It was an international weekend, the final qualifiying matches on the way to the 2010 World Cup, but did the league stop so the few clubs who lost their top players to the national team got a fair break? No way!
In fact, they threw in an extra round because it happened to be a public holiday. Welcome to the haphazard beauty of the Brazilian championship (the Brasilerão), a little something like football used to be before the image police arrived, made everyone take themselves too seriously and spoiled all the fun.
If you can remember what it was like when clubs were bigger than players, you didn’t know which team was going to win the league title or when the crap teams down the bottom of the table could quite happily embarrass the leaders as they conspired to throw away healthy points advantages - then the Brasilerão is the league for you.
If you’re sick of the smarmy, antiseptic ubiquity of the Premier League, then put your havaianas on, treat yourself to a caipirinha and prepare to remove your shirt and swing it around your head with a disturbing level of vigour whenever your chosen team looks like scoring. People, step one of your training is complete…
With just over a handful of matches remaining in this year’s championship, no fewer than six, that’s right, SIX, teams have a realistic chance of claiming the title, and the matches keep coming thick and fast.
Almost one month ago Palmeiras went five points clear and a first national title since 1994 was looking like a distinct possibility. But as this is the Brasilerão, the yips (as inevitably and predictably as Christmas) set in and now it really is a free-for-all.
Step forward the vultures in the shape of Atlético-MG, Internacional, São Paulo, Flamengo and Cruzeiro, who have been circling and licking their beaks [do they do that? –ed] in anticipation of a new guest for dinner. Forget throwing a blanket over them, you only need a small hand-towel to cover this season’s challengers. Indeed, just a single victory, three measly points, covers the top five as the finishing line looms.
At the time of writing Palmeiras are hanging on by a point, but have a huge target on their back and their backsides in the bacon-slicer (as Mick McCarthy would put it). They desparately need to abandon the miserable form that has marooned them at the top of the table and made them a sitting duck for those rabid shotgun-wielding duck-hunters down below.
If betting on football was legal in Brazil the smart money would be on Palmeiras’ state rivals São Paulo, renowned strong finishers and champions for the last three seasons.
That Palmeiras appeared to be planning ahead and hired Muricy Ramalhos, the coach who gained all three of those titles for São Paulo, could have some sway.
However, after his team’s latest grim performances, Muricy’s face has resembled a colour close to that of the club’s famous green strip: an off-colour clue that suggests all is nervy and not well in his camp, and that a magical revival is simply a hope, not a guarantee.
Popular TV culture in Brazil is dominated by novellas, saccharine wildly over-dramatic soap operas watched daily by millions upon millions of hopeless addicts. This season, Brazil’s football supporters too have a wildly dramatic addiction which, scripted or unscripted, will in a little over a month’s time produce a champion with nerves of steel. It’s going to be a bumpy couple of weeks.