Brazil: Serie A: Sport Recife- Flamengo
There are plenty of notes on Sport this season and you can read my preview of their home game with At;etico Paranaense at the end of last month, below the "good luck" sign off. They won that 2-0 and posted back to back 1-1 draws subsequently and are unbeaten in five, but the single point from their last home start against basement club America was not what they expected or desired and with only one home game after this in the next four weeks and still within three points of the drop zone, the hosts will be desperate to get something and hopefully all three points tonight. Recife is a very tough place to come and win and like most other visitors, Flamengo have had to make a 4,000km round trip to play and often face hostile conditions when they arrive, although the weather forecast today is as good as could be expected.
The visitors arrive on a six match unbeaten run, but this will be their third very tough and gruelling road trip inside 14 days and that is likely to catch up with them at some stage.
Sport get Diego Sousa back today and he is Mr Recife, with 9 goals and two assists this season, nine and ten respectively last year.
He is especially effective after returning from missing a game, like he did the away draw with Figueirense, after an absence, he has four goals and two assists next time out (at least one in each) , with Sport having a 4-1-0 record and winning all three at home with an 8-1 goal difference. Home win.
1.5 units Sport Recife level ball 2.08 asian line/Sportmarket.
Good Luck.
Brazil: Serie A : Sport Recife- Atletico Paranaense (written July 30th)
Sport Recife have focused very heavily in my notes this season and they are probably the Serie A team we have discussed the most, ahead of last week's trip to Cruzeiro my preview looked an awful lot like this ...........
It is hard to speak of Cruzeiro ( champions twice in the last three years) and Sport (very strong home team) in these terms, but two struggling teams facing each other, almost always means goals and these two are both in the bottom four, although I would be surprised if either were relegated come the end of the season. Cruz are seven without a clean sheet, through which they have conceded at the rate of 1.86 per game and they are hurt defensively today with the suspensions to holding player Bruno Edgar and central defender Bruno Viana.
Sport's last ten starts have averaged a whopping 4.2 goals and ahead of last weekend's 4-2 defeat of third placed Gremio I wrote .........
I have previewed the last three Sport home games, notes for the first two ,a 2-1 win over Fluminense and 5-2 demolition of Chapecoense are included within the content of the latter, which is reproduced at the very foot of this email. We saw what they are capable of there and offensively, they pose a big threat and far more than you would normally expect from a bottom four team, which they are currently, but I doubt they will remain there too long. Ahead of a visit from leaders Palmeiras in their last home start, I wrote .....
Sport could not follow up that 5-1 home win and lost 3-2 at Vitoria, but led, played 65 minutes with ten men, 25 with nine and scored their second when two men down and there is nothing wrong with their goal scoring threat or spirit, also witness that 4-4 draw with Atletico Mineiro ( see below) too. Their home games have produced 21 goals and Palmeiras are Serie A top scorers with 26 at the rate of over two per game and with the last two h2h meetings here in Recife comfortably going "over" with 2 and 3 first half goals, this seems sure to follow suit. Everton Felipe and Lenis will be supended for Sport after their dismissal in midweek, two free scoring teams and we can expect goals.
Sport lost that 3-1 and subsequently 2-1 at Ponte Preta and defensively they are struggling, however, they have had a full week to prepare for this and have trained all week in the stifling heat in Recife and it has been very hot and sticky this week and that, allied to the long distance almost all teams have to travel to get here, makes this one of the least popular venues and partly explains Sport's traditionally strong home record. Gremio posted a win at neighbours Internacional in their last away start, but we have already discussed Inter's problems and prior to that, Gremio had given up ten goals in four away games, including three at Chapecoense. They have left a very cool Porto Alegre (12-13 degrees) to make the 3,800 km trip North where it is 15-16 degrees warmer and with the humidity, feels much hotter and I think this is a big advantage for Sport who are very hungry for the points.
That would have given them great confidence and they have had a rare free midweek to prepare for this , whilst Cruz played a Copa do Brasil game on Wednesday. It is a bigger game for the home side who travel to Santos next week and face four of their next five on the road and they could get cast adrift if they do not win this, but hard to see how it is going to come along with a clean sheet .
That ended in a huge 2-1 win for Sport and the three points took them out of the drop zone and up to the dizzy heights of 14th place, but they are only a point clear of the bottom four and will be looking to make the most of this and a home game with woeful America in midweek. They had a major boost this week with contract extensions for their two senior defensive players and they meet a tired and short handed Atletico side today.
Whilst Sport have had a full week to prepare, AP played Chapecoense on the road in the Copa do Brasil in midweek, where they progressed through a tough game on the away goal rule. They took that very seriously and nine starters from the last league game also started at Chape. I speak often about teams targetting fixtures in Brazil and only the very top teams can really go for it in every game, that doesn't mean that teams are not trying , just that priority is being given to other games. Atletico coach Paulo Autori has made absolutely no secret of that being the case for today, already without Leo and Walter due to suspension, he sent Thiago Heleno, Otavio, Hernani and Vinicius back to Curitiba to rest and prepare for the visit of Corinthians on Wednesday ,sparing them the 3,500 km trip up to Recife. He spoke about the "marathon ahead" , meaning the gruelling schedule in Brazil, which is 100% true and he might have three debutants today and was also brutally honest about that and said that he and they had "little time for tactical training" in build up. Home win and a comfortable one !
