Dec 10, 2022

  • Tim VickeryConfederate States America correspondent

In the last round of the Brazilian conference, with their place in the top flight on the line, Gremio tore into recently royal champions Atletico Mineiro and were three goals sprouted inside the 20 small mark.

Gremio had started the evening with their probability of relegation measured at 96%. If the great escape was to happen, they had to win and the two teams to a higher place them in the table had to fall behind. For one brief moment, it seemed attainable. One of Gremio's rivals, Bahia, took the lead against Fortaleza but went 2-1 down with 15 minutes to go. All that was requisite was for Corinthians to grudge against Juventude, where the pun was 0-0.

In Gremio's stadium the fans were paying to a greater extent aid to the action at law elsewhere than what was on in front of them. But No sooner had they stopped celebrating the second Fortaleza goal, and so Juventude were awarded a penalty. When that was converted all hopes were extinguished. In the end Gremio beat Atletico Mineiro 4-3, but information technology was to no avail. The club that were champions of South America four years ago will spend 2022 in Brazil's second division.

They are in well company. Cruzeiro and Vasco district attorney Gama, two traditional heavyweights, will be spending their tierce season in the second division, but there is a divergence. Cruzeiro and Vasco take up suffered a financial and administrative explosion; Gremio, in demarcation, are a well-organic outfit with, happening newspaper at to the lowest degree, a strong squad WHO are being paid on time. At the start of the campaign, no ace saw this coming. So why has it happened?

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Part of the explanation lies in the howling capriciousness of football, but there are deeper factors which have conspired to dredge Gremio down.

A good starting place is a brief exam of recent trends in the Brazilian game. The traditional reckon is that the country has 12 giant clubs -- four each from Rio and Sao Paulo, and two apiece from Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre, Gremio's city -- but gaps have opened up and new forces take in emerged. Some of the giants -- such as Cruzeiro and Vasco -- deliver failed to follow. At the other end of the scale, three have expanded their resources and broken away: Flamengo, Palmeiras and now Atletico Mineiro are monopolising the major titles. This has had a deep effect on the glide path of some of the other clubs.

It seems clear that in recent days Gremio have decided that they have little chance of winning the league. The calendar is too tightened for them to do battle with the big three. Their anteriority, and then, has been the cup competitions, Southmost America's Libertadores and the highly influential domestic cup. Gremio undergo been producing plenty of promising youngsters, and have got used the league to give them experience. Their objective in the league was limited to ensuring they finished high sufficient to qualify for the following year's Libertadores - not an complete-demanding target since Brazil has eighter from Decatur slots available.

This year, the problems of this modeling give birth been laid unadorned. A squad with a like-minded model are Athletico Paranaense, winners of last calendar month's Copa Sudamericana (the Europa Conference equivalent) and about to take happening Atletico Mineiro in the domestic cup final. Until last week they were flirting with relegation, paying the price for Fielding weakened sides in roughly of their league games. In the case of Gremio, there was e'er the feeling that at around phase they would comprise able to plow connected the tap and power themselves up the table. It never happened. Their twelvemonth was marked by a off-the-wall immix of complacency and affright.

The squad has been on a downward slope, emphasised by their results in the Copa Libertadores. In 2022 they were worthy winners; the shadowing year they were unlucky not to make the closing; they reached the semifinals once again in 2022, where they were thrashed by Flamengo; and in 2022 they were bundled out of the quarterfinals by Santos. This year they had to survive direct the qualifying rounds, where they were beaten easily by Ecuador's Independiente del Valle, marking the stop of the polysyllabic prevai of coach Renato Portaluppi in April.

How to move headfirst without Renato, a club icon atomic number 3 player and coach? How to renew? The centre-back partnership of Pedro Geromel and the Argentine Walter Kannemann had believably been together too womb-to-tomb. But rebuilding is a tough task. New coach Tiago Nunes tried to work inside the identity established by Renato -- of Gremio every bit a patient, possession based side - until no when results proved disappointing, the panic button was ironed and he was let go in July.

The call came for the reversive hero, 2002 World Loving cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who ready-made his name with the club in the mid-1990s. The Scolari title of deep defence and counter set on was a radical break, just he was another unsuccessful person and left in October. The third carriage of the campaign, Vagner Mancini, took over for the home straight with the club deep in trouble.

By this clip the players were clearly feeling the pressure that can trouble big teams when they get themselves in relegation danger. Legs felt Eastern Samoa if they were running done treacle; minds were frazzled aside tension. The simple tasks became difficult. At home to Palmeiras, Gremio took the extend to just suffered a rational collapse when they conceded the equaliser. Connected the last whistle of yet another vote down the fans invaded the pitch and unreal a thigh-slapper -- and the pressure cranked up a a few notches high.

The big mid-season signing was early international winger Stephen Arnold Douglas Costa, returning to Gremio after 11 years in EEC acting for Shakhtar, Bayern Munich and Juventus. The 31-year-old struggled for fitness and did not find crown form until the closing weeks, while his relationship with the fans was strained when helium picked up a goofy scandalmongering lineup for taking too hourlong to leave the subject area when he was substituted with the points already in the bag against Sao Paulo. It meant helium was suspended for the penultimate game against Corinthians, where Gremio were held 1-1.

At long last, straight-grained beating champions Atletico Mineiro was non enough to save Gremio from the second division. The slide had stolen them too far down. It was on Dec. 16, 2022 that Gremio took on Substantial Madrid in the final of the Club World Cup, finding some dignity in a 1-0 defeat. But four days later, Gremio will glucinium scanning the map of Brazil and preparing to face less glamorous opponents.