everybody to the party

All five brazilian clubs made to the eightfinals of the 2008 Copa Libertadores. Cruzeiro had some bad luck, for the team will face the holders Boca Jrs from Argentina, while São Paulo shall have a difficult task against Nacional from Uruguay.

Santos will meet the colombians from Cúcuta once more, after two difficult battles during the group stage. Flamengo is going to fly half the continent to meet América from México. With the best campaign during the group stage, Fluminense will play against Nacional in Medellín for the first leg of this knock-out round.

Fluminense: the best so far.

not coming back

Romário, the historic 42-year-old player, announced his retirement. One of the greatest strikers ever, his last game was in november 2007. During his 23-year career, he won the 1994 World Cup title, some “player of the year” awards and scored more than one thousand goals, by his own count. Rumours say he was waiting for the next Guns and Roses´ album “Chinese Democracy” to be released – but couldn´t make it.

Romário: the specialist leaving for good

Wuthering Heights

Despite all the protesting, Flamengo will have to play against Cienciano in the city of Cuzco, 3.400 meters above the sea level. The fans of the peruvian club, known as “burro” (donkey), are making fun of the brazilian club. During their arrival, a man dressed as a donkey taught Flamengo players that “height doesn´t kill”.

Donkey in Cuzco: defending the habitat.

Grêmio out of control

Despite undefeated during the whole group stage, Grêmio lost the second leg of the quarterfinals against Juventude, and was eliminated from the state championship. Grêmio´s coach Celso Roth, also know as SEXY HOT, is the man to blame. Only when the team had three sent-off and was 3 goals behind, the players began to ignore everything the coach said, and managed to reach an useless 2-3.

Reserves couldn´t stand Juventude´s third goal.

purple rain

Corinthians is painting everything purple, for that´s the “color of passion”. Although some fans reacted and sprayed “Black + White = Tradition” in the club´s purple wall, the new purple shirt is selling like water. Last weekend, over 3.000 of those were sold in the club´s store.

Deep in Purple: Corinthians guys look happy.

too high to play

Flamengo awaits an official statement from Conmebol to decide wheter or not the team will depart to Cuzco, a city with altitude above 3.300 meters (over 10 thousand feet), located in Peru. Flamengo would play against Cienciano for the group stage of the Copa Libertadores. Fifa already suggested Conmebol not to schedule matches in cities with altitude above 2.750 meters – measure which, so far, is being ignored.

Cuzco may leave Flamengo breathless.

Robinho sucks again

In the most boring friendly match ever, Brazil beat Sweden by 1-0 this wednesday in London. Altough many of the players didn´t know, the game was supposed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s first World Cup final triumph. Alexandre “Pato/the Duck” took advantage from a nonsense mistake of the swedish goalkeeper called RAMI SHAABAN, and scored the only goal of the game.

Shabaan X Pato: don´t look back in anger.

It´s all written

Despite the 2-1 defeat against Fluminense on the Sunday classic, Vasco´s president Eurico Miranda told the press his team won´t lose any more games. Also, he´s absolutely sure Vasco is going to win the second stage of the state championship, and later conquer the championship itself.

Eurico: everything under control.

Ana’s back

After 245 days banned from official matches for nude posing in Playboy magazine, the referee Ana Paula Oliveira is back to the fields for the enjoyment of the fanatic football fans all over Brazil. “You have no idea how happy I am. It’s like being at the World Cup final” celebrates the beautiful ref when coming back to work at the 1-1 draw between São José and Taquaritinga.

Palmeiras signs Denilson

Right after being mentioned below, Denilson was hired by Palmeiras for the 2008 season. The 30-year-old professional dribbler played for FC Dallas in the Major League Soccer last year, but his contract with the American club was not renewed after he scored only one goal and had no assists in eight games. Nevertheless, it’s always worth mentioning Denilson’s biggest contribution to Football, back in the 2002 World Cup, running from four angry Turkish players at the end of the semifinal game.

couldn´t stand the weather

Eurico Miranda, the bizarre Vasco da Gama´s president ordered the center-forward ALAN KARDEC to be fielded for the game against Friburguense. Displeased with that, the coach/striker Romário left the club before the game. After that, in an interview, Romário told he left only the coach job, and that it´s possible for him to play a few games for Vasco before retiring.

Romário leaves the bench. Will he play again?

Cruzeiro makes the group stage

Two victories put Cruzeiro in the group stage of the Libertadores 2008. Cerro Porteño from Paraguay couldn´t stand the two times champions from Brazil, and lost both games. After the 3-1 defeat in Belo Horizonte, Cerro´s supporters couldn´t stand watching their side being beaten up again. The score was Cerro 2 – 3 Cruzeiro, when rocks were thrown at the field, and the referee chose to finish the game before the 90th minute.

Cruzeiro: group stage against San Lorenzo, Potosí and Caracas.

Robinho nicks for Brazil

I know I’ve been wrong a few times in life. But I’ve never been as wrong as I was about Robinho. It was crystal clear to me that the guy would be a new Denilson: the purposeless dribbler with no use but entertaining. And don’t get me wrong. Entertainment is very good; I love it. Just as long as I’m winning.

Hence, as disturbing as it is to watch Robinho’s ridiculous thumb-sucking goal celebration, I have to admit that seeing him finger point Carsley’s face yesterday, moments before scoring the victory goal (1-0 against Rep. of Ireland) between the legs of that scary ass bald Irishman made me think.

Robinho is a great player. Now what do you make of that?

Burning Love

CSKA Moscow player Vagner Love is having a Paris Hilton time. According to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the hot scenes starring one of Dunga’s favorite strikers and a brazilian porn star named Pamela Butt are real. The video was leaked over the web a few days ago, and can be found here (very NSFW).

Vagner Love reveals new talents everyday

Corinthians and the purple shirt

Currently dwelling to escape from the second division of the national league, Corinthians released a controversial homage to their loyal fans. Their third uniform now consists of a purple shirt, a very different palette considering their classic colors (black and white). Luís Paulo Rosenberg, the vice-president of marketing of the Timão, claims that the color will always be related to the passion of their loyal supporters, since a fanatic is often called torcedor roxo (purple follower).

Corinthians fans: is this the color of your passion?

Barbecue holds Beckham in Brazil

The english popstar arrived in Natal, northwest of Brazil, to promote a touristic complex for some norwegian company. The Los Angeles Galaxy player also said he will build the “Beckham World of Sport”, a treinament center for young players inside the resort. He should´ve left Brazil on tuesday, but he preferred to try a brazilian barbecue instead. At least, that was the official version.

Beckham: an extra day in Brazil to taste the brazilian meat.

São Paulo X Corinthians: another 0-0 classic

After the draw without goals between Santos and Palmeiras last week, another classic for the SP state league ended up scoreless. It was a good game, but São Paulo left it complaining about an annulated goal from striker Adriano, after a head-to-head dispute with Corinthians’ defender William.

Adriano X William: the referee blowed his whistle for foul.

Rochemback headed for Grêmio

The brazilian midfielder, currently in Middlesbrough, admits the negotiation with Grêmio. Fábio Rochemback claims his chances of being called to the Brazil side would grow if he was playing in the national football. He left the country in 2000, when he used to play for Internacional, Grêmio´s classic rival. Sources say the six-month loan would cost $ 700 thousand euros.

Rochemback: back to the same city, but in a different side.

Corinthians beats Paulista

After a 3-1 defeat against São Caetano, in which the uruguayan Acosta scored an own goal, Corinthians beat Paulista de Jundiaí for the third round of the state championship. The second goal of the 2-0 victory was a beautiful trick play from Acosta.

Acosta is now 1-1 with himself.

The “Animal” is back home

After some negotiation, the 36 year-old striker Edmundo is back to Vasco, the club where he started. Released from Palmeiras, the “Animal” was presented by Vasco´s president Eurico Miranda as the team´s main name for the 2008 season.

Eurico lights a cigar: Edmundo is back.