Football Season Guide

Sport finished 2nd in Série B last season, having grabbed a safe place in the top-4 quite early on. A magnificent second half of the season (37 points out of possible 51) was a good visiting card for what they hope to do now in Série A. Sport will add to the teams from the Northeast: a total of 4 this season. From the 4 teams coming back, Leão is perhaps the one team with biggest top flight pedigree as they have competed among the strongest teams in the country quite often, in these last 10 years. Pernambucanos seem strong in all areas, this time around. Iago Maidana and Patric joined recently coming from Atlético MG and seem very solid options for the back, where there's also the promising Adryelson. Unfortunately, Rithely is said to be leaving, but with Ronaldo, Betinho, Gomez, Mugni, Igor and Farias, there are plenty of very good options for midfield. In attack, Barcia and Brocador (14 goals in Série B, last season) are well known names; Ewandro's dazzling skills will have another chance for finally proving that they can be effective as well this season. The biggest question mark concerns the manager. Relatively unknown, the 38-years old Daniel Paulista was given a chance to command the team; will Daniel be up for the biggest challenge of his short career?