State of the Club

By: AJ | July 17th, 2007

Well… Let’s see here… Yea, I know I haven’t been bloging, but I’ll explain that in a future post. I wanted to give you a preview of things to come and review things that have passed. I want to know your thoughts here. Ok, let’s start with transfer rumors… (and yes I’m very happy with Brazil’s win against Argentina :))

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)?