Sport - Portuguesa Preview

Once again, Sport has nothing to play for. Portuguesa has a slim chance of avoiding relegation -- if Portuguesa beats Sport today, beats Cruzeiro next week in Minas, and the three teams in front of Portuguesa all drop points, then Portuguesa will be in next year's Série A. Some of Sport's players are playing for their positions next year, and that's all we can hope for as far as motivation.

Nelsinho hasn't announced the starting lineup, although he will stick with the 3-5-2. Magrão, Cléber, Sidny, Dutra, Márcio Goiano, César, Durval, Elias, Sandro Goiano, Fábio Gomes, Júnior Maranhão, Moacir, Fumagalli, Kássio, Roger, Carlinhos Bala, Ciro, and Wilson have made the trip. Igor is suspended, so we will get our first look at Elias since January. He is 20 and looked decent when he played in the early stages of the Campeonato Pernambucano. Nelsinho tried Márcio Goiano as a midfielder in traning this week, but I hope Kássio gets to play. The game is meaningless, so it would be nice to see the younger players get a chance to play the entire game. Nonetheless, Ciro will almost certainly start on the bench, probably right next to Kássio.

This probably won't be a very good game, and it doesn't look like Globo will show it here. I'd like to criticize Globo, but the evil network has probably made the right decision regarding today's games -- of the ten games, almost all will probably be more interesting than this one.