Dorival has his work cut out: São Paulo lose to Remo late before Copa | OneFootball

We have good news for our friends: the first half of the year is over, full focus now on the World Cup, and São Paulo won’t be back on the field for almost two months.

There, I got you excited, right? That’s the only way, really, because judging by what was shown on the pitch, once again Tricolor gave fans very little reason to get fired up.

On Sunday night (31), in the 18th round of the Brazilian Championship, the last before the World Cup, the Morumbi club once again had a fairly encouraging first half (within reason, of course) and a dreadful second half. Better for Remo, who are fighting to avoid relegation and got a stoppage-time goal to seal a 1-0 win at Mangueirão.

The result also meant Tricolor saw another taboo fall: it was their first-ever defeat to the club from Pará, now after nine matches played in history.

In the first 45 minutes, if we didn’t get a display of technical brilliance, we at least got attacking intent from both teams. In an open game, where São Paulo managed to be better than their opponent, Artur missed two excellent chances, both one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The home side also threatened. In one of their chances, Patrick (yes, that same one from the Ceni days) hit Rafael’s left post.

But we’re talking here about Dorival Júnior’s Tricolor. And if one hallmark of this third spell was broken — that of scoring goals in the opening minutes of games — another was not going to end so easily…

Once again, São Paulo’s second half was well below average, with a sharp drop in performance, unable to move forward or create plays, and spending most of the time watching Remo attack. A pattern, let’s be honest.

On the other side was Remo. Yago Pikachu shot straight at Rafael when he was through one-on-one, returning the favor to Artur. That lasted until stoppage time, when Dorival’s São Paulo script in this return was followed to the letter, with Marcelinho pouncing on a loose ball badly cleared by the Tricolor defense and scoring the saving goal for the home side.

Now without a win in five games in the national competition, São Paulo remain stuck on 25 points and, for the first time, are outside the Libertadores qualification zone, in eighth place.

Well, may Dorival put the house in order while we watch the World Cup. The coach will have time to work. Tricolor only return to action on July 22, against Athletico-PR. The venue for the match has not yet been announced, since Morumbi will be in use for a concert.

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