Botafogo claims the crown in the successful 1st edition of the Copa Brazil de Clubes de Beach Soccer, held in Manaus
Botafogo were crowned as champions in the Copa Brasil de Clubes de Beach Soccer in front of the 32.000 supporters packing the standos of the Arena do Centro Cultural dos Povos da Amazônia, in the Brazilian city of Manaus. The Fogão bended current Mundialito de Clubes champions, Vasco da Gama, thanks to a solid 8-3 win to claim this first edition of this national championship featuring eight of the top-class clubs in the country. Apart from the these two Rio de Janeiro giants, other clubs such as neighbours Flamengo, Corinthians, Vitoria, Santa Cruz, Sampaio Correia or hosts Manaus took part in the competition, which proved to be a new instance of the passion the Brazilians feel for the sport they saw being born at their beaches.
The competition was passionately followed by local fans, and last Friday’s Flamengo-Vasco da Gama broke all records bringing into the stadium up to 31.954 people. This massive attendance was paralleled also during the matches on Saturday and Sunday, when the semifinals and finals were played. Needless to say, the atmosphere raised at the Manaus Colisseum was unbelievable, that of the big Beach Soccer occasions.
Botafogo were better than their city rivals from the very beginning of the match. Yet in the frist period, Sidney, Juninho and Bruno Malias’ double left the score 4-0 up for the ‘Lonely Star’ Squad. Juninho repeated as well to increase the distance even further, and when Vasco’s reaction came, with the hits by Gil, Osmar and Jorginho making the score 5-3, it was just a bit too late. Thanks to Leandro’s miracle saves and new lashes by Betinho (playing on the ‘O Glorioso side this time), Juninho and Rafinha, Botafogo brilliantly secured the cup. Leandro Fanta being awarded as the Best Goalkeeper, and Juninho ast the Best Player of the tournament completed the Alvinegro booty, with André (this time playing for Corinthians) claiming the Top-Scorer trophy, just as he did in the Mundialito de Clubes with Flamengo.
In the fight for the 3rd place, Corinthians knocked Flamengo out to get the bronze, getting this way a bit even with the bad taste of their bitter performance in the last Mundialito de Clubes.
These were the competition results:
1st matchday – Wednesday, May 18th
CORINTHIANS 4 x 2 VITÓRIA
BOTAFOGO 4 (0) (1p) x (0p) (0) 4 SAMPAIO CORRÊA
VASCO DA GAMA 6 x 3 MANAUS
FLAMENGO 5 x 3 SANTA CRUZ
2nd matchday – Thursday, May 19th
BOTAFOGO 4 x 2 VITÓRIA
CORINTHIANS 2 x 3 SAMPAIO CORRÊA
FLAMENGO 3 (1) x (0) 3 MANAUS
VASCO DA GAMA 4 x 3 SANTA CRUZ
3rd matchday – Friday, May 20th
VITÓRIA 3 x 1 SAMPAIO CORRÊA
CORINTHIANS 3 x 5 BOTAFOGO
FLAMENGO 3 x 4 VASCO DA GAMA
SANTA CRUZ 4 x 6 MANAUS
Semifinals – Friday, May 21st
BOTAFOGO 4 (2) (3p) x (2p) (2) 4 FLAMENGO
VASCO DA GAMA 5 x 3 CORINTHIANS
3rd/4th place final – Saturday, May 22nd
FLAMENGO 2 x 5 CORINTHIANS
Final – Saturday, May 22nd
BOTAFOGO 8 x 3 VASCO DA GAMA
