Brazil Cup: São Paulo vs Palmeiras! With 10 injured players, why am I still hopeful for São Paulo?

Let's start today's discussion with the Brazil Cup match: São Paulo vs Palmeiras!

Judging from the official injury updates, São Paulo's condition today is very serious,with 23 first-team players and 10 of them injured today.

On the other hand, Palmeiras seems to be in a much better state,with only 5 players sidelined.

However, in reality, Palmeiras has suffered greater losses,compared to their last meeting on June 12th.

The injury list released by São Paulo looks scary at first glance: 10 players injured.

But on closer inspection, 7 of them are long-term absentees:

only 3 have played frequently this season, among whom Araujo is only a semi-regular starter.

Although Palmeiras only has 5 players missing,3 of them are absolute key players.

This means that among the starting lineup that beat São Paulo in June, 3 players are unavailable today.

In comparison, Palmeiras actually faces greater losses.

Moreover, even more importantly—Palmeiras’ head coach Ferreira is suspended.

His suspension reason is quite bizarre—he grabbed a reporter’s phone, and after being persuaded by a Brazilian Football Confederation official to return it, he kept pointing fingers and insulting others.

Actually, it’s understandable; he has been in a bad mood lately.

Why is he upset?

Because Palmeiras has repeatedly suffered unfair treatment from referees, for example, they were disadvantaged in all the last three Brasileirão matches, and hot-tempered Ferreira naturally couldn’t hold back.

Not only him, the assistant coach Martins who took charge last game also lost his temper, accusing the Brazilian Football Confederation of manipulating matches and deliberately suppressing Palmeiras.

When these words came out, Palmeiras fans were furious and stormed the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation.

The officials at the Brazilian Football Confederation could not tolerate this and immediately issued an official statement refuting Martins’ claims, stating they would sue Martins at the STJD.

Palmeiras’ official side also couldn’t hold back and released a statement continuing to question the federation, listing many examples of incorrect refereeing decisions, including last year’s Brazil Cup controversial call that helped São Paulo eliminate Palmeiras.

These issues might affect the team’s morale.

At least, it’s certain that Ferreira will not be able to coach the team tonight.

Facing a team coached by Junior, but without their own head coach? That’s definitely not a good situation.

Junior has been the most prominent Brazilian coach in recent years.

His defensive counterattack tactics are especially effective in cup competitions; last year he led Flamengo to win both the Libertadores and the Brazil Cup.

Trying to break through his defense with positional play or set pieces is very difficult.

In their last encounter, Palmeiras scored two goals: one was a world-class strike, the other came from a mistake in São Paulo’s backline.

The world-class goal is untouchable—no one can do anything about that.

But the backline error probably won’t happen again because Junior has been coaching for over two months now and has gradually trained the defense; the last few matches have seen no mistakes.

Junior’s reputation is not empty talk but built on years of impressive achievements.

His halftime tactical changes are also remarkable; for example, São Paulo hasn’t led at halftime in their last 5 games but managed to win 3 of them by strong second-half performances, credit to Junior’s coaching.

São Paulo, led by a renowned coach, facing Palmeiras without their suspended head coach, the coaching gap might compensate for much of the difference in team strength.

Overall, compared to the last meeting, Palmeiras is missing three key players and their head coach is absent.

Can Junior, this cup expert, satisfy the fans? What do you all think? I’m looking forward to their calm and confident performance!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still provide text analysis for you at dusk. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch the matches and understand them well,” see you then!

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