Paulista starts at pre-season pace for big teams

The Campeonato Paulista is also called “Paulistão” and pejoratively referred to as “Paulistinha”. In the edition that starts this weekend, it does not seem to be with the excitement in the increase that the main clubs of São Paulo enter the dispute.

Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo and Santos start the state competition at a pre-season pace. Even the last two, who are not qualified for the Copa Libertadores, treat the tournament more as an opportunity to tidy up the house than as a fervent search for a cup.

The first to enter the field will be Palmeiras, which debuts this Sunday (23). The match against Novorizontino, at 4 pm, in Novo Horizonte, is anticipated from the fifth round and will be shown by Record, Paulistão Play and Premiere.

The first round will be held from Tuesday (25), but the alviverde board asked the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation) to bring forward a game. Thus, the team will have four official matches before traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where they will compete in the World Cup.

Departure is scheduled for February 2. Until then, in addition to facing Novorizontino, the team will face Ponte Preta, São Bernardo and Água Santa. Having four appointments as preparation was a request from coach Abel Ferreira.

The idea is to give the athletes a rhythm of play for the international tournament, which is Palmeiras’ main objective. Qualified directly to the semifinals, on February 8, the South American champion will face the winner of the duel between Monterrey, from Mexico, and Al Ahly, from Egypt.

On the date initially planned as the opening of Paulista, Tuesday, Corinthians will face Ferroviária, at 21:00. Paulistão Play and Premiere will broadcast the match at Neo Química Arena, in Itaquera.

The main goal of the alvinegra club this year is to have a good campaign in Libertadores. Qualified directly for the group stage, which will start in April, she hopes to gain strength throughout Paulista, which will work as a laboratory for coach Sylvinho.

In 2021, despite the significant improvement of the team after the arrivals of Renato Augusto, Willian, Róger Guedes and Giuliano, there were oscillations between good and bad performances. The performance away from home was poor and generated much criticism of the commander’s work.

Now, in addition to coexisting since the beginning of the year with the reinforcements that arrived in the last semester, Sylvinho will have at least one more important player in the squad: midfielder Paulinho, recently repatriated by the club.

Santos and São Paulo will debut in the competition on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. The team from Baixada will play first, against Inter de Limeira, away from home, at 19:00, with HBO Max broadcast. The next day, the tricolor team will face Guarani, in Campinas, at 21:30 – Paulistão Play, YouTube and Premiere will display.

The two teams had similar trajectories at the end of 2021. Both lived with the risk of relegation in the Brazilian Championship and only managed to get the necessary points to escape sticking in the final rounds.

The difficulty experienced recently affects the planning for 2022. No club throws out the possibility of lifting the trophy, but the State is seen primarily as an opportunity to identify and correct the weaknesses of Rogério Ceni and Fábio Carille’s squads.

The São Paulo title itself, as shown last year, does not mean that the best path has been found. In the last season, São Paulo prioritized the State, ended a fast of conquests of almost ten years and, in the sequence, it was very bad. The champion coach, Hernán Crespo, was eventually fired.

Palmeiras, on the other hand, defeated in the decision, overcame the beginning of the vice-championship crisis and ended the year with another great party. Using players who won shooting at Paulista, in which Abel Ferreira adopted alternative formations, he once again reached the top of South America.

Now, the tournament is not treated as a priority by any of its top teams. Even Red Bull Bragantino, which has been gaining ground and could use the dispute to give a show of strength, is more concerned with its first participation in Libertadores​.