Favorites Palmeiras and Flamengo still owe football – 08/04/2023 – Juca Kfouri

Atletico Mineiro got off to a worse start when they lost (1-0) to Paraguayan Libertad with more than 40,000 fans at the Mineirão.

The only one of the seven Brazilian teams to debut at home, and a member of one of the most difficult groups in the Libertadores, Galo already puts its Galo fans in “I believe” mode.

And it wasn’t just the miners who were defeated.

Neither Palmeiras nor Flamengo, the two biggest favorites for the fourth continental championship, resisted the wear and tear caused by the altitude of La Paz and Quito. It’s true that the people from São Paulo have reservations and the people from Rio only have a strong mix.

The rare reader and the rare reader know that here there is a resounding refusal to analyze games played at altitudes that approach or exceed 3,000 meters. Like on impractical pitches, out of pure respect for the players.

Perhaps, also, for personal trauma when subjected to such discomfort, as the nose bleeds, the head hurts, the lungs burn.

If there is no solution, if it is unfair to prohibit games in such conditions because, after all, what fault do the inhabitants of these cities have for having been born in the heights, the solution for those who suffer is the one adopted by alviverdes and rubro-negros, pragmatic to the point of deliver your games and prioritize state decisions.

Because Vítor Pereira would be screwed if he lost to Fluminense, and, in the words of Abel Ferreira, it would be a shame to allow Água Santa the title.

By sticks or stones, both lost to the Ecuadorians from Aucas (2 to 1) and to the Bolivians from Bolívar (3 to 1).

The comments were the usual, unhappy with the defeats to teams much weaker than the millionaires of Gávea and Água Branca.

It’s easy from afar, the day after the draw for the groups, it’s difficult up close, when the games start —it could be read somewhere in this Sheet ten days ago.

How difficult it was for Athletico Paranaense, in Lima, 0-0 with Alianza, and for Inter, in Medellín, 1-1 with Independiente, although a draw away from home is always considered a good result.

Even just two wins and, not by chance, over two of the less respectable opponents, even though that of Fluminense, also in the Peruvian capital, by 3 to 1, over Sporting Cristal, was the result of a performance that was pleasing to the eyes, unlike the corintiana over Uruguayan Liverpool, in Montevideo, 3-0.

Apart from Fernando Diniz’s incomprehensible insistence on still selecting Felipe Melo, responsible for the Peruvian goal and, fortunately, substituted at half-time, the tricolor performance was, by far, the best of the Brazilians.

Corinthians had the biggest victory and the biggest trauma, a chronicle of announced pain, the new injury to Renato Augusto, the talented midfielder who was already fragile when he was young.

Palmeiras and Flamengo remain the biggest favorites both in Libertadores and in the state decisions this Sunday (9), but they continue to owe football in 2023.

And Palmeiras, which did not allow surprises until last week, could be the victim of the biggest one in many, many years.

TAX OFFICIALS FC

While swamped in sponsorships from deregulated tax-free sports casinos, the top hats of 100% of the beneficiary clubs were silent.

All it took was for the government to announce that it was going to tax them for everyone to become specialists in taxation.

Cynics and hypocrites is what they are.

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