SP without Corinthians, RJ without Botafogo and other oddities – 03/04/2024 – Sandro Macedo

After many bad and boring games, the state championships enter their decisive phases, when they will have the chance to be bad and exciting.

In São Paulo, we have laughable regulations. After all, where would the team with the most defeats in the competition be classified? Congratulations to Portuguesa, who will play against Santos in the most charming quarter-final of Paulistinha.

What about Corinthians? Eliminated one round early. As master and neighbor Juca Kfouri said, it sank like the Titanic. Like the Titanic, pride was a sin.

In a “leaked” interview (with many quotation marks) at the beginning of February, President Augustus Melos, the man without a plural, warned: “If it passes the stage, it’s over.” It was already done, and there was no need to go through it.

In the same interview, the Corinthians boss also announced that a first-class midfielder, 1.90 m tall, was arriving — perhaps the young man is still growing, because this humble scribe didn’t see any midfielder of that size arriving.

From the series “there are evils that come for good”, Corinthians can now prepare adequately for the only important game in March: against São Bernardo, in the second phase of the Copa do Brasil, on the 14th of this month. Then they are free until the Brazilian Championship, in April.

Still in Paulistinha, another horrible classic between Palmeiras and São Paulo ended without winners and with president Julio Casares showing that he has the potential to take over the fifth grade student union. The big news for São Paulo was James Rodríguez’s few good minutes on the field. If you manage to play half a game per game until the end of the championship, it could be the so-called unbalancing factor. James looked so happy that this scribe even believes he is receiving his salary on time.

In Minas, rich cousin Atlético takes on América-MG, with Cruzeiro in the other bracket against Tombense. You can make the final.

In Rio Grande do Sul, Inter and Grêmio finished the first phase in first and second place respectively. They are in the quarterfinals and could also find themselves in a possible decision.

The expected Fla-Flu in the Carioquinha final will not happen. Nova Iguaçu and Vasco, in that order, are between the two and compete in a semi-final.

And Nova Iguaçu (runner-up of the Taça Guanabara) entered because Botafogo repeated the feat of 2023 and failed to be in the top 4. Once again, Putfire is forced to compete in a quadrangular (named Taça Rio) to guarantee a place in next year’s Copa do Brasil.

Meanwhile, Professor Fernando Diniz’s Tricolor will need to win at least one local classic to qualify for the decision (they haven’t won the last 11).

But the scene over the weekend was at Fluminense 2 x 4 Botafogo, when Yarlen, from Botafogo, had a bump in the rival area and fell off the field, groaning in pain. Seeing the chance to gain minutes with a basic wax, his teammate dragged him onto the field. In front of the theater, Flu’s goalkeeper caught his rival’s legs and pulled him out of the four lines again. But it wasn’t over: another Botafoguense reserve pushed Yarlen onto the lawn again. It became a worldwide meme. John Textor should yo-yo Yarlen.

And Tite corrected himself
A week after saying that he did not have all the information about Daniel Alves’ conviction for rape, Tite understood that the Spanish justice system did. She also understood that she should not have compared the conviction with a story of alleged aggression involving Neymar. And he apologized: “Guys, I’m sorry for the answer I gave in the Daniel Alves case. I’m sorry. The error, as it was judged by the courts, was condemned. The comparison I made about the case was inappropriate, meaningless (… )”.

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