São Paulo returns to the field for the state championship on Wednesday night, and will be greeted with celebration by its fans after the title won last weekend over its rival Palmeiras.
São Paulo
The Tricolor from Morumbi is having a great campaign in the state league and crowned this great start to the year with the Brazilian Super Cup title.
The title game was played against Palmeiras, last year’s Brazilian champion and São Paulo, who won the Copa do Brasil title, ended up winning.
In a very tough game, where both teams had more defensive impetus than inspiration in constructing plays, the match ended in a goalless draw, until going to a penalty shootout.
São Paulo took advantage of all their charges, saw goalkeeper Rafael save 2 Palmeiras penalties and now São Paulo has all the possible titles for a Brazilian club.
Even with the departure of coach Dorival Júnior, who took over the Brazilian team, São Paulo maintained the great level at the end of last year and the promising Thiago Carpini started very well in charge of the team.
São Paulo has an interesting offensive game, good construction in the opponent’s field, and when they play at home against smaller teams, they have a lot of ball possession and I believe that this will appear again against Água Santa.
São Paulo is now back in contention in the state league, being one of the best teams in the competition.
In terms of performance, they would be the leader, but Santos has already played 5 rounds and appears first in the general table.
São Paulo is one of the only undefeated teams, with 3 wins and a draw, having scored 7 goals and conceded 3.
The team leads group D, which also includes Novorizontino, São Bernardo and Botafogo de Ribeirão Preto.
Their bracket is still very competitive, the distance they have to fourth place is just 2 points, so they still cannot afford to spare their team, even though they are on a very strong run this season.
In the times they played at Morumbi, São Paulo beat Santo André 3-1 and Portuguesa 1-0.
Água Santa
Água Santa, which is the current state runner-up, appears in second place in group B, which also includes Palmeiras, Ponte Preta and Guarani.
The team has 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw, having only scored 3 goals and conceded the same 3.
They managed to climb the table well, after 3 matches without winning, when in the last round they beat Mirassol at home 2-1.
Even with the field command, the team had less possession of the ball, only 6 shots throughout the game and therefore, I believe that against one of the main teams in the competition, their offensive volume is equally low.
It may have been an outlier, the team came out at a disadvantage and sought an unlikely comeback in the second half.
Conclusion:
Água Santa is based on a strong defensive game, but when it needs to be purposeful, they have difficulty. Therefore, I understand that there will be a very low volume of shots against São Paulo. My expectation is that São Paulo will win even with some ease, so their handicap line will be my betting choice.