Cruzeiro 3 – 0 Corinthians: Alecsandro +10
How things change, in the beginning of the championship Cruzeiro had gotten off to a horrible start and in the second round lost 3-0 to Corinthians. A couple of months later Cruzeiro faced Corinthians again, this time Cruzeiro were coming off five straight victories, while Corinthians were just now beginning to find their form. Cruzeiro played well and got three points and again relied on another extraordinary performance from Alecsandro. Alecsandro has got so far nine goals in just six appearances. For those of you who are not familiar with the guy here is a quick lowdown: Cruzeiro bought him just over a year ago and after some “OK” performances he found himself being loaned out to Sporting Lisbon of Portugal for one year, Sporting could opt to buy him after his loan spell was over. Sporting instead let him go after his loan spell was done. Alecsandro arrived at Cruzeiro pretty late (the Brazilian championship was well underway), and after arriving and practicing two weeks with the squad he was given a chance to play. And play he did, nine goals in six games! He has only played 25% as many matches as the championship’s leading scorer, Josiel, but is only four goals shy of Josiel’s 13. Why has Alecsandro been such a pleasant surprise? Because he only had mediocre performances for Cruzeiro when he first arrived and because of his physical attributes (he is on the heavy side, Cruzeiro fans used to refer to him as O Gordinho (Little Fatty)). So I guess we weren’t expecting him to play so well and trust me it has been a good surprise! As for Cruzeiro so far I only have one thing to say-STAY HUMBLE AND RESPECT YOUR OPPONENTS!!!!!!! Being a Cruzeiro fan, you learn to never believe you are a title or Libertadores contender unless you are mathematically proven to be so. São Paulo is still a very strong team and haven’t lost or conceded a goal in a very long time now. So the road to glory this year will be tough. The club directors seem to be doing their part and have reportedly rejected offers for players such as: Wagner, Guilherme and Alecsandro.

The Table

The Game
Corinthians 0 x 3 Cruzeiro, Saturday, August 25th, 2007, 5:10 PM Eastern Time, Pacaembu, São Paulo, 21st round of the Campeonato Brasileiro 2007 – Attendance: 32,439 paid (Nestlé promotional tickets), 26,356 present – Profit: R$241,000.00 – Referee: Carlos Eugênio Simon (Fifa-RS) – Assistant referees: Marcelo Barison and Paulo Roberto S. Conceição (RS) – Yellow card(s): Betão, Ricardinho (Cor); Emerson, Thiago Heleno (Cru) – Goals: Alecsandro, 28th; Jonathan, 62nd, Alecsandro, 80th, – Corinthians: Felipe; Fábio Ferreira, Zelão and Betão; Edson (Moradei), Ricardinho, Vampeta and Gustavo Nery; Arce (Everton Santos), Finazzi and Wilson (Bruno Bonfim). Manager: Paulo César Carpegiani / Cruzeiro: Fábio; Jonathan, Emerson, Thiago Heleno and Fernandinho; Charles and Ramires; Maicosuel (Marcinho) and Leandro Domingues (Aldo Sousa); Alecsandro and Marcelo Moreno (Nenê). Manager: Dorival Júnior. – Historically – Cruzeiro and Corinthians have played 62 matches. Cruzeiro has won 19, tied 17, lost 26, scored 77 goals and conceded 88. In the Campeonato Brasileiro, they have played 42 games. Cruzeiro has won 14, tied 13, lost 15, scored 43 goals and conceded 47. The two teams have played each other in a Campeonato Brasileiro final, the 1969 Taça de Prata, at the Mineirão. Cruzeiro won 2 x 1, but the title was won, awkwardly enough, by Palmeiras who had scored one more goal then Cruzeiro against Botafogo.

All the goals & All the plays

Personally I want to see that number get into the high thirties this season and the only way to do that, besides selling every good player we have, is to be successful. By successful I mean a good placement in the Brazilian championship (top four) and even a good run in this years Sudamericana would help. As we all know success and championships really help a club, but in Brazil 75% of a clubs revenue tends to come from selling their players.

Transfers

Here are the players Cruzeiro have sold so far in 2007:

Sold:
€4.2 million – Fábio Santos
€1 million (has already returned from loan) – Wágner
€250 thousand (one year loan to Sporting, valued at €7 million) – Gladstone
€2 million – Luizão
$500 thousand – Rômulo
€3.5 million – Araújo
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Total: €11.1

Bought:
Renan and Fábio Santos – R$ 450 thousand (on loan)
Ricardinho – free
Marcinho – free (traded for Leandro and Martinez)
Leandro Domingues – R$ 800 thousand (50% of rights)
Maicosuel – R$ 1.3 million (60% of rights)
Fellype Gabriel – free
Rafinha – undisclosed
Pedro Júnior – free (traded for Teco)
Nenê – R$ 350 thousand (55% of rights)
Rômulo – R$1.3 million (60% of rights)
Marcelo Moreno – club did not pay (US$ 400 thousand Spanish investors bought 90% of the players rights and passed to Cruzeiro 40%. The other 10% belongs to the athlete.)
Ramires – free (70% of rights are valued at US$ 300 thousand)
Léo Fortunato – R$ 200 thousand (payed to Madureira to end player’s contract)
Marcelo Tavares – free
Mariano – R$ 150 thousand (rights are valued at R$ 500 thousand)
Daniel – free
Roni – free
Fernandinho – R$ 600 thousand (25% of rights)
Thiago – US$ 540 thousand (50% of rights).
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Total: €2 million

Possible sales:
Weldon – Yokohama Marinus of Japan– US$ 200 thousand

Possible buys:
Anderson – Benfica – €2.5 million or loan

Comparison to other Brazilian clubs
I know what you’re saying, “€11 million, that’s it?” I know that even by Brazilian standards that is somewhat pitiful and other clubs in Brazil have made that or even more than that in just one sale this season (namely Internacional and São Paulo). But think about this – many players in Brazil aren’t actually owned by the club itself, instead clubs usually just own a small stake of the player and usually get help from “investors” to supply the cash. When it comes time to sell the player the “investors” usually end up making more money off the deals than the club itself. With Cruzeiro though, this is not true. The club owns practically all of its players and doesn’t need to rely on foreign companies to purchase its players. So what does this mean? Well it means that almost all the money Cruzeiro makes goes directly into the club’s piggy bank and unlike other clubs, the money doesn’t need to be split with “investors”. In addition, much of the revenue that clubs like Flamengo or Corinthians make go towards paying old debts, in some cases these debts get to be as high as €50 million (cough, cough Corinthians cough, cough). According to club president, Alivimar de Oliviero Costa, Cruzeiro manages to pay all its expenses (although, he did say “sometimes with difficulty”), but Cruzeiro have no debts, which is a really good thing. And on top of all Cruzeiro hasn’t really had to sell “key” players this season and has really only sold “unwanted” players. While other clubs have been making a lot of money but selling their most important players in the process.

Future transfers
Although Cruzeiro won’t be ably to cash in a ton of money this season, I believe there will be plenty of cash coming in next season. Cruzeiro currently has two of Brazil’s “next Alexandre Pato”. They are Guilherme (who you here me talk about all the time – he is almost the same age as Pato, has played almost the same amount of games as Pato this season and has scored more goals than Pato this season, which makes him – in my opinion of course – more expansive than Pato). The other promise is Kerlon, who was voted best player and top scorer in the U-17 South American Championship in 2005. Kerlon was back then considered a big Brazilian promise. He also became famous for his Seal Dribble, where he dribbled the ball with his head (a YouTube favorite). Kerlon should have been in Europe by now, but in the last two years he has been hit with two huge injuries that has kept him out for an enormously amount of time, he is currently still injured. Manchester United were interested in Kerlon two years ago and Inter and AC Milan were interested last year and lately there have been reports that Torino may be interested. Kerlon is valued at €10 and the only way Guilherme is going is for €20+. If any European club presidents are reading this (cause I know you are) I would recommend you buy, out of the two, Kerlon. Because once he heals and starts playing again, he’ll become much more valuable. Take for example Pato who seven months ago was worth €7 and now? €20. Kerlon, in my opinion, will be pretty big in a year or two. Remember – Kerlon and Guilherme – you heard it here first.

Transfers

Porto has sold Pepe to Real Madrid for €30 million. So they said what the hey, let’s go out in a Brazilian shopping spree and buy some of their future prospects. And of course they go after Cruzeiro’s worst sector this year, the defense. Now Cruzeiro lost a couple of weeks ago Gladstone, who was really the only good defender we had, to Sporting Lisbon, on a one year loan deal with a buy out clause. So now Cruzeiro has decided to sell any hope our defense may have. So comes in to play Luizão, who was part of Brazil’s disappointing U-20 World Cup team. Porto has set their eyes on him and he will probably go. Even if he doesn’t go to Porto, it is reported that Boca Juniors are interested. If Cruzeiro were to sell him to Boca, it would be a very strange move. It is one thing to sell a player to our Portuguese rivals, at least they are in Europe, but to a fellow South American rival country like Argentina. Besides Luizão would be treated like dirt in Argentina. Anyway, those rumors have died down just a bit these days. Which is good, very good. Though Araújo is also said to be leaving, even though he has stated that he is fully committed to the team and tournament. We will just have to see. Speaking of future transfers now, Cruzeiro’s two biggest promises Guilherme and Kerlon, will probably be sold in the next year or two. Guilherme, 18 years old, was called up to the U-20 World Cup, but was later taken off the list. He is definitely a good player, has scored a lot of goals for us and is part of Cruzeiro’s “Offensive Quartet”, along with Araújo, Wagner and Roni. Kerlon is the other “promise” I had mentioned, he is good, but has been injuried a lot and hasn’t been able to show his moves, so Europe may not be in the near future for him. In my opinion, these two may hit European catalogs in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

But on the bright side Cruzeiro have finished up a deal with experienced São Caetano defender and captain Thiago, which will be a good edition to our defense. Also Cruzeiro might have an interest in Léo from Benfica, and Filipe from Deportivo de La Coruña (who had a good season in Spain), both being defenders. Not sure of our chances to get either, but both would be great in our squad.

Game review
The game against Goiás was in my opinion and in the opinions of the players the best performance by Cruzeiro so far this year (I even had an argument with a fellow blogger about it and I admit I got I bit carried away). Cruzeiro though scored first and let Goiás score in the 75 minute, but quickly took the lead again. The win stopped Goiás’ winning streak and also helped the league in general, because this week all of the top four dropped points. This was good for Cruzeiro’s confidence, beating the second placed team in the league. Though our schedule only gets harder… (Oh yea, almost forgetting, last week I read Cruzeiro was the club that brought the most fans to their games! This round Cruzeiro had the highest attendance in Brazil as well with 27,000, although the big derby Fla-Flu hasn’t been played yet do to the Pan American Games in Rio.)

Pre-game
Cruzeiro’s next opponent, after beating the second placed team, is last placed Náutico. Cruzeiro should win this game, but remember Cruzeiro have a habit of losing to smaller teams. It’s a game Cruzeiro should definitely win, especially because no player is out with a red card or accumulation of yellow cards for this game. D.J. (Dorival Júnior) will have a chance of repeating the same team with Cruzeiro for the first time in 43 games! Many are asking for the Offensive Quartet to stay, but D.J. may have other plans. A good victory here would help Cruzeiro’s goal deferential, if they don’t concede a goal. Cruzeiro though should be careful because after Nautico they must play São Paulo, and can’t risk losing players to suspension (we have been given 80 cards in total this year: 70 yellows and 10 reds!). After that we play Atlético Paranaense and Botafogo, two very good teams. What score do you predict? Is Cruzeiro going to go up or down in the standings (currently 8th)?