Victory is Sweet

Very sorry I wasn't able to get a more thorough liveblog of the game, but two things intervened. First, I was working on a project for a charity auction that is way behind schedule (not my fault, for once - I was given the project on Tuesday and when I asked the deadline, the woman said "yesterday" and I laughed, but then when I looked at the materials the deadline really was Monday). Second, it's a peculiarity of liveblogging that when there's nothing happening it's very easy to liveblog and when it starts to heat up you're too busy watching.

Here's how it went down - Colo Colo missed so many chances in the first half, you knew that unless Sport somehow turned their defense around at the half they would break through. Indeed, Colo Colo got a two-on-one break inside the box and Rodrigo Millar barely squeezed it past a diving Magrao into the goal.

Things looked bleak after Paulo Baier blew a perfect chance from about eight yards out, blasting it over the goal when he had only the keeper to beat. Just a few minutes later, though, a run by Dutra set up a square pass to Fumagalli, who in turn set up Hamilton on a wide-open shot from about twenty-five yards. It was a nice-looking low drive that unluckily hit off the left post and bounded out of the goalmouth to the right side of the box, but a streaking Moacir pounced on the ball and stuck it first-time into the back of the net!

Just like that all the wind went out of Colo Colo's sails, and a previously subpar Moacir was infused with new life. Colo Colo's only hope seemed to be to hang on and split the points, but it was not to be as a streaking Dutra popped the ball into the middle of the box for Vandinho, who got by with a push in the back before getting a nifty flick on the ball and sneaking it past a bewildered Christian Munoz.

The rest of the match was mostly made up of Sport just missing chances to go up 3-1. All in all, hard to argue with a hard-fought win to secure a spot in the knockout round, but Sport still have some questions to answer on defense. If they are going to use Igor to bolster the attack as they did through much of this match, they need to be sharper in their communication and discipline on the back line.