2023-09-18 16:27:54
After a good game on Wednesday, especially a second half in which we sought the result by turning the game around and leaving Dorival’s team unaware of what was happening, we had a break at the weekend.
I took the opportunity to watch some of the opponents’ games and give my impressions.
Vasco beat Fluminense without playing much, but playing much more than they did in the first round, not only because of the reinforcements, but they are an organized team now, still with flaws. Fluminense was a disappointment, perhaps due to Arias’ injury, perhaps due to the semi-finals of the Libertadores approaching, but it was a game well below what they usually play, without creativity, moving the ball without any objective, and failing a lot in defense, including famous players from the media. But Alexsander is a very good player.
Palmeiras and Goiás was also another disappointment, with Palmeiras playing poor football, based only on crosses into the area. They found a well-organized Goiás side who scored well and conceded a goal from a splash inside the area. Even with Veiga on the field, which makes a lot of difference, Palmeiras were not creative and had no alternatives other than crosses from the left side and the best header in the championship, Gustavo Gomez, transformed into a striker for aerial balls.
Botafogo and Galo played the poorest game of the weekend, among those who expected something. Away from home, Fogão did nothing to justify its position in the table, making a lot of mistakes from the middle forward, abusing individual plays that didn’t work. That team that exchanged passes at speed in the second half told Inter simply didn’t show up to play, and Galo also lives off individual plays, but without showing any tactical evolution.
The referee’s error emerged in the game, canceling Diego Costa’s goal for inexplicable reasons. In the cross, he is offside, but he clearly shows that he did not want to participate in the play, and the defender had full control of the play, mistakenly dusting the ball, then for a player no longer in an offside position. What’s worse is hearing lots of analysts saying that the goal was disallowed, one of them saying that Diego Costa made a feint to appear not to participate in the first attempt. The arguments to justify the serious error of the arbitration are increasingly creative, and then they complain that the arbitration is bad.
In the Brazilian Cup final again, there was double tactical poverty, unjustifiable for a final with two games.
Fla started with three attackers, removed Gabriel to a role he doesn’t know how to do, and left Bruno Henrique isolated, exactly in the position where SP is weakest, with Raphinha on the side. Dorival understood the nonsense he did in Beira-Rio and didn’t repeat it. Wanting to play with three strikers is very different from knowing how to play with three strikers, and Brazilian coaches have this difficulty, as no one understood how Telê did it.
It is the second game that Sampaoli has copied Coudet. Against Botafogo, he set up the line of 5 that Coudet did when Botafogo took control of the game, blocking the sides of the field, and yesterday he tried to score through pressure when the ball was coming out of São Paulo.
There are also few coaches who know how to perform pressure marking when the ball is released. Sampaoli had already done this against Flu, and was very wrong, but Fla’s players made mistakes every time Flu escaped, counting on the approval of the Brazilians’ bad refereeing.
Yesterday they didn’t even manage to rehearse a pressure, advancing the team, but disorganized, and SP didn’t have much difficulty getting out of the pseudo pressure, SP’s lack of momentum also meant that Fla didn’t even need to make fouls.
Against Flu, in the knockout stage, Sampaoli learned, and dominated in the second game.
Dorival lacked a little courage to finish the game, leaving Calleri exhausted on the field. Even so, if it hadn’t been for another serious refereeing error, this time by the linesman, calling Calleri a non-existent foul, perhaps the score would have been more elastic.
Anyway, after the FIFA break, the teams returned without innovations, without impetus, and apart from Vasco, without much desire to play ball, providing boring and boring games.
#MARASM