One weekend, three games, Worldwide. All the information.
We have arrived at the special time of the football season. Most leagues are preparing for their final acts, when champions are crowned and clubs face relegation. In other places, the leagues are kicking off and the season is only just beginning.
This weekend we will taste a bit of both. We will check out the early stages of the Uzbek league, a decisive survival series in Chile and a Paulista encounter in Brazil. We really don’t need to say anything else. Enjoy!
(All times are in CET local time)
Friday, 16:30, Nasaf Qarshi - Lokomotiv Tashkent (Uzbekistan PFL)
Spring is here, which means it’s the start of the Central Asian leagues. Matchday no. 7 in Uzbekistan is here, and two surprising teams lead the table – Nasaf Qarshi and Lokomotiv Tashkent.
Nasaf Qarshi has long been among the top places of the Uzbek league, but they have never won the title. In the past ten seasons, the club has finished once as runner-up and six times in third place. In 2011, they made history and became the first Uzbek team to win a continental title, defeating Al-Kuwait 2:1 in the AFC Cup final. They are the current league leaders, with 15 points. The manager, Ruziqul Berdiev, is a former Nasaf Qarshi player, who played for the club for 11 seasons. Their main players are Artur Gevorkyan, last season's league top scorer who has already scored four goals in four games this season, Ilkhom Shomurodov, one of the club's 2011 AFC Cup title heroes, and Rok Roj, a Slovenian player who used to in the Netherlands and Azerbaijan. Lokomotiv Tashkent have been the league’s runner-up for two years in a row. This season, the club is aiming for a sensational first championship. Last year they won the first trophy in the club's history, defeating Bunyodkor 1:0 in the Uzbek Cup final. This season, they are ranked in 2nd place, with one point less than Nasaf Qarshi, but they are still undefeated. Their notable figures are Timur Kapadze, the most capped player in the history of the national team with 119 caps, and Ignatiy Nesterov, the national team goalkeeper who has won ten domestic championships in his career. Other key players in the squad are Ruslan Koryan, a Russian-Armenian player who has spent most of his career in the Russian lower divisions, and the Bosnian Nemanja Janičić, who is outside the Balkans for the first time in his career.
Both teams have started the season with great results, which will keep up its title aspirations?
Sunday, 20:30, Ñublense – Cobreloa (Chilean Primera División)
The last matchday of the season is always exciting. The final matchday in Chile is going to make two teams sad. As things currently stand, five teams can still be relegated, and only two of them will end up in the second division next season. Ñublense and Cobreloa are in the trickiest situation as both of them are currently ranked in the 17th and the 16th places, the relegation spots, which means that the losing team will go down, regardless of the results in the other games. Just to clarify: relegation in is Chile based on the points per game ranking of the past two seasons.
Ñublense is a historic club in Chilean football, but in the last few seasons they have struggled for stability. The last time Ñublense played in the second division was in 2012 and it looks like they might soon be returning there. Two bad campaigns, last season's Clausura (17 points from 17 matches) and this season's Clausura (16 points from of 16 matches), have caused the team to be battling against relegation. The leading players are Sebastián Varas, the team's top scorer with 13 goals, Benjamín Ruiz, who has been playing for the team since 2010, and Jonathan Cisternas, another veteran who has won three championships during his career with the opponents, Cobreloa.
While Ñublense knows the feeling of playing in the second division, the home club of Alexis Sánchez, Cobreloa, is facing the unknown. Since the club’s formation in 1977, Cobreloa has always played in the Primera División and has never been relegated, so it means that relegation would be an historical occasion for the club. Their poor performances in this season's Apertura, achieving only 11 points, take Cobreloa into the final matchday with the sword over their throat. The manager, Marco Antonio Figueroa, knows the club well as he won the Chilean title as a player with the club in 1992. Watch out for Cristián Gaitán, who played for Estudiantes for six years, Miguel Sanhueza, a strong defender who is in his eighth season for the club, and several talented Chilean youngsters, such as the 19 year olds, Fernando Cornejo and Iván Ledezma.
No one wants to finish the season with the disastrous feeling of relegation, and both teams will try to avoid it, but someone will be crying on Sunday.
*Two other matches will be played at the same time and will be part of the survival race: O'Higgins will host Antofagasta and Audax Italiano will travel to San Marcos.
** IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to administrative and bureaucratic errors, the Chilean FA deducted 3 points from Cobreloa before the match, whicht sealed their relegation to the second division. Despite a 3-2 victory in that match, Ñublense will join them.
Sunday, 21:00, Santos – Palmeiras (Campeonato Paulista)
After three months, the Brazilian State Leagues are getting closer to their final stages. This week, most of the leagues will play their final games, and our main event is the Paulista final. The Paulista, São Paulo's tournament, will have a great final between Santos and Palmeiras, the "Clássico da Saudade" (The Nostalgia Classico). In the first leg, Palmeiras won 1:0 at home. Santos, the first club of both Pelé and Neymar Jr., want to win and receive the big prize for their centenary season with the Paulista. If they win, it will be their fourth title in the last six years. In the first round, Santos had a great run with a single defeat and in the play-offs they eliminated XV de Piracicaba and São Paulo. The manager, Marcelo Fernandes, is in his debut season as a head coach and is keen to win his first title. Like many clubs in Brazil, Santos also have some great names with a lot of European experience, such as Robinho, who had some great seasons at Real Madrid and Manchester City and who is now on loan from AC Milan, Ricardo Oliveira, who has played in Spain and Italy and returns to Brazil after playing in the Emirates for the last 5 seasons, and Renato, who played for Sevilla for 7 years. Also keep your eye out for Gabriel, an 18 year-old teenager who is considered as one of the biggest hopes of Brazilian football.
The few past seasons have been pretty tough for Palmeiras. After their promotion two years ago, they almost got relegated once again last season. Now they hope to improve as much as they can, and their Paulista season made some of their wishes come true. After winning in the quarter-finals against Botafogo-SP, they caused a great upset in the semi-finals, winning on penalties against Corinthians, one of the tournament’s favourites. Their manager, Oswaldo de Oliveira, has won the Paulista title once, with Corinthians in 2000. The biggest name at the club is the veteran Zé Roberto, who played for years at Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich and returned to Brazil 3 years ago. Other big names in the squad are Dudu, the former Dynamo Kyiv player, the Chilean Jorge Valdivia, who is one of the fans’ favourites, and Fernando Prass, an experienced goalkeeper who won the last year's Brasileirão Goalkeeper of the Season award.
Such games are always classics and the Paulista is one of the most coveted titles in Brazilian football. With all of its history, it will be another classic match, like in the good old days.