Sao Paulo beats San Lorenzo using Brazilian tactics

   The stride hitherto perfect of Corinthians within Libertadores's group of death implies that the clashes between Sao Paulo FC and current monarchs San Lorenzo de Almagro will likely determine the second ticket to the cup's next stage. In the first round of this fight between Brazilians and Argentines, the Sao Paulo boss Muricy Ramalho resorted to the most Brazilian of formations: the 4-2-2-2, otherwise known as "the magic square", which allowed the home side to retain possession and generate width against an opposition that seemed happy with the finally foiled draw.

Edgardo Bauza, the coach who has lifted two Libertadores with Ecuadorean Liga de Quito and his current side, is renowned as a true pragmatist. For San Lorenzo -despite playing against a Sao Paulo currently struggling at the regional Paulista championship- executed the very same tactics that were deployed in Morocco against Real Madrid for the FIFA Club World Cup.  Two banks of four plus two forwards (4-4-2). The tactical surprises that defined the negativity of this approach were the lineup of holding midfielder Franco Mussis as a right winger to provide extra cover on that flank, and using Pablo Barrientos as the side's left winger. These surprises in turn meant very few upsurges by the more than decent full-backs Emmanuel Mas and Julio Buffarini. 

Sao Paulo, however, started with the usual 4-4-2 diamond formation which failed against Corinthians, but here it counted with the promising appearance of Alexandre Pato in one of the two center-forward spots alongside Luis Fabiano. It only took 40 seconds for Pato to drop to the right channel and cross for a brilliant Michel Bastos's header that hit the post. Sadly, Pato left the pitch through injury, replaced by Argentine Ricardo Centurión, whose trickery with the ball was paradoxically the only thing Brazilian for the rest of the first half.

                                                                                                                                                                 

             

Ramalho used that substitution to modify his formation, yet the change from midfield diamond to magic square wasn't straightforward as Bastos and Paulo Henrique Ganso switched flanks constantly. One did tell the implementation of the 4-2-2-2 because Bastos, being himself left-footed, played on the right flank for large spells of the second half (for his winner, the former Olympique Lyonnais man stayed abnormally wide and thus absolutely free of cover to attack goalkeeper Torrico's near post). The same applied in Ganso's movements: the two Sao Paulo wingers came inside from wide positions, overloaded the center of the pitch and produced ball possession; allowed the upsurges of the full-backs and stretched the attacking zone. Left full-back Carlinhos, undisputedly the man of the match, crossed for the winner and was quite close to open the score himself minutes earlier after receiving a brilliant through-ball by Ganso (see vine).

In spite of their cautious tactics, San Lorenzo had a couple of dangerous chances when Emmanuel Mas beat Sao Paulo's radically advanced defensive line and when substitute Leandro Romagnoli retained possession through dribbling. This illustrates the risks implicit to the magic square: it pushes the full-backs so high in the pitch that a simple long ball aimed towards the flanks is enough to counterattack at pace. In all likelihood Edgardo Bauza will modify his approach in Buenos Aires and introduce quick players on the flanks like Héctor Villalba and Gonzalo Verón.

The second ticket of the group of death is certainly still up for grabs although Sao Paulo holds a better hand: the draw benefits them and this should allow for a patient counterattacking strategy that gambles on San Lorenzo's desperation. Ramalho has proved astute and brave on the chalkboard here, a true pragmatist too, using the most Brazilian of tactics.

Corinthians 2-0 Sao Paulo: Cohesion versus separation

   In the Arena Corinthians the home side thoroughly overplayed their city rivals, Sao Paulo FC, by quick aggression attacking both from the outside (pushing with the full-backs Fabio Santos and Fagner), and from the inside, (surprising with box-to-box midfielder Elias). After the opener, the Timao soaked pressure up with the very same cohesion deployed at attack. Sao Paulo, on the other hand, showed themselves as quite disjointed a squad with three men (Luis Fabiano, Alan Kardec and Paulo Henrique Ganso) in charge of offending and the rest taking the brunt of defensive duties.

The Corinthians boss, Tite, chose what actually is a 4-3-3 formation: Renato Augusto (the launcher) and Elias (the runner) stuck close to Ralf (the protector) in midfield, while Danilo came on for suspended Peruvian central striker Paolo Guerrero, moving constantly away from the Sao Paulo center-backs. This latter vertical mobility proved crucial as Corinthians overloaded the center of the pitch and controlled the flux of play. The image that precedes these lines being a good example, Elias's gol was created from a nice combination between him and Danilo to surpass Denilson with the assistance of a great Jadson lobbed ball.

                    

The formation employed by Muricy Ramalho was a wingerless midfield diamond (4-3-1-2) in which Ganso performed the trequartista role, and both Luis Fabiano and Alan Kardec failed to move to the channels to provide the much-needed width given the lack of true wingers. In fairness to Ramalho, he could not use Alexandre Pato, a more versatile striker, since he's in loan from Corinthians, and could not use either Ricardo Centurión, the Argentine winger brought from Racing de Avellaneda, due to suspension. The problems for Sao Paulo, however, had more to do with their little cohesion rather than with some certain formation.

Until the Elias's opener eleven minutes from the start of the match, Corinthians pushed Fagner and Fabio Santos in support of Jadson and Emerson (who regularly cut in from the channels). As Denilson, Souza and Maicon were occupied with Elias and Renato Augusto, Corinthians caused one-two situations against the Sao Paulo full-backs almost by default. Even at those early stages Fabio Santos had shot twice against Rogerio Ceni's goal. As the Sao Paulo forward trio was almost totally oblivious to defending, Souza and Maicon faced this impossible dilemma: Should we track the Corinthians full-backs at expense of exposing the midfield, or should we stay in position at expense of exposing the flanks?

The midfielders of Sao Paulo tried to cover both the center and the flanks and, at the end, got caught by Danilo's false nine movement, Renato Augusto's fine passing and Elias' impressive work rate. Had they counted with some help from upfront, they could perhaps offer more in an attacking sense to exploit the space left behind the enemy full-backs. Instead, Corinthians have once again shown their cards as a cohesive squad that moves along the field as a unit but, more importantly, as a well-drilled machine that creates and exploits space from the inside and the outside.