Botafogo 0 Flamengo 0

Oh dear, oh dear. This could have been the turning point of Fogo’s season. Their last few home games have produced great performances against high placed opposition. This was a home game, albeit played at the Maracana, against the lowest placed team in the league apart from Fogo, themselves. The mighty Ruy was back from injury. Estevez was to make his Maracana debut and would surely benefit from the wide-open spaces. Luizao, their top goalscorer, was out injured but he was replaced by the young Glaucio, who was getting his chance after coming on as sub and scoring the winner against Sao Paulo the previous week at Caio Martins. And, best of all, the hapless Schwenk was on the bench, which is still too close to the pitch for my liking.

 Flamengo had really struggled this season and are as bad as their position puts them. They had somehow managed to gain a few points since their terrible performance against Santo Andre in the cup final. They now had Felipe back in their ranks from his Copa America bench warming duties and have the imminent arrival of goalscorer Dimba to help their fight against relegation.

 This was a six pointer if ever there was one.

 The first noticeable thing at the stadium is despite Mengo’s precarious position and the prospect of a derby against a team they really needed to beat, the Mengo ‘faithful’ decided to stay home. Maybe there was an important storyline in their favourite novella or perhaps they had a hard day on the beach selling beads. Whatever the reason, not many had turned up. Fogo had their usual few thousand Maracana support and all in good voice.

 The match kicked off as we arrived and Mengo immediately took the game to Fogo. This was no surprise as Fogo had been slow starters in the last few games. Felipe looked as though he could be a big influence as they push Fogo onto the back foot. Jefferson made a few good saves in the Fogo goal but really nothing to get excited about. As the half wore on it became obvious that neither side had a real potential to score. Cruelly, Glaucio was injured early in the first half and on came Schwenk, the man who never be a top striker as long as he has a hole in, well….any part of his body. It was Fogo’s fault for putting him on the bench. There was always a chance he might get on! Estevez was very quite but he never really got any service. Ruy, defensively, looked shaky and somehow didn’t find his normal room on the right hand side. Perhaps with Estevez in front it gives Ruy less room to go forward.

The referee was way too fussy and everytime Botafogo produced a tackle he blew his Flamengo supporters official whistle. Other times, without need, he flashed his yellow Flamengo supporter’s club membership card just to prove his membership was still valid. The half progressed without any thing of note happening other than a small group of the flip-flop wearing Mengo hoards managing to find a secret passage from their favela and into the Fogo end. As they entered the stadium directly below the Fogo fans they unfurled some banners and stopped to taunt the opposition fans. The police raced around the pitch and pulled the banners down and escorted the group around to their own section without any real fuss or problems. While watching this there was nothing happening on the pitch to distract me.

 In the second half Fogo, at least, looked as though they had an interest in taking something from the game. Mengo came closest without really threatening but as Felipe’s influence waned, so Estevez’s grew. He still didn’t look the player he has been in recent weeks but still managed to get some decent crosses into the area. Sadly only Schwenk was waiting for them. Almir and Valdo both had very disappointing games compared to their own high standards set recently. The referee had obviously been warned that the crowd could see the Mengo top under his ref’s shirt and so decided to book some of the Mengo players for the same imaginary reasons he had booked the Fogo players earlier. The game ended long before the final whistle and the 0-0 result was never really in doubt. Jefferson was the Fogo man of the match but only for doing what was expected from him. Estevez looks like the man who could save their season but he went MIA for long periods in the game and then stupidly got him self booked for arguing with the linesman over an offside decision. He now misses the next game along with Tulio. Perhaps it’s this indiscipline that makes a player of his obvious talent available to go on loan from Boca Juniors. Given that a defeat would have been a disaster for both teams then 0-0 isn’t as bad as it could have been. A win would have lifted them out of the relegation zone for the first time this season. They have another opportunity this weekend as Fogo play their next ‘6 pointer’ at Guarani on Sunday but without several key players. Perhaps the arrival of Elvis will save them from Heartbreak Hotel.