Team Focus: Continuity the Key as Cruzeiro Win Second Successive Brazilian Title

The Campeonato Brasileiro, to bastardise that neat Gary Lineker aphorism, is a simple championship. 20 teams slog away for the best part of a year and in the end, Cruzeiro win.

It wasn’t always thus, of course: the Belo Horizonte side’s dominance is a relatively unusual phenomenon for a league that usually prides itself on the fact that pretty much any one of 12 or so teams could take the title in any given year. Yet for the first time since São Paulo’s reign of terror between 2006 and 2008, one side looks to be establishing something of a dynasty.

Key to Cruzeiro’s success this term was that most rare of commodities in Brazilian football: continuity. Forward-thinking coach Marcelo Oliveira stayed put following the 2013 title, as did the vast majority of his key players: Éverton Ribeiro, last season’s player of the year, resisted overtures from Europe, while Lucas Silva and Ricardo Goulart also stuck around.

Those who did come in added extra quality: former Corinthians wideman Willian and journeyman striker Marcelo Moreno both made telling contributions in attack, while Marquinhos and Manoel helped bolster the squad. Oliveira also got more out of intelligent holding midfielder Henrique this season, while youngsters Mayke and Alisson both stepped up to become important cogs in the system.

Their dominance is underlined by the statistics: no side averaged more than their 54.4% possession over the course of the season, while their totals of 565 shots and 443 key passes were far and away the highest in the division – no real surprise given their attacking resources. Cruzeiro also ended the season in the top three for accurate crosses (237 – second only to Inter), passing success (80.3%) and accurate long balls (1293). 

Those figures go some way to spelling out the sheer variety of Cruzeiro’s attacking threat: this is a side capable of unlocking tight defences with patient passing (hi, Mr Ribeiro!) but one not afraid to mix it up by going long or whipping in balls from deep. Case in point: no Série A player set up more goals from crosses than right-back Mayke, with 7.

With aerial powerhouses like Dedé, Bruno Rodrigo and Nilton on the books, dead balls were a also major weapon in their armoury: 8 goals came directly from corners and free-kicks.

Defensively, injuries and rotation meant that there was less consistency than Oliveira may have liked. Corinthians, Grêmio and even mid-table Santos all conceded fewer goals than the Foxes, albeit enjoying far less success at the other end of the field. There is a sense that this could be an area of improvement in 2015.

Really, though, we’re nit-picking here. This is a side that gathered fully ten more points than São Paulo, a side that themselves earned rave reviews for a fine season. Cruzeiro led the table from the sixth round – way back before the World Cup – until the final reckoning and, despite a brief wobble, even managed to beat last season’s points tally.

“Long before you win trophies, you have to know how you want to play and find the coach and players to suit that style,” wrote Folha de S. Paulo columnist Paulo Vinícius Coelho after the Raposa wrapped up the title with two rounds to spare. “After that, you need to believe in the project and give it time. That is the great lesson we can take from the Cruzeiro side of the past two years.”

There are signs that other clubs are beginning to take note, but they may well need every ounce of patience going next year. For Cruzeiro will take some stopping as they pursue a hat-trick of titles.

How impressed were you with Cruzeiro retaining the title? Can they do it again next year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below