Close to perfect

What a weekend.

As already mentioned in a previous posting, I woke up to a major surprise on Saturday morning: number of visitors to the blog going through the roof and more encouraging comments posted from one day to the other than during my whole previous three months of blogging existence. The impact is a result of Anything Palmeiras being featured in the 3VV news bulletin last Friday. Again, thanks to everyone involved: together, we help making Palmeiras stronger both at home and abroad.

You guys remember the Green Tsunami competition? Well, I was one of the lucky few that won! (check out my picture here) For almost two months I’ve been waiting for my prize: a team jersey signed by the player squad. And on Saturday, it finally arrived! It’s not easy to make out the signatures (black on dark green) but the thumbnail links to the original picture which should allow you to see them more clearly.

In order to make an already fantastic weekend a truly spectacular one, there was only one ingredient pending: Palmeiras thrashing Corinthians on the Sunday. I was clearly asking too much; Mr. Gekko is wrong as greed obviously isn’t good. Palmeiras put on a truly poor performance and most players – in particular those whom we have learnt to expect great things from – disappointed. Undefeated in the last seven rounds, Palmeiras lost 1-0 to the skunks. Highlights? Nah, forget about it.

There’s no time to cry over missed opportunities: total focus needs to be on Wednesday’s first quarterfinal leg of the South America Cup against Atlético-MG. The mineiro team has surely boosted its confidence after the rather surprising 3-4 win over Cruzeiro on Sunday and Wednesday’s game will be difficult, very difficult. We will need key players inspired and eager to give their best during the full 90 minutes in order to construct a good advantage when going into the second leg next week.