Tite’s team faced unpredictable results on Saturday and did not show football worthy of its budget, fans, and squad
Flamengo fulfilled its obligation to defeat the fragile Atlético Goianiense, bottom of the Brazilian league, by 2-0, who is only fighting to escape relegation to Serie B. Make no mistake: the Dragão will hardly avoid dropping. And it was quite bothersome. Ah… but Flamengo is the leader, many will say. Yes. But it relied on unpredictable results on Saturday and did not show football worthy of its budget, fanbase, and squad.
Flamengo has no time to dismiss Tite – Photo: Marcelo Cortes/CRF
Believe it: Flamengo no longer has time to dismiss the coaching staff before a marathon of challenges, which includes three matches against Palmeiras, São Paulo, at Morumbi, Botafogo, and Bolivar, with a decisive game at high altitude in La Paz. Should the NASA coaching staff remain at Gávea, the club’s football year will end in August. There is no doubt about that. By the way, it’s pointless to talk or write about it, as there will not be a change in the script. It is extremely tiring to repeat what is evident. Therefore, we’ll stop here. It will be difficult to comment on unimportant matches for at least three months.
Flamengo awaits the supernatural
As commonly happens, fans wait for some supernatural phenomenon to determine victory, but this time it was simple. After 20 minutes of inertia, Arrascaeta crossed for Pedro to nod in and open the scoring: 1-0. The visiting team could not cross the central circle, as Tite – today dressed for a Sunday lunch in a barbecue house – demanded pressure on the Goianos, but the one time they reached the area, at 39 minutes, they almost equalized. There were also at least two more opportunities for Flamengo, but the stitching is so poor that no one finishes accurately. At the end of the first half, the team stopped, Atlético increased the pace, forcing Matheus Cunha to make two good saves.
Just as the second half started, Shaylon headed strongly for another intervention from the goalkeeper. Simple: Vagner Mancini alerted his players that just attacking Flamengo is enough to succeed. The bottom team of the Brazilian league controlled the match in front of 62,000 spectators. There was always the impression that the opponent would score at any moment. At 15 minutes, from a sporadic attack, Ayrton Lucas rolled the ball to Arrascaeta, who hit the right corner of Pedro Rangel: 2-0.
Atlético sensed that it had let its best moment slip away and seemed resigned to the score. The coaches began to make substitutions, leaving only to manage the result. And now here comes the marathon that will close the season. Then the “wise ones” will discover that the NASA coaching staff was a lie…
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