PMLF: Does the Serie B in Brazil only play half a season? Because as you will see below there have already been relegations yet only 21 games played…… September 2004
Even though our performances in August had catapulted us back into the title race, we still hadn’t shaken off our injury crisis. Wagner and Maldonado were notable absentees from a tricky home game against Gremio. Gremio only beating us 2-0 in the corresponding fixture had so far been the travesty of the season as they could have easily hit 4 or 5. They were having a reasonably good season stuck in the pack of teams chasing the top 3. The first half was reassuring as we raced to a 2-0 lead, Michel with two impressive finishes. Maldonado’s replacement Augusto Recife is also impressing leading pundits, the 21 year old is building up quite a reputation. Gremio managed to pull one back and thus break our dominance. For the final 30 minutes it was an incredibly open game which Gremio almost salvaged a point from. Once again we survived late pressure to secure three points and overtake Santos into second place. Another win would see us go top as we had a game in hand over Corinthians.
I decided to take a huge gamble on the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana against Flamengo, to ret most of our big name players. I just hoped that 3-1 would be enough of a lead to progress with players that hadn’t really had a look in all season. Luckily our run of good form against Flamengo continued as we found ourselves 3-1 up by half time which gave us a whopping 6-2 aggregate lead. This was mostly thanks to Waltinho who is becoming somewhat of a super sub and now has 9 goals. Alessandro pulled a goal back for the home side but it wasn’t enough as we went on to claim a 6-3 aggregate victory, next up in the Copa Sudamericana is São Caetano.
Our next game was a tricky away game at Parana. After initial success Parana are now languishing near the relegation zone but this would be by no means an easy encounter. Maldonado would score the only goal of the game on his return to take us a point clear of Corinthians at the top. A few days after the game Santos lodged a 1.9 million pound bid for Martinez, I decided to accept as I had more than adequate cover for him and now I could pursue Nadson from Suwon Bluewings to find a strike partner for Fred. To my devastation, when I asked my new assistant manager Carpegiani to unearth the scout report for him, he informed me that he had recently joined Wolfsburg and to add insult to injury had scored 4 from 4. It wasn’t really a surprise to me after all I didn’t have the funds to pursue the interest at the time. By midway through September, Martinez completed his move to Santos.
Next was a return to the Copa Sudamericana and the first of three games this month against São Caetano. The first leg was a disaster as Augusto Recife got sent off in a 3-1 home defeat. The transfer deadline passed before we decided on whom to spend the money we had received from the Martinez transfer. Daniel Carvalho from CSKA Moscow and Basel’s full back Kleber were both mentioned yet both overpriced by their clubs. In the Second Division there has incredibly already been a relegation and four teams guaranteed a play-off place. Avai, Fortaleza, Nautico and America (MG) are all safely into the play-offs while Ceara have been relegated to the Third Division. A 2-0 win against Juventude extended our winning streak to 8 games as we prepared for a league and continental double header against São Caetano. Surprisingly the return leg went rather well, we managed to win 2-0 in 90 minutes and then went on to win 3-1 on penalties despite missing our first two spot-kicks. Next up is Bolivar in the Quarter Final, with only us and Santos flying the flag for Brazil.
The league match against São Caetano was payback for the beating they had treated us to at home, Kelly scored two goals and proved why he is so eager to get off the bench in a 3-0 win. We would have liked to have finished the month off with a tenth straight win away to Botafogo but an entertaining 3-3 draw prevented us from re-taking the lead from Corinthians but we have plenty of games in hand.
Transfers: Out: Martinez (Santos, 1.9m)
Results:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************Gremio 2-1 H First Division Michel (2)Flamengo 3-2 (6-3 agg.) A C.S. 2nd Pre. Rnd. 2nd Leg Waltinho (2), JeanParana 1-0 A First Division MaldonadoSao Caetano 1-3 H C.S. 1st Round 1st Leg FredJuventude 2-0 A First Division Adriano, FredSao Caetano 2-0 (3-3 agg, 3-1 pens) A C.S. 1st Round 2nd Leg Michel, Fred (Penalty Scorers: Maurinho, Maldonado, Athirson)Sao Caetano 3-0 H First Division Kelly (2), AdrianoBotafogo 3-3 A First Division Maldonado, Wagner(2)***************************************** ************************************************** ********************************************* </pre>
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