2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A

Would you say he's worth it?

At the moment, no. Even in the crazy market we have now, I'd say 20 max.

What happened to Brazilian football by the way? Seems like they started buying a lot of foreign stars or bringing back Brazilians who played a big chunk of their career in Europe? Where is the money coming from? Sponsors?

Biggest factor is the boom in the Brazilian economy in general. A lot of money is floating around, so clubs can keep players for longer and bring back players from Europe earlier since they can earn bigger wages than before.

A significant part of most of the really big wages are paid by 3rd parties, and sponsors. Clubs do it as well to some extent, but it's based a lot on the illusion of money they have since long standing debts are there to be paid off.

The influx really hasn't been that big though to be honest. Seedorf, Forlan, Paolo Guerrero, and Jadson are the big names with huge pay packets. Ze Roberto is earning a lot but he came back on a free from Middle Eastern football. Like I mentioned to you on Twitter last week, most of the foreign spots are taken up by scrubs.

With regard to the Ganso deal, the only reason Sao Paulo could pay so much was because PSG threw money at them for Lucas.

Good info.

Didn't know PSG signed(or about to) Lucas either.

Oh speaking of finances in football. Andres Guardado comes out with another controversy. Says he could earn twice as much in Mexico than he could in Spain, and that the only reason he plays in Spain is for the greater quality of football.

Atletico Mineiro (2nd) x Gremio (3rd) is up. Should be on ESPN for anyone interested.

Botafogo's new kit is cool.

Update



Let's see. Atletico Mineiro finally got back to winning. Beat Figueirense 6x0 courtesy of a Ronaldinho hat-trick. He was crying after one of his goals because his step-father died a couple of days ago.



Denilson also scored a cracker for Sao Paulo.

Might be jinxing it a bit, but with 9 rounds left, I think the title race is pretty much done. Fluminese won tonight, while a Ronaldinho-less Atletico Mineiro lost to Inter 3x0. That's a 9 pt gap now. Don't think Atleti can make it up, and the chasing pack isn't good enough.

Santos actually managed to win an away game without Neymar. Pity I missed it.

For some reason it seems like every year there are at least 2 or 3 teams who have talented squads but consistently under perform.

Seems like Santos has had talented players in their squad for years, but ended up midtable every year.

Our first XI is good enough I suppose, but after that there are a lot of young players who need to mature. The club's leadership has been stinking up the transfer for two years now, so there's not much depth. Without Neymar, we honestly aren't much better than a midtable side.



That pass from Felipe Anderson. Kid is coming good.

There's another thing I've been wondering? Seems like there are a lot of big transfers in Brazil recently. Are there a lot of players that are really "identified" with a club? Sort of like the Rogerio Ceni with São Paolo, Juninho with Vasco, and maybe Jefferson with Botafogo and Fred with Flu I guess.

Also, just found out Tulio Maravilha is still playing. (well not playing, but you know what I mean.)

Hmmm. Probably Indio with Inter, Ibson at Flamengo, and Chicao at Corinthians off the top of my head.

I'm actually really interested to see if Tulio will get his 1000th goal.

Spotted this guy while watching highlights of Santos' game.

'

Not bad.

Games start in 15 mins. if anyone is interested.

http://facebook.vc/index.html

So round 31 isn't over yet, but meh. Palmeiras finally won a game, so they're 6 points shy of safety. Zhizao became the first Chinese player to play in Brazil as Corinthians lost 2x0 to Cruzeiro. 1st place Flu, and 2nd place Atleti both drea. Oh, and Neymar flew back from Poland to play tonight, and did his usual stuff.





Unrelated. Great goal by Lucca in Serie B.



He's finally coming onto the stage after a lot of injuries worries. Hearing he might be out for another 6 months though, which is terrible.

SAO PAULO -- Chinese attacking midfielder Chen Zhizhao made his debut in the Brazilian league eight months after being signed by defending champion Corinthians.



Chen went in as a substitute in the 2-0 loss to Cruzeiro on Wednesday in Minas Gerais. He entered the match in the 80th minute wearing jersey No. 200, in honor of 200 years of Chinese immigration in Brazil.

Corinthians signed Chen in February in a marketing move to make the team more popular abroad.

Chen answered questions in English after the match, saying he "felt good" and hopes to have more opportunities.

Corinthians rested regular starters on Wednesday because it is focused on the Club World Cup in December.

So it been eight months before he seen the field and then he wears a triple digit jersey, I really have heard of everything now.

Lots of jokes were going around last night that it was in celebration of 200 days of not playing.

What gall to wear the same number as Neymar on the same night though.

18 years old, playing his second ever game for Botafogo. Scored a last minute equalizer in his first game when he came on as a sub. Got an assist and 2 goals in his second game last night - including a last minute winner - to give Botafogo all 3 points vs. Vasco. Take a bow, Bruno Mendes.



A respected journalist on Twitter thinks he has the potential to be what Pato never was.

1st vs 2nd is up in 5 minutes.

why has neymar only played 11 league games this year out of 30 something? injured or something?

dropped

Dr. Ján Ĩtor wrote:why has neymar only played 11 league games this year out of 30 something? injured or something?

International duty mostly, and one or two suspensions. Don't think Neymar knows the meaning of being injured.

Gegilworld93 wrote:dropped

Ronaldinho

What a great game.

Let out a little girly scream when Leonardo Silva scored the winner. Best 90 minutes I've seen in a long time. From one team at least. Flu were abject. 3 shots in the whole game and scored two goals. Atletico had around 30.

Ronaldinho though.

Atletico Mineiro drew with Flamengo tonight. 5 games left, 8 pts behind. I think that's the title headed to Fluminese.

Cruzeiro's defense makes ours look like Fort Knox.

I was watching some random highlights today and noticed that Souza scored two freekicks. He almost had a hat-trick of them as well.

Spoiler:

Table with 4 to play.

Fluminese wrapped up the title today with a 3x2 win over Palmeiras. Fred with his typical heroics with the winner in the 88th minute.



Kinda lame that the title is already decided with 3 rounds to go. The last two seasons it went down to the final game.

Bahia's loss to Cruzeiro means that Palmeiras has to wait another week before they're relegated. No such luck for Figueirense. They drew when they needed to win, so they join Atletico-GO in the boat to Serie B.

Gremio also beat Sao Paulo to take 2nd place from Atletico-Mineiro who drew with Vasco.

Santos' game? No comment.

Palmeiras are officially relegated. They'll be in Serie B when they play in the Copa Libertadores next year. Sao Paulo's win and Botafogo's loss means that the top 4 is sewn up, so the only thing left for potential excitement is the relegation battle. 6 teams are in the mire. One will not leave.

Random goals.