A boring scoreless draw between Sao Paulo and Palmeiras

This match was a disappointment as it ended in a boring 0-0 draw.

Ney Franco opted for the Libertadores keeping on the bench Jadson and Osvaldo and lining up Wellington and Luis Fabiano, both unavailable in the next round of the major South American clubs tournament. On the other side, Gilson Kleina started in a 4-4-2 mode with Vinicius at right-wing and Márcio Araújo on the left and with Chilean Jorge Valdívia, which improved as the game went on, lined high up near to Kléber. He also utilized Juninho at left-back in the place of suspended Marcelo Oliveira.  The first part of the game was boring, with Sao Paulo in command of the operations but creating really not scoring chances. The tactical battle didn’t produce an open game. Sao Paulo were very slow moving the ball and had an unispired Paulo Henrique Ganso who showed his techical skills but provided no dangerous balls for his teammates up top. As Gilson Kleina pointed out, Palmeiras left him “receive the ball with his back to goal and move away from our area." It worked.

 

Franco’s side passing was controlled - they ended the first half with a higher pass completion rate – but didn’t resulted in goalscoring chances, with the exception of the one Luis Fabiano had in the first minutes. Playing with an 11-men defensive wall, with both Valdívia and Kléber behind the line of the ball, Palmeiras closed all the passing lines. With a slow ball circualtion and with no real attacking combinations put on the place, Gilson Kleina’s team had no troubles on controlling the game defensively.

 

At the start of the second half, things changed as Gilson Kleina inserted dynamic Patrick Vieira, taking off Charles. That change and a better offensive attitude gave Palmeiras the control of the game. On this situation, Valdívia’s play get better as Palmeiras’ attacking midfielder showed invention in possession and started to find gaps between the lines. Palmeiras’ play were more  exciting when Sao Paulo’s defender Lucio was sent off. That convinced Franco to bring back the team into a more defensive-minded formation. Sao Paulo’s manager replaced Ganso with Jadson and Luis Fabiano with Osvaldo in the way to provide more compactness.

Neither of these sides showed a great play as neither produced big scoring opportunities. Both attacked just one half, Sao Paulo the first and Palmeiras the second. Gilson Kleina’s squad was unable to exploit the numerical edge after Lucio’s ejection while Sao Paulo seemed to be much more worried about next Libertadores game than about this ‘Clasico’. Once again, Jadson and Ganso didn’t play toghether. At the end, it was a game completely lacking in emotion.