So it begins

By: Socratinho | September 15th, 2009

Hey guys, the new Santos blog is open for business. My friend Leonardo has started the Portuguese side of the blog and now it’s time for the first English post. The season is already past the halfway point so a quick recap is on order. Starting from somewhere about early May.

Campeonato Paulista

We got 2nd place in the end, losing to Corinthians 4-2 on aggregate in early May. The major highlight of the State Championships was the debut of 17 year old Neymar; the latest star off the conveyor belt.

Campeonato Brasileiro

The start wasn’t that bad but it went down hill for a while under Vagner Mancini. Finally after we got our asses handed to us by Vitoria by a 6×2 scoreline, Mancini was sacked. Vanderlei “Luxa” Luxemburgo was hired for his fourth stint as coach.

Results started to pick up, with Luxa winning his first game. With his new coaching style and a couple of signings (more on the phenom named George Lucas in my next post) the team began playing better.

Since then there have been a couple of downs but the march up the table has been steady and now we sit 10th just 5 points off the Copa Libertadores places, and 9 points off the top of the table..

Unfortunately the title doesn’t seem to be a realistic goal for this season, bar a collapse from several of the top teams. However, a Libertadores place is well within our grasp.

Santo Andre felt the alvinegro wrath last Sunday, with Germano scoring the only goal of the game. Next it’s Botafogo at home, which will be an interesting game.

Key performers so far include Madson, Paulo Henrique “Ganso (Goose)” Lima, and George Lucas; who from now on shall be called the Jedi (for obvious reasons). Neymar has showed signs of the talent he has, but at 17 he is expectedly inconsistent at times. Kleber Pereira has been a shadow of the player last year but has still managed to grab 9 goals, just 3 off the top scorer. Felipe is our new number 1 for now with Fabio Costa being injured. He has been fantastic.

That’s it for the first post. On Thursday I’ll post a look at the squad and the key players, and Friday the preview for the Botafogo game will be up.

Until then, vai pra cima deles, Santos!