São Paulo’s biggest problem, at the beginning of the classic against Flamengo, was the ball going out. Two errors by Pablo Maia, two red-black chances. Afterwards, Rodrigo Nestor gave the wrong pass and Gabriel scored 1-0 receiving a perfect pass from Lázaro.
The number of times Brazilian teams raise the mark to pressure the opponent’s departure from play has increased. The number of errors also grew, forced by the healthy attempt to leave with short passes.
More daring and marking, the result is more tackles and goals born of forced errors.
Flamengo’s superiority did not stop there. The steering wheel João Gomes is shining. Rogério Ceni was the first to bet that he would be an excellent player, Paulo Sousa insists on that and collects successes. João Gomes had just one wrong pass and offered an assist for Isla’s goal.
Flamengo shows increasingly frequent moves by Lázaro, Éverton Ribeiro and De Arrascaeta, freedom for Gabigol. When Flamengo works, it’s hard to stop it.
Paulo Sousa gave up on selecting Éverton Ribeiro as a winger and, in the right midfielder, he is experiencing his best moment in the last two years. He left the field, substituted in the 32nd minute of the second half, to huge applause.
Playing well, Flamengo is always among the favorites, due to the quality of its squad and for filling Maracanã with 60,000 fans.
But the leader of the Brasileiro, for now, is Corinthians, pushed by tactical and physical decisions.
“Du didn’t have the same freshness”, said Vítor Pereira after the victory over Deportivo Cáli. Rested, Du Queiroz involved the entire defense of Avaí and gave the pass for Roger Guedes’ first goal.
This Brasileirão will demand the athletic condition like few others, because it can be 58 matches in the next six months for those who play three simultaneous competitions.
Corinthians will not maintain its leadership if it punishes its veterans, over 30 years old, every three days.
Vítor Pereira realized that he needs to mix. Rogério too, but he ran into the indisposition of André Anderson, who would start at Maracanã. He also stopped at Flamengo’s strength and their pressure marking.
Palmeiras also conceded a similar goal. He recovered the ball from Goiás, Zé Rafael couldn’t keep it, gave a wrong pass and Pedro Raul turned his body to make it 1 to 0. Despite the lack in Wéverton, there was the merit of Goiás maintaining the attempt to regain control of the play.
The Brasileirão starts well with the attempts to increase the intensity of the game, the scoring in the attacking field and the birth of goals due to the narrow space caused by the pressure near the attack area.
Combined with changes in technicians and travel, there will be a huge chance that even the strongest will fluctuate.
In the first round, there were four coach changes –Goiás, América-MG, Athletico and Internacional– the same number of changes from England in the 2020-2021 season.
Can you understand why every weekend someone says the Premier League is another sport?
The last champion to win the first two rounds was Corinthians, from 2015. Being a leader at this point doesn’t mean much. Atlético lost in the 2021 debut, Flamengo fell in the first two rounds of 2020.
FLAMENGO x PALMEIRAS
Anticipated, Flamengo x Palmeiras will be the big duel this week because the two need to confirm that they will be in the fight for the title. Palmeiras are tactically strong and physically fragile. Flamengo has a lot of injuries. As a team, Palmeiras are better.
FORTE, SANTOS
Santos is still unconvinced, but is undefeated in two rounds of the Brasileirão. Bustos used Jhohan Julio more on the left and gave Angelo confidence. The team starts to gain confidence. It’s not brilliant, but it’s good to understand that it’s the beginning – one more – of the formation of a team.
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