If they asked me at the beginning of the Brazilian Championship, at the end of March, what I would expect from Mirassol, the interior club of São Paulo Calf in Serie A, the answer would be: fierce struggle against relegation.
Why? For having the group of players with the lowest market value, because they have no star in the cast, for not being used to facing the most powerful clubs at national level.
Four months after the end of the first round of the championship, the team that wears yellow occupies the seventh place among the 20 participants.
Who, among sports journalists, is not surprised are surely lying. I doubt that even the more purple Mirassolense fans believed in such a positive campaign.
How could a team from a city with about 65,000 inhabitants compete with others from Megalopolis such as Sao Paulo (11.5 million), Rio de Janeiro (6.2 million), Salvador (2.4 million), Belo Horizonte (2.3 million), Porto Alegre (1.3 million)?
As a team whose main players is the stranger Danielzinho, 30, half organizer and captain, veteran Reinaldo (former Sao Paulo and Grêmio), 35, scoring back, and Walter (eternal Cássio reserve in Corinthians), 37, as well as an selfless squad with names like Jemmes, Lucas Ramon, Chico da Costa and Neto Moura, could challenge teams with Neymar, Arrascaeta, Memphis Depay, Hulk, Gabigol?
I don’t have the budget of the 20 elite clubs, but I bet Mirassol’s is the smallest of all, with some clearance. All players of the team are Brazilian – is the only club without a single gringo – and the cast is worth, according to the specialized site Transfermarkt, $ 122.6 million, 20th place in the list of 20, bridged by Flamengo ($ 1.38 billion).
Its main sponsor is Guarana Poty, brand of Poty Cia. De Bebidas, from the city of Potirendaba, 49 km from Mirassol and smaller than her (population of 15 thousand, which would fly at the Mirassolense Municipal Stadium, Campos Maia), both in the region of São José do Rio Preto, Nadeso Paulista.
The funds paid for the Guarana is not known, but I’m sure it is a continent away from what they receive, from Bet, Flamengo, Palmeiras, Corinthians (R $ 100 million upwards per year) and others.
Speaking of continent, Mirassol, who has never played an international match, is comfortably in the South American Cup qualifying zone and stuck to Libertadores.
In 15 matches, they lost only two. It has been unbeaten for eight. Won from Corinthians, Sao Paulo, Santos, Grêmio. Draw with Palmeiras, Atlético-MG, Internacional. It has two late games (Fluminense and Botafogo, due to the supermundial of clubs) and, added six points in them, would be fourth in the Brazilian.
Even so, coach Rafael Guanaes (I confess I had never heard of him), 44, keeps the same thought from the beginning of the championship: the team does not return to the second. The magic number for this, he says, is 45 (points). There are 20 left in 23 games.
“We have to be careful with expectations,” said Carlo Ancelotti admirer, Pep Guardiola, Telê Santana and Tite, all respected and winners.
Prudence is good, but the way the team goes, expectations deserve to be raised to perspectives, and the best.
Guarana Poty’s slogan is “pure taste of life!”. Mirassol is living the year of its centenary and, if you are able to keep it, has everything to celebrate the 100 years, on November 9, in the purest happiness.
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