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document.write('<p class="rss-item" style="font: 10px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: none;color: #000000;text-align: justify;" ><a target="_blank"  class="rss-item" style="font: 12px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: underline;color: #A5B80D;" href="http://brazil.theoffside.com/cbf-stuff/final-words.html">Final Words</a><br />');
document.write('February has started and the Brazilian season as well, so I felt it was about time to come here and write my final words in this blog. Yes, final. After covering almost 2 entire Brazilian seasons &#8211; the many state championships, Copa do Brasil, Copa Libertadores, Copa Sulamericana, Campeonato Brasileiro, besides the national team and the oddities and curiosities of Brazilian football &#8211; it&#8217;s time for me to move on.  It&#8217;s sad to leave behind a blog which had almost no audience when I started and today has a very decent number of readers. In January, I didn&#8217;t post one thing and I still had more than 6 thousand visits. But I have my reasons to move on.  I believe everyone should be rewarded for its hard work. If a person works hard, there should be no reason for one not be rewarded. For 2 years, I posted on this blog pretty much after every match happening in Brazil. Even when I found myself with lots of work to do. I do understand that once you sign up for a Offside, they state very clearly that it&#8217;s not a paid position. But, as my &#8220;day job&#8221; is writing and reporting, my motivation for taking care of this blog started to decrease. I don&#8217;t need the &#8220;recognition&#8221; factor to be my motivation. Every time I get published, the number of people reading me is way bigger than the audience of this blog. And I can&#8217;t have this blog just as a hobby otherwise the frequency of posts would reflect that (as you can see with the blogs of the Brazilian clubs). I do believe that the writers of the most popular blogs of The Offside should be rewarded. But we (or they) are not and I have to respect that. This is just their system.    So before I started another season with no motivation, i decided to stop. Just don&#8217;t get me wrong here. I did enjoy writing here. But it was time to move on. And I hope what I wrote above explains my move.  I will join another blog. A blog that is smaller and does not have all the &#8220;glamor&#8221; of the Offside, but a blog that shares my belief that good work should be rewarded. A blog that, as small as it is, has a project. I will join my colleague Ana at the  (www.seethecup.com). Everything you got used to reading here you will find there. So I hope to see some of you there. Thank you again to all readers for the support. You&#8217;re amazing. Thank you Bob for giving me the chance to write here. And thanks to all The Offside community.  See you soon.  ');
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document.write('<p class="rss-item" style="font: 10px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: none;color: #000000;text-align: justify;" ><a target="_blank"  class="rss-item" style="font: 12px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: underline;color: #A5B80D;" href="http://brazil.theoffside.com/clubs/ronaldo-introduced-to-corinthians-fans.html">Ronaldo Introduced to Corinthians Fans</a><br />');
document.write(' 10 thousand fans are expected to see him in the afternoon. And with this picture, I&#8217;m officially on vacation. (Maybe) I&#8217;ll see you next year. ');
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document.write('<p class="rss-item" style="font: 10px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: none;color: #000000;text-align: justify;" ><a target="_blank"  class="rss-item" style="font: 12px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: underline;color: #A5B80D;" href="http://brazil.theoffside.com/cbf-stuff/different-awards-for-the-best-of-campeonato-brasileiro.html">Different Awards for the Best of Campeonato Brasileiro</a><br />');
document.write('The two most important prizes choosing the best players of Campeonato Brasileiro were both handed on Monday. One, the most traditional, is called Bola de Prata (silver ball) and it is offered by Placar, the most important magazine on football in Brazil, since 1971. The choices are made in the following way: the journalists from the magazine watch every single game and give notes to players. The best average in each position wins. Also, the best average of the tournament takes Bola de Ouro (golden ball). The magazine also offers a prize to the top striker.  The other prize is newer and it is offered by CBF. In this one, the coaches, the captains and a jury vote on their choices for each position. The best player, the best coach, the top striker and the best new talent are also awarded.  Pay attention because except for Rogerio Ceni, most of the two lists are very likely to leave Brazil. On the other hand, staying in Brazil helps accumulating awards. Rogerio Ceni reached his 6th Bola de Prata (passing Zico) and this time he took home the Golden Ball too. In the same way, Muricy Ramalho, Sao Paulo coach, took home his 4th prize as the best coach in 4 editions of the CBF&#8217;s award. Compare the two teams and tell me which one you like. Placar &#8211; Silver Ball: GK: Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo) RB:Vitor (Goias) D:Andre Dias (Sao Paulo) D:Miranda (Sao Paulo) LB: Juan (Flamengo) DM: Hernanes (Sao Paulo) DM: Ramirez (Cruzeiro) OM: Wagner (Cruzeiro) OM: Tcheco (Gremio) F: Borges (Sao Paulo) F: Nilmar (Inter) Golden Ball: Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo) CBF&#8217;s Selecao do Campeonato GK: Vitor (Gremio) RB: Leo Moura (Flamengo) D: Thiago Silva (Fluminense) D: Miranda (Sao Paulo) LB: Juan (Flamengo) DM: Hernanes (Sao Paulo) DM: Ramirez (Cruzeiro) OM: Diego Souza (Palmeiras) OM: Alex (Inter) F: Kleber Pereira (Santos) F: Alex Mineiro (Palmeiras) Coach: Muricy Ramalho (Sao Paulo) Best Player: Hernanes (Sao Paulo) Best new talent:Keirrisson (Coritiba) Best Player According to fans: Thiago Silva (Fluminense) Placar also showed the worst averages of the tournament, known as &#8220;Bola de Lata&#8221;: GK: Clemer (Inter) RB: Carlinhos (Fluminense) D:Jorge Luis (Vasco) D:Negretti (Nautico) LB:Willian Matheus DM: Alceu (Nautico) DM:Fabio Gomes (Sport) OM:Luciano Mandi (Ipatinga) OM: Ramon (Figueirense) F: Enilton (Sport) F: Washington (Portuguesa) The curious thing is that 3 of these men were in the starting line-up of Palmeiras when they last played Copa Libertadores in 2006. Alceu, Enilton and Washington were there. And you wonder why the club failed&#8230; ');
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document.write('<p class="rss-item" style="font: 10px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: none;color: #000000;text-align: justify;" ><a target="_blank"  class="rss-item" style="font: 12px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: underline;color: #A5B80D;" href="http://brazil.theoffside.com/clubs/ronaldo-that-one-signs-with-corinthians.html">Ronaldo (that one) Signs With Corinthians!</a><br />');
document.write('Information just came in this morning. He signed with Corinthians for 2009 with a renewal option for the following year. Ronaldo&#8217;s goal, according to someone linked with Corinthians, is the 2010 World Cup, and playing in Brazil for a paulista club is a great choice. The club already started selling jerseys. On the other hand, Flamengo, whom Ronaldo fed the hopes of fans during all this time, was caught by surprise. The fan movement &#8220;Fica Ronaldo&#8221; (Stay Ronaldo) is already talking about burning pictures of the forward.  Great to see another huge name back to Brazil.   ');
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document.write('<p class="rss-item" style="font: 10px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: none;color: #000000;text-align: justify;" ><a target="_blank"  class="rss-item" style="font: 12px Trebuchet MS;text-decoration: underline;color: #A5B80D;" href="http://brazil.theoffside.com/tournaments/sao-paulo-wins-campeonato-brasileiro-for-the-6th-time.html">SÃO PAULO WINS CAMPEONATO BRASILEIRO FOR THE 6TH TIME</a><br />');
document.write(' It&#8217;s hard to talk about the third Brazilian title in a row of Sao Paulo without repeating all the cliches. I spent the day thinking a different way to put it, but the supremacy of the club over Brazilian football is obvious. The club is the youngest of the traditional clubs in Brazil &#8211; only 73 years-old. Nonetheless, it is the club with the greatest amount of Campeonato Brasileiros. In 38 editions of the tournament, Sao Paulo won almost 1/6 of them, and reached the finals and many others. This is not to mention that no other club in Brazil has also the same amount of Copa Libertadores and club world cup titles. Sao Paulo has a serious project. It brings together a coach who is a workaholic, a captain who loves the club and has been there for 18 years, a structure that includes one of the biggest private stadiums in the world and training centers that develop young players and recover great stars. In the Brazilian titles of the last 3 years, Sao Paulo played 114 matches and lost only 16. That is a huge number. And that shows one thing: if Sao Paulo does not play beautiful football, it rarely loses. Usually, when the team plays a bad game, it gets a draw.  This year, the title had a little more drama. Last year, everyone got bored by the fact that Sao Paulo lift the trophy 4 matches before the final date. This year, the battle was intense in what probablyw as the best Campeonato Brasileiro in a long time. And the way that happened actually made the title a small detail. In August, Gremio (the runners-up) beat Sao Paulo, putting a 11 points difference. The press and the players thought they had no chance. But, what nobody knew is that that was the last defeat of Sao Paulo in the year. From there, 18 matches took place. Sao Paulo won 12 and tied 6. The 11 points behind turned into 3 points ahead. And the title, one more time went to Morumbi, turning Sao Paulo into the most victorious club of Brazilian football.  Yesterday, Sao Paulo, who played for a simple draw, had absolute control over the match against Goias. The team marked as very few ever had in Brazilian football. To make things easier, Borges, the striker who Sao Paulo fans prefer over Adriano, scored his 16th goal in the tournament. 1-0 was enough. Hernanes, Miranda, Andre Dias, Jean (who did not play), Dagoberto, Jorge Wagner, Hugo and obviously Rogerio Ceni are names to be remembered. But above all these names, Muricy Ramalho, the coach, is the face of this title. Winning 3 times in a row with the same club a title which has at least 11 favorites every year and 17 different champions in the history is not easy.  The question for next year, as it has been for the last 4 years, is obvious too. Who can beat Sao Paulo?   Watch the 66 goals from the campaign. A great opportunity to see Hernanes (number 15 and the best player of the team), Borges (number 17, top striker of the club who scored 16 goals) and even keeper and captain Rogerio Ceni in action.    ');
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