As you may or may not be aware, the fourth team of the "Big 4" in Rio de Janeiro, Vasco de Gama were relegated at the end of 2008 in 18th place in the table 4 points adrift of safety. Mind you, as things sit at the moment if Vasco were to return to the big time in 2010 two more of the "Big 4" in Rio will be settling into life in Série B. Fluminense, to be honest, look sunk already and it will take some miracle for them to escape the drop whilst Botafogo are still in with a fighting chance.
A decent Campeonato Carioca was hampered by a 6 point deduction in the Taça Guanabara and it saw Vasco finish 6th in the table. Without the deduction they would have finished top of the table. They made up for it though in the Taça Rio, winning all 8 of their games including victories over Flamengo and Botafogo. It all went wrong though in the Semi finals of the Taça Rio when they were thumped 4-0 by Botafogo.
So Vasco moved onto life in Série B and began with a 1-0 victory over Brasiliense. They were bought back to earth though at the end of May, a 3-0 away defeat at Paraná reminding Vasco that they were not going to get things all their own way thing season. Vasco though, have settled into life in Série B quite nicely and currently like top of the table with 14 games to go in the season. They have currently lost only 3 games all season and have been held to draws on 7 occasions. Their nearest challengers are Guarani de Campinas who lie 3 points behind in the table. Elton is currently the leading scorer for Vasco having found the net on 12 occasions so far this season to lie one behind in the race for the Série B golden boot.
It would seem that Vasco will follow the example of Corinthians and bounce straight back to Série A at the first attempt and as champions. Corinthians of course went onto win the Copa do Brasil this year, defeating Vasco over two legs in the semi final, and qualify for the 2010 Libertadores.
No comments:
Post a Comment