It is Hard, but the Libertadores Dream is Still Alive!

Santista Nation,

the game agaist Fluminense wasn't our best performance. We played a weak team that showed why they are in last place in this championship. But a win is always a win and that's what matters. Our goal of being in the next Libertadores Cup is still alive. We are not far at all from the qualifying zone.

Besides the 3 points that we've got, a couple of other things are importante highlight from game. First, Santos has a lot to improve. The first half was ok but the second half was ridiculous! A great portion of our winning came from the quality of our oponent. We'll need to play much better if we want to win our next games.What made the diference was the individual talentes of players such as Ganso, Madson, George Lucas ( I'm actualy pretty excited about this guy) and Emerson. By the way, Emerson is far from his best game but we all saw the team playing better while he was on the field. Also, it is important to remember that it was another game without being scored against. Second, it was nice to see the yonger players making the diference. Andre and Ganso showed that they know the game and that thay can be a important asset for out team. Third, I was pleased with our fans. They were there and did what they had to do to support and motivate the group. Vila belmiro needs to be, again, what it is knonw for. The visitor team must fear us in our own stadium again.

Tomorrow we play Corinthians. We have a good chance to win this one as well if we present a better game than the one presented Sunday. The numbers can prove that. My brother will be at Pacaembu Stadium representing the Casado Family. VAI PRA CIMA DELES, SANTOS!!!!

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Santos 2X2 Avai-SC

Santista Nation,
I confess that I did not even want to write on the game. The score was a great disappointment. It was painful because before the game we all had that feeling that the team was going to get to the upper side of the chart. Sure we know our team’s limitations but we came from two straight winnings on the road and things were looks a little better. The heart breaking part of this game is that it happened in our home field and we were winning by 2X0. We could almost feel the 3 points already but then something happened and we only got 1.

We all knew that, with this group of players, to qualify to the next Libertadores was going to be a hard achievement. Even our coach is open about it now.

I thought the team was not so bad. They created many opportunities to score but the problem was that we have Kleber Pereira as our striker. He scored 1 goal out of 20 concrete opportunities he had. That is not enough at all to be a sticker for Santos. One of the things that were said after the game is that the fans were not supporting the team. But what needs to be said is that the fans were supporting and even happy with KP but after so many bad finalizations of our player it is hard to keep supporting with the same intensity. That guy must go now! It seems that he is always drunk and no one can stand so many of his mistakes any longer. I see why Luxemburgo does not want to play Neymar from the beginning so he can be speared from the critics and pressure but Luxa cannot take Ganso out to put Neymar in the game. That’s a crime! KP should be the one giving the place to Neymar. With Ganso and Neymar together on the field, anything can happen. The chances of one starting a play and the other one successfully finalizing is extremely high.

The first half of the championship is almost over and we need to act fast. Emerson and George Lucas need to get into this team quick so they can feel comfortable playing with their team players and start to bring their contribution to the field. In addition, even though Fabio Costa is a crack head he is still the best goalkeeper we have (this was very hard and sad for me to write…) at the moment so we need him back now. Our team has a lot of space for improvement but I am an optimistic and believe that we can still get at least a place in the next Libertadores. We are not that far from it.

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Peixe 1X2 Urubu

Santista Nation,

If you had the unpleasant opportunity to watch yesterday’s game you will agree that we still have a long way to go. The team played the best they could. They shown they were there to win and they did what they could to bring the victory to us. But what we saw was that even their best effort was not enough. Not even to win Flamengo, a team with no coach and no skill. As always, Santos loves to help the ones in need by letting them win. We can say that Adriano had a big part on it. He is a great player but his team is still weak and there is no good reason to let them win after we were winning by 1 to nothing. By the way, Flamengo only scored on goal since the other one was scored by our player Para. There goes our invincibility of over three decades.

We need a good striker bad. We created the opportunities to score but we had no one to finish the plays successfully. Also Felipe did a mistake that cost us the game. Unfortunately, for a moment, I missed Fabio Costa as our goalkeeper. Although he is a nutcase, he wouldn’t make the mistakes that were done. Besides, we need better guys on our defense (Duh!!). We are the second worst defense amongst all the teams.

One weird thing on this game was Brum doing what ever he could to get the third yellow card and he reached his goal after he was already replaced by Robson. Now he won’t play Nautico Wednesday. Luxa was pissed and told the media he will punish the player. It is hard to understand the reason but things will get even uglier to Brum since Emerson is our new team member.

Again, we need fresh blood in our team. The way it is now, even a place in the next Libertadores will be hard to get.

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Lame Victory? Well...I'll Take it any day!

Santista Nation,

Who cares that the game was one of those hard to whatch with so little emotion. We won 3 more points and that is what we want (together with the losses of the Bambis, Chickens and Pigs, of course)!

We need to know what this "lame victory" can mean for the team. Fisrt, it marked the return of Luxa. The coach got back to work for only 2 days, but we can see his hand making the diference on the field. He put Felipe as the gollie. A bold move that can be seen as a statement that change is coming (GO OBAMA!). And we need a lot of change, by the way. Another interesting play was to leave Neymar and Ganso on the bench. Even though they have not been that consistent, they would be starters on my team every time. Not that we have many other opitions anyway. But it is good to show the youngsters that to play on our team you have to do more and bring more results. As Luxemburgo said in his post game interview, a great portion of this win came from the touch of Mancini. Would we have win last night's game if Mancini was still the coach? We'll never know the answer for that question. What I know is that this win is a boost to ours team's confidence.

Also, our goal came from the foot of Neymar. The beautiful play proved, one more time, that Neymar is the kind of player that can change the history of the game in a few seconds. He's got the vision and that will only improve under Luxa's wings.

But, besides the victory, the most important thing that happened last night was not what really happened but what did not happend: the other team's goal. Of corse we were playing against a team that did not give our goalkeeper much work to do but it was nice to go through a game without been scored. Hopefully, we will see (or not) that repeat many times on this championship.

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BARALHO! - Santos 1 x 0 Atlético-PR

What a boring game, friends. Just the way I love them! Seriously, I don't know if it is something related to growing up as a Santos fan when the team was in its worst days, but melancholic boring games like the one tonight has a romantic vibe that I really enjoy. Don't ask me why.

Jesus, what a horrible first half! The team at least defended well. But there were not many chances to score. Robson was especially bad. It is ridiculous to watch this guy play while Neymar and PH stay on the bench.

In the second half Neymar and Paulo Henrique replaced Robson and Roberto Brum and the team got a bit better. Neymar scored a very nice goal with an important contribution from Roni. Roni is a terrible striker, but I have to say that lately he has been running and contributing to the team much more than Kleber Pereira. His decisive pass to Neymar tonight was very good as you can see in the video above. I would still give a chance to Thiago Luis though.

Germano also played well in the midfield although still committing some stupid mistakes every now and then. Apparently Luxa preferred him over Roberto Brum anyway.

It is still early to see how the team will be that Luxa is running the show. He certainly has a lot of work to do.

I was happy to hear the man screaming the whole game, though. "Baralho" is his favorite cuss word. To be honest, the word is "caralho," which is a pretty bad word in Portuguese. TV commentators pretended he was shouting "baralho" (a deck of cards) and the thing became a popular joke. Sílvio Luís, maybe the best soccer commentator I had the pleasure to hear in my entire life once complained: "could someone please tell Luxemburgo that he is not in a cassino? This is a soccer game, there are no cards around."

But what the hell, the man is angry and he gotta release his energy. As long as Santos wins he can scream baralho, caralho, or whatever works to get the job done.