Fortaleza VS. Corinthians

Fortaleza vs. Corinthians
Estádio Castelão
1 Novembro 2006
2145

Fortaleza hosted Corinthians last Wednesday night, realistically needing a tie or win to avoid falling deeper into the zone of relegation. Corinthians is a strong side, having won the Brazilian Championship last year. This year, they have struggled a bit in Serie A, making a mid-season coaching change, languishing in the middle of the league table.

Early in the match, Fortaleza seemed to have the better of possession, but seemed unable to create great scoring chances. Midfielders seemed intent on making individual runs through the defense, giving the ball up to their opponents rather than distributing the ball to the strong Fortaleza strikers. Corinthians proved to be opportunists as they created an excellent scorign chance with a clever sequence of passes followed by a beautiful run into the area. The Corinthians striker made no mistake in burying his first chance into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead for the São Paulo side. Fortaleza had a few more minutes of dominant possession, but again little teamwork and poor distribution by the midfield, before a Corinthians striker capitalized on a defensive error by Fortaleza to create a breakaway. The striker missed the net high, missing a golden opportunity to increase the Corinthians lead. The score at halftime stood at 1-0, with Fortaleza in need of better tactical play in the second half.

Fortaleza opened the half witha few moments of possession, but still highly individual play with a total lack of vision or creativity by the midfield. Corinthians proved opportunistic yet again, breaking through for two more goals in rapid succession early in the second half, each near carbon-copies of the games first goal. Fortaleza seemed in even greater disarray from that point forward, allowing one final goal to drop the crucial game to Corinthians by the score of 4-0. Fortaleza remained deep in the zone of relegation, and seemed almost certainly bound for Serie B in 2007.