Analysis: São Paulo held to a fair draw at Vila, end tough run on a high | OneFootball

São Paulo drew 1-1 with Santos last Wednesday at Vila Belmiro, in the second round of the Brazilian Championship. As stated by coach Hernán Crespo, Tricolor was superior—even if only slightly—to their rival and could have even left the field with a better result, but brought a fair draw back to the capital. The fact is that the team emerged strong from a tough sequence of games and finished the series with a positive balance.

São Paulo went through four extremely difficult matches, three of which were state derbies and one national, and showed noticeable improvement. Crespo assessed that, despite the defeat, Tricolor took positive points from the loss to Palmeiras. From there, came huge victories against Flamengo and Santos. Now, an away draw against a Peixe that is very strong at Vila was a good end to the tough run. The win could have come from the team’s performance in the derby, but a draw, especially at Vila, is not something to throw away.

São Paulo in the match

Coach Hernán Crespo bet on a lineup very similar to the one that had beaten the same Santos 2-0 at Morumbis last Saturday. The only changes were the inclusion of Pablo Maia in midfield and Calleri in attack, forming a duo with Tapia. Luciano, due to load management, started on the bench. Tricolor started with less possession, trying to exploit Santos’ high defensive line with direct balls and taking advantage of the rival’s own passing errors.

The derby started off very intense, with many fouls and a game that was very locked up and contested in midfield. The first 20 minutes saw little actual play. As a result, both teams showed very little, with São Paulo somewhat more ‘stuck’ in the defensive sector, without many passing exchanges. The absence of Marcos Antônio, responsible for circulating the ball and opening up plays, was clearly felt. São Paulo lacked closeness and connection.

After the 30-minute mark, São Paulo started to get more ‘cheeky’ in the derby, improving especially in triangulations and close passing plays. That’s exactly how Tricolor’s best chances in the first half came about. In one of them, Calleri headed the ball to Bobadilla, who shot first time for a save by Brazão. Then, Tapia received on the left after a one-two, entered the box, and shot across goal, but missed wide.

At the end of the first half, Tricolor began to step more into the attacking half, again taking advantage of Santos’ high line. Defensively, São Paulo didn’t suffer much, since Santos offered very little danger. Even so, some defenders made a few silly mistakes when clearing the ball, needing to improve their focus in this aspect.

São Paulo had been slightly superior to their rival and seemed set to take a draw into halftime. However, in stoppage time, after both an individual and collective mistake, Tricolor fell behind on the scoreboard. The São Paulo marking didn’t believe in the shot and let Adonis Frías try from distance. Rafael also seemed not to expect the shot and gave up a rebound. The ball fell to Zé Rafael’s feet, the defense didn’t close him down, and the midfielder opened the scoring. In the end, the more efficient team won the first half.

Second half

São Paulo returned for the second half with no changes, which proved to be a mistake by Crespo within just a few minutes. Tricolor tried to keep more possession but showed little intensity in duels and missed the ability to open up plays and have more composure on the ball, especially when building from the back. Marcos Antônio, who came on at the 15-minute mark for Pablo Maia, could have been brought on at halftime.

In addition to Marcos Antônio, Crespo also brought on Lucas and Luciano, taking off Alan Franco and Tapia. With that, the team switched back to a back four, in a 4-4-2 diamond, with Luciano and Calleri as the references and Lucas to supply the strikers. The changes had an almost immediate effect and, not by chance, the equalizer came from Lucas, who crossed for Calleri to head home, leveling the derby.

Near the final stretch, the derby became more exciting. São Paulo, already with less energy, seemed satisfied with the draw, while Santos pushed forward. Because of this, Crespo saw the need to reinforce midfield marking and brought on Luan for Bobadilla, who left the field exhausted. This way, the coach regained control of the sector and held onto the result.

The fact is that Crespo may have made a mistake with the initial lineup, but he corrected the problems in the second half with his substitutions and secured a fair draw against Santos at Vila Belmiro. The coach kept the core of the team for the third consecutive match and fatigue was evident, but Tricolor returns from Baixada Santista with an important point. The tendency is that he may rest his main players in this weekend’s match against Primavera.

Given this scenario, São Paulo achieved an important result in the second derby against Santos and showed that, in fact, the 45 points mentioned by Crespo may be modest for the team in the Brasileirão. The coach himself backtracked on his statement and hinted that, if the team is less inconsistent, having emerged strong from a tough run of games, they could fight for bigger goals in this edition of Série A if they are less inconsistent.

Standings situation

With the result, São Paulo reached their third unbeaten game, with two wins and a draw in this stretch. Tricolor remains unbeaten in the Brazilian Championship and sits in fifth place, with four points from two matches.

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.