Santos FC hungry for glory at Copa Libertadores, but will they survive their insane marathon?

As Santos FC, the last Brazilian side left in Copa Santander Libertadores, classified to the semi-finals after a dramatic draw against Colombian Once Caldas at the Pacaembu stadium it seems like they’re one of the two favorites for the title (the other being Vélez Sarsfield). But will they be able to overcome the injury plague raised by their incredible marathon of matches?

This Wednesday Santos went to the pitch with the advantage of having won in Colombia 0-1. The match started well for the Brazilian, as Santos put pressure up front denying Once Caldas the possibility to breath. At the eleventh minute they were one up, after Neymar performed a marvelous shot from just outside the box. Twelve minutes later one of their creative midfielders, Allan Patrick, who was substituting an injured Paulo Henrique Ganso, fell on the ground with muscular pain and had to leave. An inspired Neymar didn’t lose the chance of lifting the ball over an opponent at midfield and after losing possession chased the rival until the sideline left of his team’s own box, where he fouled him. Ball to the area, confusion, Renteria gets lucky, Once Caldas goal.

Santos then began to give the Colombian side too much initiative and the Brazilian players clearly started to tire. At the beginning of the second half, whenever the game stopped you could see three or four alvinegros holding their own legs, fatigued. The santistas lost loads of goals, as their legs weren’t responding well. Soon Zé Eduardo, one of their strikers, fell injured and was substituted. Once Caldas created a couple of chances with counter-strikes and dead balls that threatened to silence the 33,000 fans at Pacaembu. As the final minutes were being played Neymar dribbled two defenders in the opponent’s box and got a penalty only to miss it. But then it was finally over. It was a painful bittersweet draw that meant an important victory.

Having played a series of 12 matches with their new coach Muricy Ramalho, Santos’s still unbeaten. Asked after the game what kind of changes his side needed to win their third south-american title, the 19-year-old Neymar answered: “none, we’re playing like hell”. As a Brazilian adage says “one shouldn’t change a team that’s winning”.  Well, unfortunately for them, changes might not be on their hands. After losing Brazil’s most intelligent playmaker Ganso and the striker Maikon Leite due to injury, they now have to worry about Patrick and Zé Eduardo.

This situation is by no means unexplainable. Santos played an absurd number of 12 matches in 39 days, having won the São Paulo State Championship recently. Even if they were eliminated of Libertadores in the semi-finals they would end up playing 73 times this year. And like many of Brazil’s big sides, Santos FC had only ten days of pre-season. Ramalho has his own vision about it: “In these twelve matches we played the players didn’t have the chance to spend four or five days home. This is terrible. Hotel, traveling, no family, no girlfriend, no wife. And you just have to win. At the physical aspect we’re ok, at the muscular one there’s nothing that can be done, but what hit us most is the emotional one. We’re too stressed”. He admitted giving his first team players a rest at the first round of Brazilian Championship this Saturday. “No more romanticism. Now it’s over. Or else we’ll soon have no players to play”.

But as much as this gigantic series of matches is directly responsible for Santos injuries and fatigue, there’s something about the way their play that just doesn’t help them. They’re one of the teams with the most technically gifted players in South America, a side with Neymar, Ganso, Elano and also the attacking defensive-midfielder Arouca. But even with some promising midfielders at the bench, in the last two years Santos has been unable to dominate possession, playing against better and worse sides alike. They share the ball fifty-fifty too often and sometimes (that became more usual with their last two coaches) relish too much in counterstriking. They frequently look anxious to play the ball long, having players with the capacity of doing so with accuracy, and almost never seek resting with the ball. After a long chain of matches the fatigue difference between them and more possession based sides like Cruzeiro E.C. becomes evident.

This is only an outsider analysis on their play and it’s no excuse to the absurd number of matches in the Brazilian football calendar. The states championships, as much as they still raise passionate reactions from people, seem outdated. There’s a question that maybe should hang on Brazilian fans minds: who benefits from the injuring of our main stars?