Not even Morumbi helps: São Paulo concede late, draw with Coritiba | OneFootball

Morumbi was São Paulo’s last thread of hope in the Brazilian Championship. And back at their stadium after being displaced by concerts, not even the huge celebration put on by the tricolor fans was enough to change things for Dorival Júnior’s team.

Keeping up the now traditional and sad script of putting together good first halves and taking the lead, only to throw it all away in the second half, São Paulo once again showed that ending the crisis will be no easy task: a frustrating 1-1 draw with Coritiba in the 23rd round of the Brazilian Championship. In the end, the team was met with intense boos after the final whistle.

The result means Tricolor has now reached the not-so-honorable mark of ten straight matches without a win in Brazil’s top football competition. It has been nearly four months without tasting victory, culminating in an inevitable collapse in the standings.

The atmosphere at Morumbi, where the club had not played since May 26, gave hope that things could be different. If the first-half performance was not outstanding, at least Dorival’s team kept some positive traits, such as possession and control of the game. Set up in a 4-2-2-2, with Victor Sá in the starting lineup, São Paulo looked solid defensively and efficient in build-up play.

The main problem, however, was the lack of quality in the finishing touch. On a pitch affected by recent replanting and in uneven condition, the final pass, whether along the ground or in the air, kept going astray, and Tricolor’s attacking power ended up suffering.

In the 42nd minute, however, it fell to one of the players currently most criticized by the fans to set things right. After a move by Victor Sá, the ball fell to Pablo Maia, who shook off his marker, leaving him flat on his butt, and fired a left-footed shot from outside the box to open the scoring.

Everything great, everything perfect? No, after all, we’re talking about São Paulo.

As has become habitual, the team came back sleepy after halftime and, in the 11th minute, was punished once again, with Tiago Cóser rising above the defense and taking advantage of Rafael’s poor coming out to head home the equalizer.

The need to show something weighed on the rest of the second half, and São Paulo resorted to all-out pressure, even creating some good chances, but failing miserably most of the time. There was also a penalty appeal late in the game for an alleged handball inside the box.

With yet another negative result, Tricolor remains stuck on 27 points (having earned only three in the last eight rounds), temporarily sitting in 12th place.

The team returns to Brasileirão action at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time) next Sunday (23), against Chapecoense, away from home. Before that, they face Bolívar in the Copa Sudamericana round-of-16 decider on Tuesday (18), once again at Morumbi.

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