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Expectations were high as Palmeiras entered the grass of the Barueri arena to battle Bahia for the 12th round of the Brazilian Championship. Still suffering due to the many players in the medical department, now also including Valdivia who felt his thigh during practice last Wednesday, Felipão picked Bruno; Artur, Leandro Amaro, Wellington and Juninho; Henrique, Márcio Araújo, João Vítor (Barcos – 6’/2nd H) and Daniel Carvalho (Maikon Leite – half-time); Mazinho and Obina (Patrik – 14’/2nd H).
Palmeiras were a steamroller for 15 minutes and enchanted the roughly 8.000 gathered supporters. The goal was just a question of time. Well, it’s always just a question of time… And this time… Bahia managed to level the game and also create chances. What looked like a walk in the park suddenly turned into an open affair. We went to half-time with a blank sheet.
Second half and Bahia came on much hotter than in the first, while Palmeiras were struggling to adapt. Scolari’s chess moves didn’t work at all and Palmeiras’ creativity went down the drain with the same pace as the referee’s credibility: a clear penalty (hand on ball) not marked for Palmeiras, then an extremely dubious penalty marked and converted against Palmeiras. Without forces to retaliate Palmeiras even surrendered one more and saw the scorecard close at 0-2. A bad result, considering playing “at home” and against one of the underdogs in the Brasileirão.
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Scolari heavily criticised the referee after the game but there’s no point in denying that the team did not correspond as expected. On the other hand, there’s no reason for alarm: these same men were champions 15 days back. The defeat was bad and unexpected, but that’s all there’s to it. Reload. Palmeiras
travel to Belo Horizonte to play Cruzeiro on Sunday night (without left-winger Juninho who received his third yellow card and possibly João Vítor who left the pitch yesterday with pains in the knee), and then the South America Cup kicks off with the game against Botafogo next Wednesday. It’s time to bring out that winning spirit once again, keeping out of the relegation zone in the Brasileirão (check out current standings in the tables to your right) and advancing in the South America Cup.
Avanti Palestra!
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 
Well…I don´t know WHAT happened…there was like a “black out” on the team yesterday night.
I just hope the strikers from now will have the “feet in the mold”(“pé na forma” as we used to say here)to hit the goal. There will be 26 rounds more yet, BUT it´s better not to lose so much “easy”points…
Kristian, I think we miss Marcos Assuncao. I watched a youtube video (one of the many of our campaign in the Brazil Cup) and, although I did not count, the impression I got is that 80% of the goals came from free kicks or corners. As we do not have a qualified midfielder when Valdivia does not play, we suffer to build the moves. Daniel Carvalho is not the same as the beginning of the year and Mazinho is not the brain that we need. We are bad at the Brazilian championship and I fear that the focus in this competition becomes more diluted when the team get to play the South American Cup (If we can eliminate the Botafogo, of course).
Milton
Milton, I agree with you. Assunção is extremely important, especially when Valdivia is out. With both Kid and Mago off the pitch, we loose most of our creative power. That’s where Palmeiras need to focus in terms of reinforcement(s).