Opinion – Sandro Macedo: Is Flamengo the famous third way in Brazilian football?

The Brazilian Championship will begin. Wow. That’s because the state championships for Serie A clubs are finally over… Or almost. This weekend, Fortaleza will play the first game of the Cearense final against the fearless Caucaia. After hundreds of state duels across the country, it is possible to say that three or four games were really good.

And, even before the national championship begins, the teams of the two main fans in the country are already in crisis. Corinthians, because they lost months with a coach they didn’t want and, when they found a Portuguese to call their own, they put the young man to work only in ice cream. Either it’s classic or it’s a decisive game. And he still got a debut in Libertadores with everything to always go wrong. And gave.

Flamengo even won in the Libertadores debut. The crisis is because the Portuguese professor Paulo Sousa used the state to start 487 different players in search of the ideal team, which started to irritate some. The icing on the cake was losing Carioquinha to Fluminense playing poorly. The defeat opened up a crisis in the locker room.

But let’s go to the Brazilian. First, Roberto Dinamite will keep his historic score intact, with 190 goals. The only man capable of overtaking him would be Fred, 32 goals back. But it is unlikely that Frederico will be able to play until the end of the year with almost one goal per match in the tournament. He should retire with the honorable vice artillery — and first place if we only consider the era of running stitches.

Of the 20 coaches that start Serie A, 9 are foreigners, which means almost a 50% mathematical chance that one of them will be the champion. And that there is a 100% chance that at least three of them will lose their jobs. I bet on 20 layoffs (or mutual agreement) this season. And Renato Gaúcho will be probed three or four times.

The Brazilian has to finish before the World Cup. So, there are 38 rounds in 32 weeks, with continental tournaments for most and Copa do Brasil for 18 of them (Avaí and Internacional managed to get early eliminations). This means the guarantee that we will have a calendar complaint at every press conference. Only Avaí has ​​a free week between rounds. Would it be the favorite? Do not.

The favorites are Atlético Mineiro, Flamengo and Palmeiras (alphabetical order). Some want to take the rubro-black off the list and call it the third way. Early injustice.

Moro can be a third way, Ciro can be a third way, Renato Gaúcho can be a third way, Paulo André (the BBB athlete) can be a third way, but Flamengo is a first way, even with the coach being weird with one or the other in the squad , even with the team’s friends fighting, even with the manager oiling.

However, Flamengo’s starting table is not the easiest. In the first four rounds, Paulo Sousa and his blue caps face intrepid Atlético-GO (away), São Paulo (home), Palmeiras midweek (home) and Athletico-PR (away). They are pebbles in the shoe that can give some indication of what the richest team in the country will do in the championship.

Current champions, Atlético Mineiro have a large squad, individual talent and the incredible Hulk, even though coach El Turco has not yet impressed.

Palmeiras, on the other hand, starts with the best chemistry in Serie A and with the positive doping of a historic victory in the Paulista final. The problem seems to be the short cast. To see how much the cool-headed professor will be able to rotate and save the cast.

And the fourth force? It could be Corinthians, São Paulo, Fluminense, but none of them starts out looking like they’re going to bother much. Good luck to everyone involved.