Brazilian Futebol: Cruzeiro’s new guns come out blazing
February 1, 2006 by William K. Wolfrum
After shuffling along to a win and a draw in its first two games with but one goal to show for it, Cruzeiro looked strong tonight, beating up on Democrata Sete Lagoas, 5-2 in the Campeonato Mineiro (Minas Gerais State Championship).
The result was to be expected, but what stood out was that three of the goals came from the Foxes two biggest off-season pick-ups, Araujo (two) and Elber. Araujo’s been tormenting the Japanese league for the last couple years and looks very strong and experienced up front. Elber came in as a substitute and scored a nifty goal late with his back to the goal.
All in all, a good game for Cruzeiro, and will lead them in nicely to the first — and likely only — “Classic” of the year against cross-town rivals Atletico-MG, who were demoted to the second division (Serie B) last year.
Also got to see a bit of Barcelona’s 2-1 victory over Zaragoza, which wasn’t enough to see Zaragoza advance in the King’s Cup by a 5-4 aggregate. Barca was blitzed by the ref, who sent of Ronaldinho Gaucho midway through the opening half on a call that really barely should have given the Brazilian a yellow.
Add to that, the U.S.’s 5-0 thumping of Norway on Sunday, and it’s been a very nice week of soccer, with some more games tomorrow, as well as a pick-up game I’ll probably join tomorrow evening.
–WKW
[...] To finish off the weekend, my wife, her father and I went to a bar to watch Brazil beat Australia, 2-0. Not the most impressive performance by Brazil, but the goal by Fred was great to see, as he’s a former Cruzeiro star and I’ve seen him score about 12 goals live in Brazil. [...]
[...] Dunga himself was quick to put his stamp on the team, favoring more players who are based in Brazil. And Dunga did the unthinkable in selecting the squad that will play Norway on Aug. 16 — he left off Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, Adriano and a host of others, and went with hungrier young players like Fred, Jonatas, Robinho, Vagner Love and Cruzeiro midfielder Wagner. [...]