March 2005
Now that speculation of my departure to Portugal had ended, I could now focus properly on retaining the state championship and qualifying from what the local papers have already labelled "the group of death" in the Copa Libertadores. First up were newcomers Patrocinense and Democrata. Patrocinense put up a reasonable fight but were taken care of by half time with goals from Fred, Wagner and Daniel Carvalho. They managed to salvage some pride five minutes from time with Thiago scoring a well placed drive. Democrata was much the same story. Just a day after signing professional terms with the club, Kerlon headed the opener and was quickly followed by a Maldonado penalty. Maldonado had missed a spot-kick against Patrocinense but this time he thumped home the ball with real passion. Celsinho slotted home with five minutes of the first half remaining. Once again we were three goals to the good and had the match wrapped up.
Next was a tough trip to Peru to face Alianza Lima, a team that we must take six points off to stand any chance of safe progress. The game went smoothly enough and two Adriano goals were enough to send us top of the group after America (MEX) sneaked a win against Boca. A 6-0 win against URT back home secured our progress to the semi final's of the state championship, Daniel Carvalho scoring two but then tragically injuring himself in the process. After the game I called Bolinha our physio into my office. The news was not good, Carvalho had severely broken his leg and would miss the next five months. It was an absolute disaster made all the more gut-wrenching by the fact that he had just come into excellent form. America (MG) were lucky to grab a point from us in a closely contested local derby that ended 1-1. We would go on to be drawn against them in the semi finals whilst Villa Nova would entertain Atletico Mineiro.
Next it was back to the Copa Libertadores and a trip to Buenos Aires to play Boca Juniors. I new it would be a tough game but I had not prepared myself for a trademark strike from Fred after just 10 minutes. There was silence around the Alberto J. Armando as we looked to have settled into the game quite well. Our elation was short lived as Kelly deflected the ball past Fabio just before half time. Boca came out for the second half a noticeably different side, their passing and movement became superb and the goal that I had been dreading came just after the hour mark., Delgado with a cool finish. We had a mini revival but the final nail in the coffin was Giminez heading home with five minutes to go. It finished 3-1 and it tuned the group on its head. All three teams at the top were level on six points and after going into the game top of the group we now came out in third on goal difference.
Our next game was the crucial trip to Mexico to face America. If I’d have said that we had a crisis on our hands before the start of this game it would have been a dramatic understatement. Thanks to injuries, international call ups and ineligibilities we went to Mexico with just three first team regulars and nine first team squad members. Surprisingly we hung on to get a 0-0 draw but it was close. I sarcastically pointed out that as long as Brazil triumph against Bolivia whilst using my key players it’s fine! In reality the situation was a farce and I was just glad we got a point to leave the group looking like this:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> =============================================Group B P W D L G.D Pts.=============================================B oca 4 3 0 1 +7 9America 4 2 1 1 +2 7---------------------------------------------Cruzeiro 4 2 1 1 +1 7Alianza Lima 4 0 0 4 -10 0</pre>
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Results
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ************************************************** ****************************************Patrocinen se 3-1 H Minas Gerais Wagner, Daniel Carvalho, FredDemocrata 3-0 A Minas Gerais Maldonado, Kerlon, CelsinhoAlianza Lima 2-0 A C.L Group B Adriano (2)URT 6-0 H Minas Gerais Maldonado, Daniel Carvalho (2), Celsinho, Kelly (2)America(MG) 1-1 A Minas Gerais WagnerBoca 1-3 A C.L Group B FredAmerica(MEX) 0-0 A C.L Group B************************************************* ************************************************** ***************************************** </pre>
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