New MirrorFootball blog

Good afternoon all. Just a quick post to point you towards my blog on MirrorFootball for this weekend.

In this week’s article, I take a look at the many Brazilian clubs who have not been able to play at there home stadiums this season.

You can find the blog here.

Game of the Week: Internacional 1×1 Corinthians

Internacional and Corinthians have both yet to feature on Game of the Week, but these are two huge teams with equally huge followings, and matches between them have always delivered grand spectacles. Internacional – from the southern city of Porto Alegre – and Corinthians – one of the city of São Paulo’s three giants – have met in a few momentous games in Brazilian football history, most famously the Campeonato Brasileiro final of 1976, when the great Paulo Roberto Falcão’s Inter disposed of Corinthians and clinched their second national championship.

Game of the Week: Atlético Goianiense 3×0 São Paulo

So far in this Game of the Week feature, I have only really focussed on big clubs. This week, for a change, I decided to look away from the giants of Rio and São Paulo, and towards one of the league’s most intriguing underdogs.

Atlético Goianiense’s presence in Brazil’s top flight is rather bewildering when you consider that they were disputing the Série C in 2008 – Brazil’s third tier. However it is all the more mind-blowing when you consider that only six years ago in 2005, Atlético weren’t even playing in a national league, instead they were contesting the second division in Goiânia’s state championships.

Inactivity? Never!

You may have been wondering why the site hasn’t been updated over the past few days, and do not worry, I haven’t given up on it!

On Friday I was composing my fortnightly column for the Mirror Football website (which you should totally check out by the way…), and over the weekend I was helping a friend by writing some betting previews for this weekend’s Brasileirão matches.

So, Game of the Week should be back tomorrow, and on Friday/over the weekend there should be something else going up, whether that be another Twenty to Watch player profile or something different entirely.

Which reminds me, if anyone is still interested in getting involved and submitting one of these profiles, you are most welcome to do so and you should check out this post here.

Abraços!

Game of the Week: Flamengo 3×2 Fluminense

Game of the Week returns today with ANOTHER five-goal thriller in the Campeonato Brasileiro 2011. We were really spoiled for choice this week in South America, in Brazil alone we had a bizarre 3×3 between Cruzeiro and Santos, Botafogo and Bahia drew 2×2, and leaders Vasco were humbled 3×0 away to Internacional. In Argentina, the clásico de Avellaneda finished 1×1 between Racing and Independiente, and we had some fascinating World Cup qualifiers to keep us busy on Friday. This week however, our attention turns to another riveting edition of the Flamengo x Fluminense derby in Rio de Janeiro.

Twenty To Watch: Elkeson

Kicking off the new Twenty To Watch feature here on I like football me, where we will be profiling twenty players from the Brasileirão, I’d like to welcome my first guest contributer, Stefan Kelly. Stefan has developed a passionate interest in the Brasileirão, and today he will be talking about one of his favourite players, Botafogo’s Elkeson.

Twenty To Watch: Get involved!

With the relative success of my new Game of the Week feature, I’ll be introducing something new here on I Like Football Me, it’s called Twenty To Watch and there’s a great opportunity for you to get involved.

The idea is straightforward, and I’ve been asked to do this plenty times. Between now and the end of the Brasileirão season, I’ll be posting up 20 player profiles of 20 different players, one from each of the 20 different teams in the 2011 Brasileirão.

World Cup 2014: The Road to Rio begins

With just over 1,000 days until the Final in the Maracanã, CONMEBOL’s nine nations (excluding Brazil) begin their march towards the World Cup with the first round of qualifying matches taking place this week. With every side in action on Friday and again on Tuesday (even Brazil have friendly matches on those days) we have plenty of thrilling football to look forward to. Let’s take a look at Friday’s four qualifiers, and cast a quick glance over the 2014 hosts and their friendly in Costa Rica.

Game of the Week: Fluminense 3×2 Santos

The Campeonato Brasileiro is renowned for being one of the most competitive leagues in world football. With Brazil’s recent economic boom allowing their top sides to pay astronomical wages for players, the league’s quality has never been better. When you combine this quality with the naturally competitive style of the league, you get one of the most exciting editions of the Brasileirão in a long time.

The league table has seen countless permutations since the start of the season, and even now in October with ten rounds left to play, we still have no idea who will end the season as champions. With an abundance of attacking talent up and down the league, we have seen some really thrilling matches, and it has got to the stage that this week’s five-goal thriller between Fluminense and Santos is almost a regular occurence.