Trouble on Saturday

Carlinhos Bala is suspended. Ciro is hurt (at least that's the excuse the team has given). That means that Roger and Enílton will start against Ipatinga on Saturday. And it seems like a good reason to discuss the two, as promised.

Roger was, at one time, one of the hotter properties in Brazilian soccer. He began his career with Ponte Preta, where he looked like a born goal-scorer. São Paulo bought his contract, and he has since been loaned to Palmeiras, back to Ponte Preta, and now to Sport. He has never had the same success he had his first time at Ponte Preta. He is a decent finisher as long as all he has to do is put a foot or forehead on the ball. He cannot dribble, he cannot pass, he cannot create opportunities for himself, he cannot get open to receive the ball except on counter-attacks. He also cannot trap the ball, something you would expect to be the end of a center forward's career. Not so with Roger, who receives balls to his feet by knocking them two or three meters away from him and then chasing. Unfortunately, he has been Sport's best forward this year and is the team's leading scorer. He is only 23, but if he hasn't learned basic ball skills yet then he probably never will.

Enílton is 31, so he can't use youth as an excuse. He has had a long and not particularly successful career. According to wikipedia the only season he has ever scored more than one goal every two games was in 2005, when he scored seventeen goals in twenty-five games for Juventude. In 1998 he won the Swiss championship and Swiss Cup with Sion and in this year he won the Campeonato Pernambucano and the Copa do Brasil with Sport, his only titles so far. He is a frustrating player. He is quick, and dribbles well but fruitlessly. He also makes odd mistakes at bad moments. If I had ten cents for every time I've seen him dribble past two or more defenders, only to shoot weakly at the keeper or fall down on his own when a goal looked certain then I'd have one real or so. He has scored eight goals for Sport this year, including the goal that won the Copa do Brasil (according to Carlinhos Bala), but he is one of the main reasons why Sport's attack has been so anemic this year.

This pair promises little for Saturday's game against all-but-relegated Ipatinga except to make the more interesting than it should be. The game should be a likely, if not easy, win for Sport, but Roger and Enílton will make it close. The only good news is that there are only four games left after Saturday, and then neither of these players will ever play for Sport again.