Ten days ago, only the most fanatical Corinthians fans knew who Romarinho was. Today, he is a hero.
The 21-year-old striker made his starting debut two weekends ago in a local derby against Corinthians’ archrivals Palmeiras, scoring twice to help the club to a 2-1 win.
Three days later, he came off the bench in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores final in Buenos Aires and grabbed the goal that brought his side level 1-1 with Boca Juniors.
That goal has made Corinthians favorites to lift their first ever Copa Libertadores trophy when the two sides line up for the return leg in Sao Paulo’s Pacaembu Stadium today.
Corinthians are in the final for the first time, while Boca are in their 10th, seeking a seventh win that would bring them alongside fellow Argentine club Independiente as the most successful team in the competition.
However, while Boca have the experience, Corinthians have the form.
They are unbeaten in the tournament so far and have conceded just four goals in their 13 matches.
For all that, they still have trouble scoring and have drawn uncomplimentary comparisons with Chelsea, who beat attack-minded Barcelona and Bayern Munich on their way to winning the Champions League this year.
Like the Londoners, Corinthians put organization ahead of flair and like to pack players behind the ball.
Romarinho could be the answer to their goalscoring problems.
The youngster fulfills all the requisites of a Brazilian soccer hero. Son of a poor family whose father cut sugar cane for a living, he was rejected by several top teams, before finally coming good at lowly Bragantino.
Corinthians snapped him up last month after he scored six goals in 23 games in the Paulista State Championship earlier this year.
Although his name means little Romario, he is not related to the former Brazil striker turned politician, even if he reportedly shares the same penchant for nightlife and a killer instinct in front of goal.
“Romarinho is cool, he’s ice cold, and he had already showed that in the game against Palmeiras,” coach Tite said after the Boca Juniors match. “He’s deadly, you just have to give him the ball in the last third of the field to let him do what he knows how.”
Both teams will be at full strength for today’s decider.
Boca Juniors did not play at the weekend because the Argentina Clausura has finished, while Corinthians’ match against Botafogo was postponed to allow the team to prepare.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier