Palmeiras beats Água Santa and wins Paulista 2023 – 04/09/2023 – Sport

When Palmeiras needed it most, the boys decided. One boy in age, another in name.

Decisive, Gabriel Menino, 22, and Endrick, 16, took the team out of a difficult situation and made it win the third state title in the last four years. After losing the first leg 2-1, the alviverde team dominated Água Santa this Sunday (9), at Allianz Parque, thrashing 4-0 and taking the Campeonato Paulista.

Gabriel Menino scored two goals, and Endrick, one. Flaco López closed the scoring. In the first match, in Barueri, the 16-year-old boy, already negotiated with Real Madrid, had also scored for Palmeiras.

The victory also represented a historic mark for Abel Ferreira. With eight titles, he became the second most winning coach in the club’s history. He is two behind the record holder, Oswaldo Brandão. This year, the team will compete in the Brazilian Championship, the Copa do Brasil, the Copa Libertadores and, depending on the result in the continental tournament, the World Cup.

Gabriel Menino and Endrick’s performances went beyond goals. Criticized after the defeat last week, the defensive midfielder was responsible for almost all the good offensive plays created by Palmeiras. He also had a hand in the striker’s goal.

Endrick suffered the foul that gave rise to Gabriel Menino’s first and also impressed with his willingness to return not only to help with the marking but to play a leading role in it.

The second goal by the owner and Palmeiras was a brilliant move by Dudu, who made a dribble, with his heel, making the ball pass between Thiaguinho’s legs before crossing for Menino to hit with a header.

All this happened in the first 34 minutes, practically defining that the owner of the title, once again, would be Palmeiras. As had already happened in 2020 and 2022. It was the club’s fourth consecutive final, defeated by São Paulo in 2021.

The first half was so Palmeiras that it had the generous collaboration of the not-so-boy referee Raphael Claus, 43. He ignored Dudu’s punch on Didi’s back and, even with the help of VAR, only showed the striker a yellow card.

The 90 minutes that decided Paulista represented redemption for the duo that gave the title to the Palestra Itália team. Gabriel Menino has fluctuated in the last two years, after being called up by Tite in 2020 for Qatar World Cup qualifying matches. He became involved in controversy when he was filmed in a war cry that called for Dudu to be called up and cursed at the coach of the Brazilian national team.

The board discarded Vasco’s interest in 2022 to keep it because it was already imagined that Danilo would be sold to Europe, which actually happened. The replacement, with the endorsement of Abel Ferreira, was Gabriel Menino. He justified his reputation for having a good finish from the middle when he scored a goal from a free kick this Sunday and with other attempts to finish.

It’s all too easy, at the same time, to forget that Endrick is only 16 years old. Criticized for the lack of goals, despite his young age, he carries the weight of being considered an early phenomenon in Brazilian football, of carrying so much hope and having already been sold to a European giant.

He scored his first of the season in the first game of the final and doubled the number this Sunday.

The positions of Gabriel Menino and Endrick are the two in which President Leila Pereira was asked to hire reinforcements.

Água Santa stays with the historic campaign. The team created in the floodplain that became professional only at the end of 2011 reached the state elite final for the first time. He had a performance in the first leg that made the crowd dream of the title. But the 90 minutes at Allianz Parque brought her back to reality.

Without a calendar, the team will return to activities only in 2024, again in the Campeonato Paulista and, later, in Série D do Brasileiro.

With the result set at half-time, the second half had few noteworthy moments. With 25 minutes to go and after suffering a cut to the face, Endrick was substituted. Nothing else was needed anymore. The boys had already decided the state title for Palmeiras.

Flaco López completed at 27 and scored the fourth goal. It was just icing on the cake.