BIG CUP DAY

Oboyoboyoboy!!! It’s Big Cup Day in Brazil — the second leg of the Copa do Brasil final — and for the second year in a row, Corinthians are there. And for the second year in a row, we’re traveling to the second leg with a two-goal lead. Our opponents: Internacional. All signs point to a classic match between the two strongest sides in Brazil.

And we’ve got a few things going for us over last year’s disaster, when we fell to Sport on away goals…

 • We have Ronaldo.
 • We’ve got a mature, balanced team with a core that has been playing together for a year and a half.
 • We didn’t concede a fatal away goal in the first leg. We won 2-0, so a single goal for us tonight would obligate Inter to score four.
 • Did I mention we have RONALDO?

(Ronaldo)

Ronaldo Fenômeno won the Copa do Brasil with Cruzeiro in 1993 (1993!), but he didn’t score in the final. That’s already taken care of this time around, as he chanelled his teenage self in the first leg and scored a wonderful, speedy goal.

GloboEsporte was kind enough to do a thorough rundown of the teams. Their conclusion, more or less: Corinthians has a stronger defense, Inter’s got a better attack. Well, yes. But the real question is: can their attack score three against our defense? Nilmar made our B-team defense look like chumps in May, and Inter’s also got Taison, the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals, plus D’Alessandro.

Still… they need three. And our starting center-backs, William and Chicão, haven’t lost a game together in a year. Most pundits give us the nod as favorites.

Inter’s VP of football, Fernando Carvalho, is certainly acting scared: he held a very, very silly press conference on Monday where he showed a DVD of bad calls that have favored Corinthians, starting with the infamous not-given penalty on Tinga in 2005. Hmm. Since that bad call happened — and it was a bad call — I seem to recall Corinthians getting relegated. If the referees like us so much, they have a funny way of showing it.

Whatevs. It was a bizarre thing to do, a clear ploy to intimidate the ref tonight, but as Juca Kfouri put it, thank god the game is played by the players and not the directors. I just hope the drama doesn’t spill over into violence, since the first leg against Inter was free of the shocking (and fatal) violence that followed our semi-final win over Vasco.

If we win this, it will be Corinthians’ third Copa do Brasil title. It will be a major national trophy just six months after emerging from the second division. It will be sweet, sweet revenge for that @%$#%&ing goal Nilmar scored on us. But most importantly, it will give us a guaranteed ticket to the Copa Libertadores in our centenary year.

I’m pumped.

VAI CORINTHIANS!!!!!

If you’re in New York, come to Nevada Smith’s at 8:50 and watch it with me and the Corinthians crowd. Even if you’re not Brazilian. I mean, what other football is there to watch this summer? Europa League qualifiers? (No disrespect to fans of Dinamo Tirana and Zimbru Chişinău.)

Category: Corinthians Team News

Tags: Copa do Brasil, Corinthians Team News

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