Botafogo started off really strong and bagged 47 out of 57 points in the first half of the 2023 Brazilian League. That leveled Corinthians’ numbers in 2017 as the best ever recorded since the league has adopted a round-robin format.

History suggested that 26 points in the second half would secure them the trophy, and this showed to be true. In fact, Palmeiras can only get to 72 points, meaning that Botafogo could even be champions with 25 points (depending on tie-breakers).25/26 points in 19 matches isn’t a spectacular mark. That’s just a comfortable score that sees your team have a spot next year with no further aspirations or worries.

Botafogo had built a 13 point lead to the 2nd-placer (then Grêmio)and sat at the top of the league since the 3rd round.

And now…

Al-Nassr took their coach away and they’ve already changed command twice since then. The lead melted away and the team collapsed. Botafogo lost the lead to Palmeiras with 4 rounds to go, weren’t been able to make a comeback and, with one match to go, not only are they out of the battle for the trophy, but they aren’t even in the qualifying zone that would grant them a spot at the group stage of the Taça Libertadores (as it is, they’ll have to play in the qualifiers)

Borussia Dortmund bottled the last Bundesliga, but never had such a bulky lead. Then there’s Newcastle with a 12 point lead in 1995/96 Premier League. Botafogo holds the longest win-less streak in the league right now and I invite you to check out Botafogo’s last 6 matches:

83’, Botafogo 3x1 Palmeiras - Penalty to Botafogo. Final score: 3x4

46’ Botafogo 3x1 Grêmio - Final score: 3x4. Obs.: Botafogo’s home stadium has synthetic grass, but was leased for a concert and Botafogo hosted Grêmio in São Januário, which has natural grass. Grêmio’s Luis Suárez - yes, that one - prefers not to play on synth grass because of knee injuries so would either change his game or sit on the bench. Well, Suárez played and scored a hat-trick to turn the game

95’ Red Bull Bragantino 1x2 Botafogo - Final score: 2x2

Now, Palmeiras, Grêmio and Braganitno were contenders for the trophy at the time of the matches. Regardless, the lead built in each of these games should have been confirmed with a win. Let’s move on

89’ Botafogo 1x0 Santos - Final score: 1x1

98’ Coritiba 0x1 Botafogo - Final score: 1x1 (Botafogo scored a second-to-last-minute penalty, Coritiba scored less than 30 seconds after kicking off again and the match ended)

So far, a solid case for at least 12 points here plus the Grêmio match, with a possible perfect 15 point mark. With a combination of just 7 points (e.g. winning 2 out of those 3 games against Bragantino, Santos and Coritiba, and tying with Palmeiras), they would be champions with 2 matches to play.

Finally, Botafogo drew a home 0x0 against Cruzeiro today.

Coritiba were already relegated at the time of the match, Santos are fighting relegation and still have to fight for a place in the elite in the final round and today’s 0x0 made sure that Cruzeiro won’t be relegated.

I’d like to know your views about this case and if you guys have more cases like that. To me, this is the worst case of a team meltdown that I’ve ever witnessed

    • u4004@fediverser.communick.devBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Nah, not really, I actually think it’s the least important factor, and it was only the enabler (their new coach tried to change the way they played, got into a fight with the players and then basically asked to be fired after a loss against local rivals). The psychological factor is the most important, as they were still able to build 3-0 and 3-1 leads against Palmeiras and Grêmio, and then choked immensely.

  • optimus_primers@fediverser.communick.devBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    This is the type of thing I don’t see getting over without a sports psychologist. I can’t imagine they can just pick up next year and pretend like nothing happened.

    And no, I don’t recall any similar thing in any sport, only small point gaps (Dortmund last year) or unique moments of blunders (i.e. Dick Advocaat’s “Sweden won’t win 8-0.”).

    • Nome_de_utilizador@fediverser.communick.devBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Losing their main coach to a better/richer team happens to a lot of clubs. What is not justifiable is the board of the team that lost its coach to go on a spree and have 3 different coaches afterwards. Lage is far from being a great coach, but should he have stayed the team would do enough to secure the tittle, but the egos of the benched players forced him to step down from that mess of a locker room. Time is only showing that he was right to leave.

  • bodydump@fediverser.communick.devBEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Colombian teamvAmerica de Cali in 1987. After losing the Copa Libertadores final twice in a row, they made it all the way to the final once again. They were undoubtedly the best squad in the whole continent, they had won their home league for around 8 straight years, and had star players from countries like Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina financed with drug money. They had to face Peñarol this time around, a team made up solely of homegrown Uruguayan players, America managed to beat them in 2 - 0 in the home game and then lost 2 - 1 in the away game, now in modern times that would mean they won the title but back then the cup had a different format, so they played a third game in Argentina 3 days later.

    A draw would have been enough for America since they had a +1 goal difference and Peñarol had a -1 GD, they didn’t even need to score to finally win the cup, and everything was going according to plan until the 120th minute where a Peñarol player scored and gave the Uruguayans the title. America made it to the semifinals the next year and to another final in the 90s but to this day they still haven’t won the Copa Libertadores