Possibly a nil thread but I figured that if OTF can sustain a Romanian League thread we should be able to drum up a few posts for the Brazilian Championship. Maybe Ursus or Sam will rescue me...

Anyway, it starts tomorrow and here's my predictions (though I'm fairly sure it'll be less accurate than my 2008-9 EPL top 4 forecast).

4th Cruzeiro

Last year's free scoring (73 goals) and attractive team fell away towards the end and will have been disappointed to have finished fifth. They've started impressively and their Libertadores exit to Boca will mean no early distractions.

Key players: Guilherme, Wagner, Marcelo Moreno

3rd São Paulo

Champions for the last two seasons, their conveyor belt of young talent keeps on rolling and they'll be in contention even if they bore Brazil stupid in doing so. There could be a bit of an exodus in the summer as Hernanes, Alex Silva and Miranda attract European attention. With only 19 goals conceded last year - less than half the next best defence - it's easy to see where their strength lies but Breno has been sold to Bayern and they've looked less than convincing in both the Paulista and the Libertadores so far. They're always likely to snatch a goal from a set piece or a header from one of their tall defenders. And Adriano seems to be starting to strike a balance between enjoying himself off the field and performing on it.

Key players: Hernanes, Adriano, Alex Silva

2nd Fluminense

Manager Renato Gaúcho is a shrewd operator and the Tricolor had the best qualifying record in the Libertadores group stages. His close season signings have added real attacking power to a strong defence. The only setback has been the loss of Leandro Amaral back to Vasco after a contractual dispute. If they can hold on to defender Thiago Silva and attacking midfielder Thiago Neves and get off to a good start without being distracted by the Libertadores they can improve on last year's third place.

Key players: Thiago Neves, Thiago Silva, Washington

Champions Palmeiras

With Wanderlei Luxemburgo in charge, the Paulista already under their belts and no Libertadores distractions, this could be Palmeiras' year. The Chilean Valdívia is currently the hottest player in Brazil and there's plenty more attacking flair with Kléber and Alex Mineiro. They've invested heavily in the squad and, despite crashing out of the Copa Brasil to Sport Recife, they look a formidable team - if their backers don't decide to cash in on their main assets this summer.

Key players: Valdívia, Kléber, Pierre

Of course any team's prospects can be fatally undermined by the peculiarly Brazilian combination of top players leaving half way through the season, managerial instability, off-field distractions (think Ronaldo here), appalling refereeing and outright bribery and corruption but the uncertainty of it all makes it infinitely more entertaining for me than the predictable Premier League.

One more not particularly bold prediction - Serie B to be won by Corinthians. They've also got a decent shot at the Copa Brasil.

Who are the key players for Corinthians then, sid? I only ask as they are now my adopted Brazilian team, through my friend's Brazilian wife. Going out to see them this summer and hope to catch a game or two.

Am in the final stages of planning my trip and hope to be in Rio at the end of July - will e-mail you when I know. It would be great to meet uo with you.

You'll have a real experience watching Corinthians this season. Their torcida - Gaviões de Fiel - are amongst the most fanatical in Brazil and after some early season protests they're now right behind the team following their successes in the Copa Brasil. Their last two games attracted 50,00 crowds and hey should get through to the semi finals next Wednesday.

Trying to recover from last season's humiliation, they've appointed Mano Menezes from Grêmio who got them out of Serie B in 2005 and to the Copa Libertadores final last year.

Still there is last year's best player goalkeeper Felipe who almost saved from relegation single-handedly. He didn't have a great deal of help from the rest of the team and there's been a big clearout. They have high hopes of new signing Douglas from São Caetano and the 18 year old Lulinha is starting to hit form. They also signed the second top scorer in last season's Serie A, the Uruguayan Acosta from Nautico but he's been a flop so far and the crowd's been getting on his back.

Anyway, if they're in contention by the time you get there, there'll be a fantastic atnmosphere. If not, you could witness some very interesting supporter protests.

And Sao Paulo start the season with a home loss to Gremio.

Jon, pleased to see that you have finally seen the light when it comes to a Latin choice of club. Of course, the fact that I also support Corinthians will no doubt justifiably fill you with dread.

What are the expectations for Fogo, Sid? They're my Brazilian side by virtue of a certain former great who once played on their right wing, and because I had a Brazilian friend a few years back who supported them. It was nice to see them start well last year but they fell away somewhat...

Ah yes, Garrincha. Can I recommend his biography by Ruy Castro? It's one of the best football books I've ever read.

Of course River Plate bear some responsibiity for Botafogo's demise last season. They never really recovered from that traumatic Sul Americana second leg defeat. This year they haven't invested as much as Flu or Fla which is a bit of a mystery to me because they've had the financial boost of being donated a new stadium from which they should be able to generate substantial non-match income. Maybe they're adopting a novel strategy for a Brazilian club - financial responsibility. Their new players aren't exactly household names though they have unearthed a goalscorer in Wellington Paulista to replace the departed André Lima and Dodõ. I reckon manager Cuca is smart enough to secure a top half finish but the Copa Brasil could be their best bet.

Apart from a remarkable 5-5 draw between Portuguesa and Figuirense, the league got off to an underwhelming start. São Paulo, Fluminense and Santos put out weakened teams with CL games coming up this week. Santos' first team were actually on a plane to Mexico City while their reserves were losing to Flamengo in an empty Maracanã (closed for a bottle throwing incident last season). As well as this, Internacional, Botafogo, Sport and Atlético MG all rested players for Copa Brasil games this week. I suppose this is understandable as it provides a great chance for mid-ranking teams to win a CL place as the current year's CL teams don't enter the Copa Brasil.

I watched a feed of newly promoted Coritiba beating a full strength Palmeiras so comfortably that I'm tempted to go back and sneakily edit my first post.

sidjames wrote:

QUOTE:
Ah yes, Garrincha. Can I recommend his biography by Ruy Castro? It's one of the best football books I've ever read.

You certainly can recommend it, but perhaps to someone else, because it's also one of the best football books I've ever read.

Do you know of any decent English-language sites to follow the Brasileirao on, Sid? Ofutebol, in my opinion, should be the model used for every site that covers a specific league (it influenced the ethos for my own site), in every respect except for the fact that it's not been updated in over two years. Which is a great loss because it was bloody magnificent.

Yeah, it's a pity about the Ofutebol site.

Another one I used to use regularly was Sambafoot but only parts of it seem to be regularly updated.

A newish blog I've been looking at recently is by an English guy living in São Paulo http://pitacodogringo.wordpress.com/

My main source of news either here or in Brazil remains the excellent sports section at O Globo which is great for highlights and helping me improve my Portuguese.

i have to say that I'm impressed with Sidjames knowledge of Brazilian football!

sambafoot is still good for info on players and coaches. but as SJ said, they don't seem to post many new articles nowadays.

i wrote a couple of Brasileiro previews for the Ofutebol site (maybe that's why they folded?! haha). actually, one of the guys from Ofutebol told me the site was time-consuming and they were losing money on it.

and thanks for mentioning my blog!

Bem vindo!

Hope you stick around and contribute to the threads on Brasilian football. We have some Forest supporters too!

Welcome pdg and thanks for an excellent blog.

Any contributions would also be very welcome on the Copa Libertadores thread. I guess you'll be at the Morumbi tonight!

I'll send you a PM - hopefully you can work out how to find it on the new revamped board.

Nice blog, pdg.

That’s good news about you supporting Corinthians, ursus – I wasn’t sure if they would be a popular choice among OTfers – aren’t they mysteriously funded by a Russian petro-billionaire? And weren’t they mixed up in the Tevez saga? Plus they’re the second most-supported club in Brazil. All reasons enough for them not to be high on OTfers list of favourite clubs.

Anyway, rest assured you’ll get a Corinthians keyring sent to you when I get back. What made you start to support them anyway?

That Garrincha book sounds good, my appetite has been whetted by the chapter on him in ‘Futebol’ the Alex Bellos book that I’m reading. In fact, that book (highly recommended by the way) has whetted my appetite for all things Brazilian football. I have just borrowed my friend’s 5 DVD ‘History of the World Cup’ box set.

Socrates. And Corinthians Democracy (which Bellos talks about). And the fact that I used to row, and therefore am favourably disposed to all the "regattes" clubs.

MSI, the Russians and all of the current crap is temporary. The spirit of the club is very, very different. And will rise again.

oi, Ursus
that's the plan. i'll take a look at the stuff on Forest as well

sidjames
thanks!
the Morumbi isn't that far from where i live but i'll be watching the game from home due to the recent arrival of a sprog. haha