John Textor’s artificial intelligence went tilt – 04/15/2024 – Sandro Macedo

If John Textor, the president of Botafogo (Putfire), carefully analyzed the ten games of the first round of the Brazilian Championship, he would buy a virtual ax and give it to the artificial intelligence that helped him prepare a report on match manipulation.

Before manipulation, and there may even be manipulation, the problem with Brazilian arbitration is that it is simply bad, below criticism. And so it was in the first round, at least in the games this scribe followed.

Textor’s AI would tilt and say that the 20 teams involved should lose three points in their debut (or win) — tilt was a word we used when we had trouble in the arcades of the best bars in the neighborhood.

What Corinthians full-back Fagner did in the home duel against Atlético Mineiro would be called “fatality”, a blow to finish off the opponent. As it was not the fault of VAR, the game continued normally.

The refereeing of Corinthians 0 x 0 Atlético Mineiro was disastrous. The young man Yuri Elino Ferreira da Cruz —considered the best referee of the last Carioquinha— gave an unnecessary card after 15 seconds, which caused an Atletico expulsion in the first half and kind of affected the game. Atlético, with one less, attacked little. Corinthians, with one more, didn’t know how to attack. Fair result.

This scribe found Vasco’s VAR 2 x 1 Grêmio even more curious. We always say here that VAR is very interventionist. In São Januário, he intervened twice to warn of two clear penalties, one for each side. A touch of the hand with an open arm, very clear, and a little kick to the opponent’s heel. Whistle blower Flavio Rodrigues de Souza preferred not to score any of them.

By chance, the person who commanded the VAR and suggested the penalties was a woman, Daiane Muniz. Could it be that if he were a man he would also be ignored? I am not sure. In fact, in the case of the second penalty, Daiane was convinced to take it back by her cabin mates (men).

And in the pasture formerly known as the Serra Dourada lawn, Atlético-GO and Flamengo also had very poor refereeing, including a fifth-grade penalty — courtesy of Léo Pereira. And this humble scribe thought that the other penalty awarded in favor of Flamengo, with the help of VAR, in the 700th minute of the second half, was a bit mandrake. But TV refereeing experts thought everything was fine. Was Flamengo deliberately helped by the refereeing? Nooo. Again, the guy was just really weak.

In a week of several bad referees, Wilton Pereira Sampaio and Raphael Claus, considered the two main names on the whistle, were not available. They took courses outside the country. Some Englishman would say that the Wilton course was to train your guide dog — an English joke from the Qatar World Cup days.

In any case, congratulations to former referee Wilson Luiz Seneme, responsible for the CBF roster. And we’re not going to talk about the Premier League this week. Grateful.

Round 1
The carnage of the Brazilian Nationals is so dynamic that there was a change of coaches before the competition began. At Cruzeiro, Argentine Nicolás Larcamón left and Brazilian Fernando Seabra joined. Thus, there were 11 Brazilians in round 1, against eight foreigners (Cuiabá has one interim). And until the conclusion of this text, amazingly, no one was beheaded. However, they say that the most played song on São Paulo professor Thiago Carpini’s playlist is “baking potatoes 1, 2, 3…”.

Women’s protest
Women’s football players from Corinthians, Avaí and Palmeiras put their hands over their mouths during the anthem in Brazilian games. It was a protest against coach Kleiton Lima’s return to Santos after 19 reports of harassment by the mermaids. President Marcelo Teixeira thought everything was fine, but Kleiton resigned this Monday, claiming he had suffered threats. Congratulations to the girls.

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