Campeonato Paulista Champions

State Championship of São Paulo
In Brazil, the national league is only about 40 years old. Before 1971, the clubs were all divided up into State (regional) Leagues. This was due to travel reasons, considering the size the country and the costs of nationwide commuting for clubs at the time. These leagues are still contested during the early portion of the year, and some of them are quite significant, including the Paulista League, or the Paulistão, where Palmeiras competes. The other major clubs in the competition are São Paulo, Santos, and Corinthians.

During the league portion we managed to escape without a blemish, winning 17 games and drawing 2 with a goal difference of 57-4 (+53).

In the semifinal against Santos, we drew 2-2 away on goals by Mauricio Ramos and Leandro Grimi. Back at home, Ciro scored the only goal and we advanced 3-2 on aggregate.

At Corinthians in the first leg of the final, Ciro gave us a 1-0 lead in the 24th. It looked like it would hold up until Wilson scored the equalizer and we would be going home level at 1. In the home leg, we took Corinthians apart in a 4-1 victory. Cleiton Xavier bagged a brace, and Luis Felipe and Ciro netted themselves goals in the romp.

Marquinhos won the award for Best Player, and also Young Player of the Year. Ciro was actually tied for most goals with 13, but it went to the other player apparently based on highest rating. The team won the fair play award, and we had seven players named to the Team of the Year. They are: Maricio Ramos (D), Mauricio (D), Rodrigo Dantas (M), Marquinhos (M), Cleiton Xavier (M), Ciro (F), Neymar (F).

Copa Santander Libertadores
We were drawn in Group G with Veracruz (MEX), Bolivar (BOL), and Trujillanos FC (VEN). We won the group despite drawing both matches against Veracruz. We outscored the opponents we faced 21-2.

In the second round we were paired with San Lorenzo (ARG). Fixture congestion was becoming an issue at this point, as we had to basically field two squads, one for the State Championship and one for the Copa Libertadores. The first leg in Argentina ended in a 0-0 draw, and back Obina's goal in the 26th was enough to push us through to the quarterfinal.

The quarterfinal would be against fellow Brazilian club Internacional. The first leg was at home, and it looked as though Inter would set themselves up beautifully with a goal just before the half. Obina would salvage a draw with a late equalizer in the 84th. We had plenty of chances in the final moments to grab the winner but we had to settle for a 1-1 score heading to Inter.

For the second leg, our first team was pretty much fully fit and ready to go, while Inter played a squad of players going mostly on short rest. The fitness advantage showed early, with three goals in the first half hour by Mauricio Ramos (13), Neymar (15), and Ciro (28). Just for good measure, Rodrigo Dantas added a strike in the 79th to put the exclamation point on a 5-1 victory. We advance to play our nemesis Cruzeiro in the semifinal.

Algeria
Only one match to report, a 4-0 win over Libya. Abdelkader Ghezzal scored a hat trick and Sofiane Feghouli added a goal as well. The 3 points has us tied atop the world cup qualifying group with Senegal, who thrashed Angola 4-1.

In my next post I should have played the Confederations Cup and at least one more qualifier.