Opinion – Juca Kfouri: The time has come for Palmeiras to end part of the song

Copa São Paulo is not the most important tournament for youth teams in the country.

Disputed since 1969, originally organized by the city of São Paulo to celebrate the city’s birthday and always decided on January 25th.

It is not the most important championship, but it is the largest, with 128 participants, and the one that attracts the most attention, because on the professional football holidays, unlike the various Brazilian youth competitions promoted by the CBF.

In its 52nd edition, Copinha lives a mystery that can be closed this Tuesday (25), at 16 pm, with transmission by Globo: the absence of titles of one of the most powerful clubs in the world, Palmeiras, something inexplicable especially in the last years, from which alviverde started to win almost everything in the so-called sub competitions.

Only in 1987, when the city government gave up organizing it, and last year, because of the pandemic, the Copinha was not contested. It has been in the hands of the FPF since 1988.

Only on two occasions did Palmeiras participate in the decision, and their fasting gave rise to the uncomfortable little song that says “Palmeiras doesn’t have a World Cup, there’s no Cup, there’s no World Cup”.

Defeated by the biggest rival Corinthians, in 1970 and, worse (?), by the small Santo André, in 2003, the alviverdes will enter the field as favorites against Santos, as principals for having a better campaign and supported by their fans, without the presence of the Santos mass.

The time has come to end some of the music and, who knows, foreshadow that on February 12, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the joke will be definitively buried.

It is undeniable that revealing Endrick is more important than winning the Cup, as it was with Gabriel Jesus, in 2015, when Palmeiras stopped in the semifinals, eliminated by Botafogo de Ribeirão Preto – which Corinthians defeated in the final to win the ninth of their ten titles .

And Gabriel Jesus and Endrick are just two cases, because Palmeiras has been known for taking advantage of a lot of revelations made at home, well used in the main team and sources for good transactions.

But of the so-called giants of Brazilian football, only Palmeiras, Bahia, Botafogo and Grêmio have never won the Copinha, and it’s time to leave the discomfort on the feet of Bahians, Cariocas and Gauchos.

Santos and their always surprising boys will fight for the fourth conquest, champions in 1984, 2013 and 2014.

Hence, the fourth largest Brazilian crowd is much more connected in the Copinha decision than it was in the debut of its team in Paulistinha, against Novorizontino, a quiet victory by 2 to 0.

Almost clandestinely, treated as it should, pre-season of what, in fact, matters, the World Cup, with a semifinal scheduled for February 8, against the Mexicans of Monterrey or the Egyptians of Al Ahly, hard, very hard stops, as they have demonstrated the last Brazilian participations in the tournament.

It must be repeated that winning the Copa São Paulo is not the most important thing, although realism prevails, as demonstrated in Saturday’s Choque-Reizinho (22).

Verdãozinho took the lead after just four minutes, gave the impression that they would beat São Paulo, but they retreated miserably, took two balls on the posts and deserved to have been punished with a decision on the penalty mark.

Santos must have noticed.