With a bad pitch there is no good game – 05/30/2023 – Tostão

Botafogo, without having expensive players and with the same prestige as other big teams, is the leader of the Brasileirão, with a five-point lead over vice-president Palmeiras. After eight rounds, can we say that Botafogo is one of the candidates for the title? The team, led by the Portuguese Luiz de Castro, unites physical strength with speed, more defensive and more advanced marking, short exchange of passes with fast and efficient counterattacks. It’s a modern team.

This Wednesday (31), at home, for the Copa do Brasil and with a goal disadvantage, Botafogo faces Athletico-PR, which will again be without Fernandinho, injured, the most important player in the team from Paraná.

The vice-leader of the Brasileirão and Atlético-MG, in fourth place, had a balanced match in the 1-1 tie, with too many fouls. With a bad pitch, like Mineirão, there is no good game. There are goals that only the stars score and goals that only Rony scores, nullified by technical criteria and lack of VAR sensitivity.

Palmeiras, with three goals ahead, and Atlético-MG, with two, face Fortaleza and Corinthians, respectively, in the Copa do Brasil. Luxembourg must have a big doubt; will have to decide whether to form a diamond in the midfield, as he always liked to play, with Renato Augusto at the apex and close to the two strikers (Roger Guedes and Yuri Alberto), or whether to maintain a more defensive scheme, with two lines of four and two strikers .

Another classic for the Copa do Brasil is the Fla-Flu. Both teams haven’t been playing well. Flamengo must repeat the strategy used in the first game, a 0-0 tie, of putting pressure on Fluminense from the goalkeeper’s ball out. Sampaoli is a technician with many ideas, creative but often confused. He, Coudet and other coaches love the word intensity, an important feature of modern football.

It has to be intense, but without losing tenderness, fantasy, creativity and the pleasure of keeping the ball. Atlético-MG improved after uniting intensity with lucidity and the exchange of passes and, mainly, after the selections of Pavón and Zaracho.

Cruzeiro, at home, faces Grêmio for the Copa do Brasil, a match in which there is no favorite or advantage for either one after the draw in the first game. Cruzeiro showed, once again, against Flamengo, in Maracanã, that it has a good chance of beating any opponent. Pepa and Dorival Júnior contradict the commonplace that it takes a lot of time to form a good team.

São Paulo, which only competes in the Brasileirão and the Copa Sudamericana, improved its performance and results after hiring Dorival Júnior. Fans have packed Morumbi. Unlike other trainers, Dorival sees the obvious and takes simple, practical and efficient actions.

América-MG, with the advantage of two goals, faces Inter in Porto Alegre for the Copa do Brasil. The classification of América-MG is very important, because, in addition to the technical and financial value, the team will increase confidence to try to escape relegation in the Brasileirão. Inter won again in the last two games.

Despite several bad lawns, the excess of games, the high cost for fans to go to the stadiums, the public has been excellent in all competitions. This is due to the intensity, emotion and quality of the matches, the lack of other entertainment or the catharsis, an expression of repressed feelings, which has been accentuated during the pandemic. It must be for all of that.

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