Nayra Halm/Photo’s/IMAGO
Celebrations: Flamengo players in the Maracanã stadium after winning the cup
The Copa do Brasil, Brazil’s cup, has been held since 1989. With six copas, Cruzeiro EC (Belo Horizonte), just back early in the Série A, is the record winner of the competition, followed by five by Gremio Porto Alegre (currently runners-up in the Série B). The Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras won the pot four times, SC Corinthians Paulista and the regatta club Flamengo from Rio de Janeiro three times each, while the defending champion and champion Atlético Mineiro (Belo Horizonte) was successful twice. Ten other clubs each bagged the trophy once.
flags in the wind
The record goalscorer to date is world champion Romário de Souza Faria (36 goals), whose most successful positions were at PSV Eindhoven, FC Barcelona and Vasco da Gama. While still kicking the ball, he won bronze with Brazil in 2005 at the first FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, held on Copacabana Rios. In 2010 he became a member of Congress for the Socialists, in 2015 a federal senator, and since last year, like President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, he has been a member of the national-conservative Partido Liberal (PL) and Vice-President of the Senate. Romário always kept his flag in the wind.
This year’s Brazilian Copa finals were reached by the two most popular clubs in the country, Corinthians and Flamengo, with the particularity that apart from the Supercopa final in 1991, this meeting was the first time that this encounter took place in the cup. At that time, the Timão, Brazilian champions for the first time in 1990, won 1-0 against the cup winners Flamengo in Morumbí. Corinthians last won the Copa do Brasil in 2009 (against Inter), Flamengo in 2013 (against Paranaense).
After the first leg ended with a zero number a week ago in the Neo Química Arena São Paulo, it was also important for the “Fla” on Wednesday in the second leg in the Maracanã not to get used to a series of vicious second places after the recent golden era . Copa Libertadores, Recopa Sudamericana, double champions of Brazil and the Supercopa, bagged the Carioca championship three times in a row and only lost to Liverpool FC in extra time in the Club World Cup final. Since 2019, when the club had invested a lot of baksheesh in new old players, everything has been going well for the Rubro-Negro. Almost everything. Something is wrong with the curve lately. Last year the Libertadores final was lost to Palmeiras from the mean south after extra time, and the championship, the Brasileirão, went 13 points clear to Atlético Mineiro, against whom they also lost the Supercopa. In the final of the Carioca Championship, the “Fla” lost 2-0 to the “Flu” (Fluminense) after two late holes by Argentinian Germán Cano. (Cano also leads the Brasileirão’s scoring charts with 18 goals, with Fluminense currently fourth.)
Listless choice
Anyone who strays from the path falls by the wayside, so »Fla« coach Dorival Silvestre Júnior admonished and maltreated his wards with Asbach quotes from the great chairman Arthur Antunes Coimbra, better known by his stage name Zico. They didn’t quite understand the “white Pelé” thing, but they still took the lead after seven minutes and a lovely collective preparatory work by goalgetter Pedro, who lasciviously put the ball under the awkward goalkeeper Cássio to make it 1-0 for the Cariocas . As a result, Flamengo didn’t do much and Corinthians didn’t do enough. After all, Giuliano, who had just come on as a substitute, managed to equalize shortly before the end after two heel assists on the five, and so the good old penalty shot decided the listless choice.
Cássio saved the first penalty shot by excolchonero Filipe Luís. During the Timão, former Wolfsburg right-back Fagner slammed his kick into the crossbar, and then Mateus Vital also failed (into the clouds). Defender Rodinei then had no trouble converting the ball into the decisive goal and Flamengo’s fourth Copa triumph. The club received 50 million reales (11 million US dollars) for the title. Sums that one can only dream of elsewhere on the subcontinent. Looks like another good year for the »Fla« – on October 29th in Guayaquil (Ecuador) they also meet Felipe Scolari’s Athletico Paranaense (Curitiba) in the final of the Copa Libertadores.
