Opinion – Walter Casagrande Jr.: It will be difficult for Palmeiras to let the Brazilian title slip away

With each round of the Brazilian Championship, Palmeiras is further away from the others.
In the last one, Corinthians won again. In fact, Vítor Pereira lost the three times he faced Abel Ferreira.

It will be difficult for Palmeiras to lose this title. Despite Flamengo winning and playing well, there is a big gap between the two teams.

At these times, they always remember Flamengo’s 2009 title, which, in the 20th round, was 11 points away from the leader Palmeiras.

But in that championship I watched several games of the Palmeiras team of then coach Muricy Ramalho, and the team played badly. Flamengo, on the other hand, was in a similar moment, performing well and with two fantastic players making the difference: Adriano and Petkovic.

I find it difficult for this to happen again because this time Palmeiras is a very strong team, used to winning titles.

Dorival Júnior’s team is already in second place, nine points behind Abel Ferreira’s, and I believe they will continue in this pattern of winning and playing well. But I don’t think Palmeiras will lose five matches in the second round.

Anyway, among those we all bet on at the beginning of the year, only Galo is behind in the classification and eliminated in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa do Brasil.

On the Corinthians side, the week will be decisive not only for the classification but also for the relationship between fans, team and coach. Last Saturday (13), Fiel already manifested itself and showed that it was not happy with the team’s year.

It will have to reverse a 2-0 result against Atlético GO, to continue in the race for the Copa do Brasil title and to maintain a healthy environment to work in.

I, in particular, am not enjoying Vítor Pereira’s work because he cannot make the Corinthians team play a game well.

He had an excellent second half with Internacional at Beira-Rio and another with Atlético MG at Mineirão, nothing more. It’s August, and he doesn’t have a base for a starting lineup.

There were several injuries, but even before that, the team changed every game. Rotating players is one thing, not having a backbone is another. All coaches rotate their teams, but they have a starting base.

Sylvinho was criticized a lot because his team didn’t play well and didn’t win away from home, but he took Corinthians from the bottom of the table and took them to Libertadores.

Already in this Brazilian, the team started to make the inverse road of leader for a long time. Now, it is already in third and without winning classics. The only victory against the main rivals of the state this year was against Santos, in the Copa do Brasil, by 4-0.

Meanwhile, the other two big teams from São Paulo in the championship are in pretty much the same way.

Santos lost in BH to América by 1 to 0 and stayed in the 30 points, while São Paulo beat Bragantino well by 3 to 0 in Morumbi, but only reached 29 points. Despite the defeat, Santos had Luan’s debut, and I hope he can recover.

They are two unstable teams, which do not achieve regularity, but, in general, Rogério Ceni’s team is doing well because it has already qualified for the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana. This week, they compete for a spot in the semifinals of the Copa do Brasil against América, at Independência, with the advantage of having won at home by 1-0.

Santos is far from a spot in Libertadores and will only be able to fight for one in Sudamericana.

At the end of the round, another result took place that leaves Verdão safer than ever in the lead: Internacional’s victory kept Fluminense in fourth position. The gaucho club was eliminated by the weak Melgar in the middle of the week in the Copa Sudamericana and left the fans angry. But against Fluminense, he played a brilliant match, as he had already done against Galo

In this game between Inter and Fluminense, the annulment of Maurício’s goal for Colorado was absurd. He left the defensive field. In Brazil, VAR works to give the offside, not the goal.

Finally, Abel Ferreira’s team will be the only one, among the top five, that will have the whole week to train, having already been eliminated from the Copa do Brasil. Synthetic turf is not an advantage, but being able to train your team every day will be a huge benefit to go in search of the title.