Ilha do Retiro super crowded and boiling for the final of the Copa do Nordeste between Sport Club do Recife x Ceará Sporting Club.
There in Castelão, in the first match, coach Eduardo Barroca’s team won 2-1, but missed a great chance to score, wasting many chances to score. It gave Enderson Moreira’s team the opportunity to score their goal in the last shot of the game, leaving the second game wide open.
The fans cheering a lot and making the Island tremble with many flags, war cries, just like the Ceará fans did in the first game.
Sport is doing very well this first half: it has already been champion of Pernambuco, is the only team from Série B in the Copa do Brasil (it will face São Paulo) and is disputing this important final. Ceará, on the other hand, lost the State to its rival Fortaleza, was eliminated from the Copa do Brasil and is in the final of the Copa do Nordeste.
The Recife team started with full intensity, applying pressure, and after 7 minutes, in a mistake by goalkeeper Richard, he sent a ball into the crossbar, already showing that his intention was to continue attacking. While Ceará was trying to slow down the game, wanting to impose a cadence but suffering from the dynamics of the match.
I want to highlight how Vágner Love is doing, marking the ball out, participating in all the attacking moves and always ready to leave at speed, giving himself up and playing a lot at the age of 38.
Until the 17th minute, Vozão was unable to enter the match at any time. Only Leão da Ilha, who playing at home imposes itself with a lot of aggressiveness.
Ceará even tried to play the ball, but lost quickly, finding it very difficult to pass the midfield. Until the 22nd minute, he hadn’t kicked a ball into Sport’s goal.
And it didn’t take long for all that pressure to make the ball go to the nets, with a shot by Luciano Juba. He took a rebound from the penalty spot and, at first, made it 1-0. Totally deserved, because there was no game: Sport was in complete control, which was much closer to scoring the second goal than taking the tie.
Ceará had no choice and left for the game, getting a corner in a dangerous move inside the area. But this play by Ceará was an isolated fact in the first half, because soon afterwards Sport went for it and created more chances to increase the result.
End of the first half with Sport commanding the game and not finding any resistance, that is, he lay down and rolled.
The second half started and nothing changed, because after just 2 minutes, Sport already had the first clear chance to score, with Luciano Juba, and goalkeeper Richard’s defense.
And the pressure continued to be strong, so much so that there were three chances of goals until the 7th minute for the Ilha team, with Ceará behaving very timidly in a decisive match. Even creating a good chance in a cross by Jean Carlos, it was not enough.
Soon after, Sport dominated again and, in a few minutes, created two dangerous moves, with goalkeeper Richard making a great save in a cross kick by Edinho.
For each attack from Ceará, the answer followed, with two or three attacks from Pernambuco, but they were wasted. Time was passing and more and more the period of panic arrived. This period is the one in which the team that concedes the goal will dismount, because there will be little time left to react.
The game was strange because, in some moments, it was slow. And, suddenly, one team would apply pressure, soon after the other would do the same, and time would pass.
Enderson Moreira made two changes, removing the winger Cariús and adding Felipinho, and he also removed winger Edinho and added another one, Wanderson.
And at the same time came the clearest move of the second half between the two, with Felipinho kicking the crossbar and, on the rebound, Wanderson kicked it on the crossbar. Sport lost chances after chances.
The 30 minutes of the second half arrived and the game entered that period of panic that I wrote about earlier.
The last 15 minutes of the game are a moment of doubt. Is it worth taking the risk or waiting for a risk-free opportunity? Interested in going to penalties?
Anyway, in a final all this goes through everyone’s mind, especially the coaches.
The truth is that nobody wants to take the goal and attack. Just cool! Taps there and taps here, and the fear of losing prevails over the courage to win.
The referee gave 6 minutes of additions and here comes that butterflies in the stomach of the players on the field. But Sport still found a counterattack, only that striker Gabriel Santos finished badly.
End of game and the decision went to penalties. But Sport wasted several chances to score the second and take the title. Now everything is the same and what will decide, in addition to the penalty shootouts, is the emotional side. Whoever is more confident, even tired, will take the title. Goalkeepers are the main protagonists, because they are the only players who do not suffer from the psychological side of this type of decision.
Goalkeeper Richard made the big difference in the penalty kicks, making two saves, but the most important was with the ball rolling, in a lateral free kick by the player Edinho. With several players in front of him, he defended with a switch. That defense during the game 90% of the goalkeepers would take the goal.
Congratulations to Ceará, three-time champion of the Northeast Cup
2023-05-04 02:38:00
#Walter #Casagrande #Goalkeeper #Richard #fantastic #Cearás #title #Copa #Nordeste
