Botafogo is champion of the Libertadores for the first time. Even with 10 players from the first minute of the game, he managed to score two goals. Artur Jorge was brilliant, the star of the match.
As Atlético-MG only attacks from the sides, crossing balls into the area, the coach reinforced marking from the sides and Galo, without any creativity in midfield, only created scoring chances with high balls into the area. So he scored the goal in the second half, but it was insufficient.
Many will say that coach Artur Jorge did the obvious. Few do the obvious.
John Textor, owner of SAF do Botafogo, said before the game that the team reached the Libertadores final ahead of schedule. He is the champion with a great chance of also winning the Brasileirão. The team also overcame the suspicion that it would not be able to withstand the psychological pressure of having lost the championship last year when it had a big advantage. These things only happen with Botafogo.
In football and in all highly competitive sports, athletes’ fear of not being capable and of losing the game is always present, even more so a decision. The great teams and champion athletes are those who can overcome these difficulties. They are not those who say they are calm and do not feel emotional pressure.
Botafogo looks like Liverpool in the way they play. Without comparing quality, both teams are compact, intense, mark and defend as a unit, recover the ball quickly and combine physical strength and speed with individual talent.
Manchester City and Real Madrid, who have dominated world football in recent years, are going through bad times. Unlike Liverpool and Botafogo, both teams prioritize possession of the ball and exchanging passes until they reach the goal. There are several injured players on both teams. The two great midfielders are missing: Rodri, who hasn’t played for a long time, and Kross, who stopped playing.
Great teams attack and defend well. Cruzeiro, Bahia and Grêmio exchange many passes, advance with many players, but leave many spaces in defense. Bahia almost always creates numerous goal chances and often loses, due to finishing errors and defensive fragility.
Football also has logic. In a long championship with straight points, like the Brasileirão, in the end the teams with the best squads prevail, with rare surprises.
Fortaleza, which does not have players with the same prestige as those from other big teams, is among the first placed because it has been preparing for this for a long time. Fluminense, which is fighting to avoid relegation, could not withstand the glory and pressure of the Libertadores title.
In this final stretch of decisions, I hope that the winners and losers do not create turmoil. You have to know how to win and lose.
Atlético-MG fought bravely. After the elimination of the Brazilian team in the first phase of the 1966 World Cup, after being two-time champion in 1958 and 1962, the greatest poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote a poem for Brazilian athletes: “After the radiant hour/ the hard hour of sport ,/ without which there is no prize that comforts,/ because to lose is to touch something/ beyond victory, it is to find yourself/ at that point where everything begins/ to be born from the lost, slowly”.
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