The final round of the race for the title of Football between Flamengo and Internacional ended on Thursday night, amid an almost unbearable drama, which dealt a heavy blow to the arguments of those who miss the old playoff format and maintain the thesis that the league system is boring.
The penultimate day of the extended 2020 campaign, played on Sunday, faced the first of the table with the second and saw them change position, after Flamengo de Rio de Janeiro, defending champion, beat 2-1 in the Porto Alegre International. Flamengo took a two-point lead at the top of the table, meaning they could secure the title if they won on their visit to Sao Paulo on the final date. Any other different result would open the door to the possibility of the International winning its first championship since 1979, if it managed to succeed as a local over Corinthians. The two matches were played simultaneously this Thursday.
Flamengo had a sad night: after pressing for most of the first half, they ended up at a disadvantage of a goal, scored just before half time. They never came to exercise similar dominance after the resumption of the match, and although they managed to equalize the score quickly, they charged with the 2-1 defeat. Now, it all depended on the events in Porto Alegre.
International pressed relentlessly. The VAR denied 1 penalty and one goal, sentenced out of place. However, both decisions seemed to be correct. In the second half, the Porto Alegre club hit the crossbar, the same was disallowed and they forced Corinthians goalkeeper Cassio to execute several stops. Just after the final whistle of the Flamengo game sounded, they broke the arc again and both were canceled offside, by very little margin. It had been played over eight minutes in length, but there was still time for more drama. In the last play of the championship, with the whole team waiting for a corner kick (including the goalkeeper), the central Lucas Rierol had a good chance … and made the ball flies over the bow.
After 38 games, by a margin of just one unit, Flamengo was crowned champion. It might seem, and not just because of the drama experienced on the final date, that they were champions by default. At one point, the battle for the title seemed to be a race between six. But they began to fall behind, one by one. Guild and especially Palmeiras were trapped, victims of the accumulation of matches: the two teams still have to face each other in the return matches of the Cup final, starting this Sunday. Sao Paulo was league leader, to the point of collapsing under pressure from his attempts to win his first title in many years. Atletico Mineiro, under the command of former Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli, had sporadic moments of brilliance, but failed to maintain the necessary regularity. And International let slip the lead, right at the last minute.
However, it would be extremely cruel to conclude that Flamengo won the title by default. It is easy to explain the inconsistency of your competitors. The competition usually takes place between the beginning of May and the end of December. On this occasion, due to the shutdown forced by the pandemic of the coronavirus, the tournament could not start until early August, extending throughout the summer. This imposed an overly demanding schedule on the players, especially considering that some of the matches started at 4am local time. Maintaining a consistent level in such grueling conditions was too much to ask for, even for champions.
With the exception of the infarct drama, the winners of the 2020 edition title will not be remembered with the same affection that is had for the bandit bandit who lifted the championship in 2019, led by Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus. His successors were never able to replace Spanish center-back Pablo Mari, who was sold to Arsenal. The Flamengo showed such a mediocre defense throughout the campaign that it was surprising to see the fact that the brand new champion had the worst defensive record among the occupants of the top half of the table, with 48 goals against. In the division made up of 20 teams, only the four relegated clubs and another quartet of eleven tolerated more goals against.
Nor Domenec Torrent, former assistant of Pep Guardiola who took over the technical direction to replace Jorge Jesús; nor did Rogerio Ceni, who joined the team after Torrent’s unfair dismissal, manage to strike an effective balance between attack and defense. However, the abundance of resources deployed in the attack were more than sufficient. The 2019 “Fantastic Four”, made up of gunners Gabriel and Bruno Henrique, along with offensive wingers Everton Ribeiro and Giorgian De Arrascaeta, took turns to reach a good level. They were constantly supported by Gerson in midfield and in this campaign, the team was strengthened with center-forward Pedro, who contributed several crucial goals.
The offensive volume was enough and left over. And while they failed to reach such an excellent level as shown in 2019, Flamengo gave Brazilian fans a league campaign conclusion they will never be able to forget.