São Paulo end drought, kick hoodoo and seal direct Sul-Americana last 16 | OneFootball

After two frustrating draws in a row, both conceded late in the matches, São Paulo needed to react and give some kind of response to the fans. And this Tuesday (26), the opportunity was perfect: the weak and limited Boston River. This time, Dorival Júnior’s team did not disappoint. Even playing in a sparsely filled Morumbi, a reflection of the discontent in the stands, Tricolor beat the already-eliminated Uruguayans 2-0 and sealed direct qualification for the Copa Sudamericana round of 16.

With six players out injured, Dorival surprised with his lineup and kept the much-criticized 4-2-4 setup, putting André Silva in Luciano’s place as a second striker drifting around the box. Against Boston River, the ultra-attacking option, without such a crowded midfield, was enough.

The end of the eight-match winless streak began to be written early. Just 4 minutes in, Wendell found André Silva down the left. He sent in a low cross for Artur to control, create space and fire across goal for a brilliant finish.

The early lead could have brought optimism to São Paulo fans, but the truth is that it was the same scenario seen in recent games. Tricolor have been finding the net early, but then get tangled in the opponent’s web and lose not only the ability to keep the ball in attack and hold the opponent back, but, more importantly, they waste chances to extend the lead and kill the match off once and for all, allowing the opponent to recover from the initial blow.

But this time we are talking about Boston River. As many problems as Dorival’s side may have, the fact is that the Uruguayans simply do not have the quality to trouble São Paulo, and they allowed our collective play to unfold, following the recent script of keeping possession without objectivity or efficiency.

Even so, in the 17th minute, the modest opponent of the night, who had already helped Tricolor in the previous round of the competition by pulling off an unlikely win over O’Higgins and leaving us top of Group C, lent another helping hand. After Artur’s low cross from the right toward Calleri, Acosta panicked and ended up scoring an own goal while trying to clear the ball.

The play still carries a bittersweet feeling, because it was the 11,000th goal in São Paulo’s glorious history (and it was an own goal). Congratulations to the Uruguayan center back, who is now forever recorded in the history of Brazil’s only three-time world champion.

The rest of the first half followed the usual pattern of a São Paulo side wasting the chances it created. Calleri headed a good cross wide. André Silva saw the goalkeeper save a good shot from the edge of the box.

The ghost of poor finishing leading to disappointment began haunting Morumbi again at the start of the second half, with the Uruguayan side sensing a complacent São Paulo and pushing forward to create good attacking opportunities, most of which they wasted because of their obvious lack of quality.

This time, however, before the upset could rear its head again, Dorival made changes, adding more pace with the introduction of Cotia youngsters Pedro Ferreira and Lucca, and reestablishing control of the game. But once again, the volume of play did not turn into goals. And they almost had a huge chance for that. In the 31st minute, the referee awarded a penalty after Calleri was pulled inside the box on a cross, but VAR intervened and overturned the decision after spotting the Argentine offside, as he continues his personal goal drought.

São Paulo finish the Sudamericana group stage unbeaten, with 12 points. Their knockout-stage opponent begins to be determined on Friday (29), with the draw at Conmebol, but the matchup will only be finalized after the playoff between the group runners-up and the teams dropping down from the Libertadores.

Even so, there is still time before the tie. It will only take place on August 12 and 19, after the World Cup.

Tricolor return to the field at 8:30 p.m. Brasília time on Sunday (31), when they face Remo away from home in the Brazilian Championship. It will be the team’s last match before the nearly two-month break in the calendar for the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada.

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