Botafogo 2 Vasco 2

A return to the scene of the crime for Botafogo. The crime being the performance they put up against Vasco last time at the Maracana, which ended in a 4-0 defeat. Since then Botafogo have remained firmly in the relegation places despite a few false dawns and Vasco’s season has gone into decline despite early optimism. Vasco have opted to sign ex Boro and Rangers man, Emerson, in the hope he will have enough air miles and bolster their midfield. Fogo look desperately short of fire power and again have to rely on the hit or (mainly) miss approach of Schwenck up front. New wonder wing back, Renatinho was again in the team and would surly benefit from the space the Maracana offers.

I took up my position in the Fogo section only to be surrounded by a large group of American, Australian and British tourists just before kick off. They seemed more interested in taking photos of each other in front of the flag waving Fogo supporters than watch what was happening on the pitch. An overly cautious tour guide wandered amongst them reminding everyone to look after their cameras, bags, wallets and perhaps even their virginity while in this den of thieves. It wasn’t Flamengo we were watching!

The game started as the last game between the two ended, with Vasco on the attack. Indeed, in the first minute Petkovic fired in a cross shot from the left that seemed to deflect of someone in the box and appeared top be heading into the net. But Jefferson pulled off a great save, arching backwards and pushing the ball over the bar. You could almost sense the crowd saying, “Here we go again”. But that wasn’t the case. The resultant corner came to nothing and Fogo settled down to the cause. They quickly began to control midfield with Valdo having one of his better games of recent weeks. They launched a series of attacks down the flanks but the final ball wasn’t there. Petkovic did his best to fight back but was fighting a losing battle as the rest of the team did not give him any assistance. On 18 minutes Fogo were awarded a free kick some 20 yards out. It looked an ideal range for Valdo but Schwenck fancied his chances and purposely strode up and struck the ball. The kick had some power but appeared to be drifting out to the left when it reached Almir just outside the six yard box totally unmarked. Either it was brilliant reflexes or he merely tried to duck under the ball but either way the ball hit him on the head and flew across Tadic and into the net. Tadic had decided to commit himself to following the original trajectory of the ball and was left wrong footed. After that the half belonged to Fogo. Their confidence was obvious and even Scheidt ran forward and had an over ambitious strike sail way over the bar. The midfield combination of Valdo, Amir and the growingly impressive Elvis far outshone the efforts of Vasco with Emerson in particular having a stinker. For all their effort they did not produce much of an attacking force. Jefferson was kept busier of the two keepers and routinely kept Vasco at bay.

At half time I decided I had enough of talk of “soccer” and relentless photos with thumbs raised and I went around to join the Vasco faithful at the other end of the stadium. I had never been in with Vasco fans before and was curious to how they were reacting to their team’s efforts. The first thing I noticed looking back at the Fogo fans in the other end was that two of their banners were hung upside down. One might have been an accident but two was obviously some sort of protest possibly at their clubs current plight.

As for the Vasco fans, they were certainly animated, and their mood wasn’t helped by the action in the first minute of the second half. Emerson played a defence splitting ball but unfortunately it was his own defence he split as he sliced the ball across his own area into the path of Elvis. Elvis calmly stroked the ball past a stranded Tadic to make it 2-0. The Vasco fans were furious and rightly so. The team seemed to have no fight in them as Fogo again took control of midfield. But Fogo have been known to press the self destruct button on numerous occasions. On 8 minutes an innocuous shot from second half sub Muriqui looked to be sneaking past Jefferson but he got his hand to it and only managed to palm it into the path of the advancing Anderson. Whether Anderson knew much about it is debatable but the ball rebounded of him and into the net. Suddenly the Vasco hoards sensed blood. A lone flag waver stood at the front of the crowd waving his flag to exhaustion. Commendable but his flag only served to block the view of most of the pitch. The glimpses I could see showed a lot more urgency from Vasco and a sudden look of hanging on from Fogo. Emerson was removed from the scene soon after and Vasco took charge of proceedings. The game went from end to end with Almir and Schwenk both having chances for Fogo but it was Vasco who created more. Petkovic was suddenly the star man and was the one asking all the questions of the Fogo defence. On 38 minutes Vasco were awarded a free kick some 25 yards out. Fogo lined up expecting a shot or cross into the box. Instead Petkovic played a very clever free kick along the ground into the box for Henrique to turn on and fire into the net off the post. From then on Fogo were hanging on for the point as Vasco sensed victory. As it turned out there were no more goals but perhaps a draw was a fare result. The point keeps Vasco above rivals Flamengo albeit on goal difference and keeps Fogo within 2 points of the doomed looking Vitoria. Next weeks game for Fogo against Parana takes on extra meaning. Vitoria travel to Santos so a win for Fogo would lift them out of the relegation places. No where have we heard that before.