Season kick-off!

Finally, the 2016 season kicks off! Tonight we enjoy Palmeiras vs. Libertad (Paraguay) in the Antel Cup – a four-team pre-season tournament played at the Centenario stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. This is the fifth time the tournament is played, and the first time a Brazilian team participates. The winner of today’s game face either Peñarol or Nacional (both from Uruguay) in the finals on Saturday. A game for third place will also be played.

In addition to the two games in the Antel Cup, Palmeiras’ bench will play a friendly against Uruguayan team River Plate tomorrow Thursday.

— ooo —

According to Palmeiras historian Fernando Galuppo, it has been 47 long years since Palmeiras last initiated a season abroad: 1969, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, against Hungarian team MTK.

Marking presence abroad is fundamentally important to gain experience, but also to strengthen the club brand. As for Anything Palmeiras, this blog does not have that many readers in Uruguay: possibly numbers will improve as of next week.

Palmeiras have never played in the UK – not a single time – and yet many of Anything Palmeiras’ readers are from there. Perhaps not too extraordinary: after all, this blog is in English and England is the home of football. Now would you believe Palmeiras have never played in Portugal? Or in Germany? Coming days, we’ll look into a few more of these curiosities – with the help of Cláudio Kristeller of the IPE – while at the same time salute all our foreign reader through a number of exclusive drawings by the one and only Custódio Rosa Filho. You have seen his work before, he debuted here with the “PigKing”, remember? Stay tuned!
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