Saint Jude’s Mengão renaissance

Jude the Apostle is the patron saint of desparate situations and a club that impassions almost 40 million Brazilians. That club found itself ineludibly submersed in the aforementioned plight in late August.

Flamengo’s Brasileirao title challenge had, indeed, been all but extinguished. They were fresh from a 3-0 loss at newly-promoted Avai, a chorus of humiliatory olés from the home fans compounding what was already another debasing failure.

The Rio de Janeiro giants had suffered three straight defeats. They languished in 14th place, 13 points off the pace. They were arguably devoid of desire; they were apparently devoid of confidence. An assault on the crown seemed inconceivable; a relegation battle was becoming more and more probable.

Whoever laughed at us can now see how close we are to success. We never stopped believing. This is the result of the squad’s unity.

Goalkeeper Bruno on Flamengo’s jump from 14 to second








That was when Saint Jude decided to answer the Flamenguistas’ prayers. He has done so through a handful of disciples: Andrade’s motivational muscle and tactical acumen has been the renaissance’s driving force; goalkeeper Bruno has provided an often-impenetrable barrier; Maldonado has solidified a turbulent midfield; playmaker Petkovic has belied his footballing relic [the Serbian turned 37 in September] to radiate; and striker Adriano, who was a solitary, albeit flickering, bright spark during the first half of O Mengão’s campaign, has attained once more the zenith that most felt he had long outgrown.

The response since that Avai nightmare has been emphatic. Flamengo have, despite an examining sequence of matches, won ten, drawn three and lost just one of their last 14 outings; results that have rocketed them to second in the Brasileirao – just two points behind Sao Paulo with three rounds remaining – and sent their supporters into a state of rhapsody.

“Whoever laughed at us can now see how close we are to success,” declared Bruno. “We never stopped believing. This is the result of the squad’s unity.”

This unity was palpable when the final whistle brought their 2-0 win over Nautico in Recife to a close on Sunday, provoking the players to assemble, arms around one another, for nearly one minute. It was at the summoning of the No1. “I said at that moment that Rio de Janeiro was painted red and black, and that the supporters who were there represent a nation that need and deserve this title,” Bruno explained.



Only three rounds remain for Flamengo to outstrip Sao Paulo, who are chasing an unprecedented fourth straight Brasileirao prize, but the omens are caped in red and black as they chase a first gold since 1992. Indeed, two of O Mengão’s remaining fixtures will be played at the Maracana, where they have, imbued by the masses of Flamenguistas that cram the venerated stadium to its rafters and provide a unique, thunderous current of inspiration, won their last six matches, conceding just once in the process. O Tricolor Paulista, for their part, have two away dates to fulfill – six of their seven losses this term have been on their travels.

“I’m very proud of my players,” said Andrade, who was a midfield icon in Flamengo’s all-conquering team of the 1980s. “They’ve done very well to come this far. It’s been a long time since Flamengo were in a position like this, but we’ve got to keep going. The tension rises with every game. Sao Paulo are strong candidates and the title is in there hands, but if we keep our side of the bargain, then who knows?”



Adriano, the competition’s 19-goal leading marksman, attributes Flamemgo’s prosperity to his coach. “We’re in this position because of Andrade,” he said. “Before the game (against Nautico), I joked with him that, if he needed me to, I’d play at left-back [regular No6 Juan was suspended, his deputy Everton Silva injured]. That’s the spirit of this group.

We’re in this position because of Andrade. Our objective is to win the title for our wonderful supporters. It would be the capstone of my career.

Flamengo’s Adriano








“Our objective is to win the title for our wonderful supporters. We have to concentrate on our own work, not think about our rival. It would be the capstone of my career.”

Quite a statement from a man who pocketed the player of the tournament award and a winners’ medal at the Copa America 2004, seized the adidas Golden Ball and adidas Golden Shoe en route to Brazil’s FIFA Confederations Cup Germany 2005 triumph, and helped Inter Milan to three Italian Serie A crowns.

However, given how inconceivable Flamengo conquering the Brasileirao sounded three months ago, maybe the completion of mission impossible would be the capstone in the devotion of a majority of Flamenguistas – even those old enough to have revelled in the halcyon days of Zico, Junior et al. It’s over to you, Saint Jude…

Keep in mind that Flamengo and São Paulo have three matches left and that Palmeiras has only two.

Theoretically these are the title and Libertadores contestants. São Paulo and Flamengo will struggle for the title, say the critics and there is a great chance that Flamengo finishes next round in first position. I’ll show you why.

As you can see, Flamengo will play at home against Goiás. The tickets are sold out since last week and Goiás gave up their rights to have visitor tickets, so it can be said that it will be a match only with our supporters. São Paulo will face Botafogo on an away match and for your information, Botafogo have to win or they’ll probably get relegated.

Our next matches will be against Corinthians and Grêmio, the first being away, but against a team that has no more motivation, because they are not fighting for the title and already are on next year’s Libertadores. Will finish the season facing Grêmio at beautiful, impressive and crowded Maracanã, celebrating the title after 17 years (I hope so).

São Paulo also have two easy rounds left after the match against Botafogo. At first, they’ll face Goiás and despite been an away game, Goiás, as Corinthians, have no more intentions. Then, counting for the last round, São Paulo have a match against Sport – the only team that has already been relegated – and until now nobody knows where the match will take place. São Paulo lost the right to play at home on the next match, but they are trying to cancel the decision taken by the court. Also, three of their players will be suspended for the next two matches and two other players will be judged by the court next week.

The last time Flamengo reached the title was the day I became their supporter. Not because of the championship victory, but as a consequence to the amazing show the supporters were doing at Maracanã. When I saw it on the television I thought “I wanna be part of this”.

And here I am right now, 17 years later, expecting a national title after Flamengo nearly being relegated on almost all these 17 years with a great chance to watch my team becoming victorious live, in the stadium, on the match against Corinthians. You have no idea how excited I am.

I know that this decade Flamengo has failed year after year when it comes to important decisions, such as the matches against Santo André and Cruzeiro (valid for the Copa do Brasil), and Defensor and América (valid for the Libertadores). And I also know that if I say that Flamengo will become champions they will fatefully lose it. So, I’ll only say that we have HUGE chances.

And to prove that we have players capable of winning the title, here is a video with Petkovic scoring a magnificent goal only two minutes before the referee blew his whistle pointing the end of the match. Pay attention to the video when it reaches 6:34. Do you recognize that player, number 17 player, behind the coach? Yes, that is Adriano.

Finally we have the chance to see Flamengo making more than 35 million people happy.

The two tables are adapted from GloboEsporte.com

But that was in a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away and after that we played twice and won both matches. The first one, last weekend against Santos in Maracanã (1-0) with Adriano scoring and Bruno stopping two penalties. The last match was last night against Atlético-MG, one of the others title contestants. As almost every away match, Flamengo used one of our most deadly weapons; the counter-attack. Mineirão was crowded by those black and white shirts and less than 5% were red and black supporters. I could feel the pressure on the television, but apparently our players didn’t feel it. When the clock was reaching the 10th minute, Petkovic scored directly from a corner kick. 30 minutes later, Maldonado scored the second goal.

When the second half started, it looked just like a record from the first half. Pressure, pressure and pressure. But this time, Atlético scored just four minutes after the start. Everybody thought that the pressure would increase, but Andrade sacked Petkovic (once again the best player of the match) and Fierro got in. It was a nice play and the right side of our attack became more dangerous with Leo Moura and Fierro. And it was from there that the third goal started by a perfect crossed ball from Fierro, ending with the thing Adriano knows to do as few players; a header.

You could say the match was over and that now Flamengo – on 3rd position – is only two points behind the leader. We’ll have to win the four remaining matches to become champions and Flamengo just proved this is not as impossible as it seemed to be.

Once again, they let us get close, now we are big problem.

Not everybody knows, but Brazil is the largest Catholic nation in the world and Flamengo being the most popular football team in Brazil, maybe in the world, you can say we have a huge nation of St. Jude Thaddeus devotes.

As our fans are also devoted to this team, Flamengo, better, we, the supporters, earned a commemorative date in the city of Rio de Janeiro calendar. That happened in 2007, while we were going through a great moment on the Brasileirão leaving the 19th place and reaching the 3rd one. The City Mayor decided to turn the Flamengo supporters a Cultural Patrimony of the City for promoting shows in Maracanã, turning October 28 not only St. Jude Thaddeus’ day, but also Flamengo supporters’ day.

And what can I tell you about our supporters? Nothing. They speak for themselves, being the only fans that have their official date, which goes to Maracanã and turn a boring match in to a spectacle, that have a team and the power to command this team. Our fans are never satisfied, but are always in love with the team, no matter how bizarre the players are, how bad they shot on goal, how much the boards steals from the club’s money, we, fans, can say we are not Flamengo fans, but Flamengo is our team. We have a team and not the opposite – the team doesn’t have us.

We also have a God; Zico. A true God. One who gave us happiness for years, who lead the fans and the other players to the glory and who become a symbol of what this nation represents. He turned misery lives in to moments of joy. We can say he had his Apostles, as Jesus had. Júnior, Andrade, Adílio, Nunes, Mozer, Leandro, Tita, Raul, Carpegiani, Bebeto and Zé Carlos. We also had great leaders on ancient times, but they didn’t get even close to this one. This is our God and he is the one we follow.

It has been 17 years since we won the National League and that doesn’t mean our supporters number is decreasing. Surveys say Flamengo has the greatest number of supporters among the kids (23% can you imagine that?) meaning that we’ll be Brazilian greatest forever and just get bigger when talking worldly.
Our supporters are the kind of fans that buy 15,000 anticipated tickets four days before next Saturday’s match even though they know that today we have an away match against Barueri and if we lose we can probably forget about the title.

Now, let me see. We have a God, we have a patron saint, we have some Apostles, we have a home and we have a huge number of citizens/fans/supporters/devotees. Those who say Flamengo isn’t a Nation must be wrong. And I add; Flamengo is not only a Nation but it is also a Religion.

With a bigger population than any city in the world, Flamengo supporters are celebrating their day for the third time since it’s been created. Now, they want a good evening as well. Tonight we’ll face Barueri, as I already said, and depending on a combination of results, if we beat them for 3-0 or more, we can sleep as the Brasileirão leaders.

I am not in São Paulo so I won’t be able to watch the game in the stadium, but everybody knows that there will be only Flamengo supporters in there and I expect the team gives them reason to celebrate even more.

Nelson Rodrigues and Zico

During this period, after Nelson was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he started writing his plays, most of them considered outstanding. He also wrote some books, soup operas, movie scripts and novels.
Nelson Rodrigues was a huge Fluminense fan. Crazy about his team and about football, he wrote books and chronicles about the game, especially about the supporters, mainly those who went to stadium to watch a Fla-Flu (our way to call the derby Flamengo – Fluminense). He was the one who said:

Fluminense is the only tricolor team in the world. The rest are only three colors teams.

In the opening day of paradise, there was an opened-gates Fla-Flu, and people ran down the walls.

(And his most famous one)

Fla-Flu came 40 minutes before anything.

He and his brother, Mário Filho, were very important spreading football in Rio and creating the Fla-Flu mystique. Maracanã is officially named after Mário Filho (Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho) and Nelson Rodrigues called his brother as “The Crowds Creator”, honoring him for his role in the popularization of football in Rio as a football commentator on radio.

In 1955, when Flamengo turned 60 years old, Nelson Rodrigues wrote a chronicle about the team, describing poetically how Flamengo used to play football and how he missed that on the other teams. The text was (called “Flamengo Sessentão”) originally published on an old magazine called Manchete Esportiva (November 26, 1955), and later joined the book À Sombra das Chuteiras Imortais (In the Shadow of Immortal Football Boots).

Here is a fragment from the text showing what I consider to be the closest anyone has come to describe what’s the power of Flamengo’s shirt.

To anyone, the shirt is as good as a tie. Not to Flamengo. To Flamengo, the shirt is everything. Has already happened several times that – when the team isn’t good enough, the shirt is hoisted, unfurled, by invisible hands. Opponents, referees, tremble, then, intimidated, cowed, beaten. Maybe there will come the day when Flamengo will not need players as well as managers, or anything else. Will suffice its shirt, opened at the arc. And in the frenzy of a helpless opponent, the red and black shirt will be an impregnable bastille.

Is really exciting to read something like this written by a fan of your rival team, isn’t it? This is the proof that my team is admired and respect, even by my major rivals, even by the most intelligent ones. This is how Flamengo became one of the most glorious teams, with the largest number of fans around the world, winning 31 Rio State Championships, two Brazilian Cups, five Brazilian Leagues, one Libertadores da América and one Intercontinental Cup.

This is why people say you can’t let Flamengo get close to the top. If you let, Flamengo will certainly win the title. Yesterday we beat Palmeiras (1st on Brazilian League) 0-2, growing the streak to 9 matches, and now, with 8 matches to play, we are 6 points behind the leaders. If you say it is too many points and too few matches, you don’t know Brazilian League, because here the champions are known with only two matches to play.

I don’t know if we’ll win the title or even if we’ll be one of the 4 qualified teams to Libertadores da América 2010, but I know the other teams let us get closer and you know what people say. And what people say, tends to be true.

This first video is from the match known as the start of our most glorious time. Flamengo had a great team but never took the championship. Zico crossed from a corner kick and Rondinelli headed to the goal, scoring the championship goal and beginning Flamengo’s golden age.

The second one is known as the “Revenge Match”. I might have written about it here, but it’s never enough. On November 15th (the day of Flamengo’s creation). 1972, Botafogo beat Flamengo 6-0. Almost nine years later, Flamengo did the same (but not on their birthday).

The last one is a friendly against Atlético-MG. Why am I showing you a friendly? Because that day Pelé played for Flamengo and we won 5-1.

Right now I have one thing to say about last night’s match. We started winning, then Vitória tied the game, we scored again and they made two goals. And when the score was 3-2, they started spending time, faking injuries, the balls were missing and the ball boys (thank you Daryl) began to take a long time to retrieve the balls for players. I consider that and I was proved right when Flamengo scored the equalizer.

Although we are having World Cup Qualifiers this weekend, here we continue to have matches for the Brazilian League. So we will face São Paulo at Maracanã (home sweet home) and Petkovic already called all the fans to support the team. He said he wants an audience record every match. That’s all everybody wants. We all know that when Maracanã is full, we are almost unbeatable.

So, hey ho, let’s go! Let’s beat São Paulo and get closer to next year’s Libertadores da América. Right now, two days from the match, we have already sold around 18.000 tickets. I guess will have more than 50.00 people at Maracanã on Saturday.

Tonight’s matches were all great for Flamengo. Palmeiras 2-2 Avaí, Botafogo 3-1 Atlético-MG and Cruzeiro 3-0 Goiás. Of all the 5 teams in front of us, only Internacional won. We are getting closer and closer.

Earlier today the National Squad was training and the first team beat the reserve players’ team 3-1. Adriano scored 3 times. So, Daryl, once again, I can’t let him go. Not for the next 8 seasons.

Zé Roberto, once again was awesome, assisting Denis Marques on the first goal and scoring the last one. Fast, sober, participative. Just like the old times. And Petkovic. What can I say about him? I can only ask him to excuse me for not trusting on his skills after he got back to Flamengo this year, just because he is 37 years old (36 that time). He’s just like wine.

The bad thing is that Denis Marques didn’t play very well again and the supporters are losing patience. But despite that, he scored a goal, even with a ridiculous shot.

We keep the unbeaten row, getting 15 points from the last 7 matches (71,43%).

You can watch the goals on this video bellow (we are with the white shirt).

That tonight’s gonna be a good night. Well. Not on a Black Eyed Peas way of good night. I don’t expect a victory, but having in mind that we had a clean sheet for the last 6 matches, I expect another tonight, and even though we are going to face our inglorious brothers who never honored the red and the black, we will play in their stadium. We played against them 50 times, winning 31 matches and losing only 8. But I wouldn’t be so surprised if we win.

As I might’ve already said, the city of Rio de Janeiro has a little more than 6 million people, and the State of Rio de Janeiro has around 16 million. So, Flamengo’s supporters are most located out of Rio. Part of these supporters lives northeast and there they have traditional teams (although having no titles) such as Vitória, Sport, Bahia (the only one with a National League title) and their fans hate the fact that Flamengo has more supporters there than they have.

The picture bellow is from the last year’s match against Vitória. There is a completely full part of the stadium and other that is not so full of people. You have one chance to guess on which part of the stadium our fans are. There is a white banner (poster, flag, band, and don’t know how you call it) that says “VERGONHA DO NORDESTE”, something like “Northeastern Shame”.

That happens not only when we play against Vitória. Also happens when we go to Recife, play against Sport, and this season, when we went to Goiânia to match Goiás, their manager said that he hate those people that was born there and support teams from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo.

Vitória’s fans already said that they will have a new banner o tonight’s match. Some say it will be more aggressive, some say it won’t attack our supporters so directely, but the thing is that Flamengo, as the biggest Brazilian team has to protect its fans and sometimes support them.