Search: ' Gremio'

Tranmere's Gavin Ward's celebrated 80-yard goal against Orient leaves just another 63 to go to match the current king of goalscoring keepers, as Robert Shaw reports from Brazil

Liverpool fans may recall the São Paulo goalkeeper’s heroics in Tokyo last December, but the truly distinctive aspect of Rogerio Ceni is the havoc he wreaks at the other end. When Ceni’s delicately clipped free-kick and penalty salvaged a 2-2 draw for São Paulo against Cruzeiro on August 20, he set a world-record scoring tally for a keeper of 64 goals, two ahead of the Paraguayan José Luis Chilavert.

Read more…

Celtic’s 'Brazil international defender' lived up to his name, but not his reputation. Dan Brennan explains how the club blew around £9 million for ten appearances

In February, the Maracana was the scene of a humiliating defeat for fallen Brazilian giants Botafogo as they were felled by regional nobodies Americano in the semi-finals of the Rio de Janeiro state championship. Failing to marshal their back-line was a man who, if you’re a Celtic fan, would have prompted flickers of recognition and perhaps an involuntary shudder. Rafael, as they call him nowadays, is a bit older and sports a jazzy new blond hairstyle. But beneath the coiffure, he is still, by all accounts, Scheidt.

Read more…

Phil Town explains why Bolton should be wary of the arrival of a talented Brazilian

Bolton fans will be hoping that new signing Mário Jardel can repeat the goalscoring feats that made him a star in the Port­uguese league but with­out the attendant problems off the pitch.

Read more…

The Brazilian league is structured so it's nearly impossible for the big clubs to lose dominance, but Brian Homewood notes that Fluminense have remarkably been relegated

If you want to meet somebody worse off than yourself, get on the next flight to Rio and go and talk to any Fluminense supporter. Fluminense fans have just gone through the agony of seeing their team accomplish the unprecedented feat of getting relegated from the first division of the Brazilian championship for the second year running.

Read more…

Brian Homewood explains why the Brazilian authorities continue to be world leaders when it comes to bizarre decision making

During the FIFA International Board’s jaunt down to Rio de Janeiro for their annual meeting (it had originally been scheduled for Belfast but was moved to Rio “as a tribute to Dr João Havelange”), general secretary Sepp Blatter launched into a spiel in which he described his determination to stamp out violence on the field. He could not have chosen a more inappropriate venue for his speech.

Read more…