be played in December, in Adu Dhabi, Arab Emirates.

On Wednesday's match, the winner team would backboard the championship leaders. The match was played on Santos, with the massive presence of their supporters, which lead the team to the victory.

Neymar, Santos' golden boy, scored on the first half, and Internacional didn't have power to react against the strong home defense.


Final: Santos 1 x 0 Internacional.

The teams switch places and now Santos occupies the 4th position with 48 points. International follows close, on the 5th position and 47 points.

On this championship, there's lots of water to row underneath the bridge.

Watch the highlights of the game:

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