Corinthians 1 x 0 Barueri

By: dylan | September 14th, 2008

Yesterday afternoon in Pacaembu Stadium, a lot of little kids became Corinthians fans for life.

André Santos This is the kind of game that wins hearts and minds, that shows you what a team and its supporters are really about. Corinthians is about struggle, on and off the pitch, and every soul in that packed stadium did their part in this hard-fought victory.

Just look at the bare facts: two red cards, eight yellow cards, 11 total minutes of stoppage time, a missed penalty, a penalty that the referee marked and then took back, a bloody head-butt, and finally, in the 94th minute, the winning goal from (who else?) André Santos.

Thanks to Santo André and Vila Nova, who both lost on the road, we now have a record-breaking lead in the second division. We’re up to 54 points, nine more than second-place Avaí (who also won a dramatic game at home), and 15 points ahead of fifth-place Barueri.

The game started out pretty cagey, with Felipe making a few sloppy saves, but the real drama started 22 minutes in.

Herrera was fouled by Duílio on his way into the box, and both the referee and the linesman marked a penalty. Barueri players insisted the foul was outside the area (which it was). Cue five minutes of bickering while the ref talked to the linesman, the fourth official, the players, the coaches, maybe called up his mom to get her opinion, I don’t know.

Eventually he took back the penalty, gave a free kick outside the box and sent off Duílio, who was the last man when he committed the foul.

Before the red card, we had most of the game. Afterwards, we never let Barueri see the color of the ball. I don’t know the exact possession we had, but it must have been close to the 92% that Barcelona had earlier in the day.

The star of most of this action was Renê, Barueri’s goalie, who is a Corinthians supporter but worked some absolute miracles to keep his favorite team from scoring. Just in the first half, he blocked two close shots from Lulinha, like this:

and a long-distance rocket from André Santos:

Also, Herrera hit the crossbar, and in the last few minutes Nilton, with his typical grace and subtlety, nearly took a player’s head off while challenging an aerial ball. (There’s no video of that; they were washing blood off the guy’s head with a hose.)

Mano turned the screws in the second half with his substitutions, although I wouldn’t have taken out Lulinha, who was having a good game. The onslaught never stopped, and 17 minutes in we won a penalty — this time the referee didn’t change his mind, and the offending player got his second yellow and his marching orders. But of course, this is Corinthians, so nothing is easy; Renê saved Chicão’s penalty shot:

With a two-man advantage, Corinthians created chances at will, but were thwarted by Renê and by poor finishing. It wasn’t until the last play of the game, 49:06 in the second half, that the fusillade finally hit the target, with yet another spectacular goal from André Santos:

That’s four goals in four games from the left back, each more beautiful and important than the last. You can see the match’s full highlights here.

A fantastic game, won in the Corinthians style. The kind of game that makes little kids fall in love with the team and come back to Pacaembu again and again, to be part of this great nation of fans:

After the game, Débora Miranda turned on her radio and heard Renê, the goalie who stifled our pressure for over 90 minutes, admitting, “I’m a Corinthians fan, I love this team.” Who can blame him?