Santos midweek game against Corinthians has been postponed to the first week of August. When it will potentially be a midweek make up game roundly derided by both managers as contributing to fixture congestion, star burnout, etc. Oh wait, that only seems to happen in the European Leagues.
Santos would however have liked to have played Corinthians sooner rather than later. Neymar and Ganso will probably both be gone in August. Corinthians are probably breathing a sigh of relief.
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So, as it stands Gameweek Five is now complete.
Sao Paulo were the big winners with a fifth straight win, this time away to Ceara. A win ? Check. Trip to northern outpost done? Check. They now have a four point lead over second placed Palemeiras, with their fourth clean sheet in five games.
Once again, Lucas was the wrecker in chief with his third goal of the campaign after Marlos had opened the scoring with his second strike of the campaign. Once again Sao Paulo's defence was imperious and captain Rogerio Ceni shut the opposition out for the second week in a row. Despite scoring only nine goals, Sao Paulo are now sitting pretty at the summit with 15 points.
Second placed Palmeiras did their best to keep up with a fluent 5-0 thrashing of bottom club Avai. Luan and Kleber both scored doubles and the former is now joint scoring leader with Vasco's Bernardo. Although Palmeiras are still just in touch, they are already at the stage where they need to keep winning and for Sao Paulo drop points.
Speaking of Vasco, they drew 1-1 away to Gremio with the aforementioned scoring leader notching his fourth goal of the campaign. Gremio will be disappointed with the draw as they have now picked up just four points from their three home games, incidentally the same tally that Vasco have from their three away games.
Porto Allegre will have to wait till next week to try and celebrate a win as their other club, Internacional, also drew, 1-1 away to Coritiba. The home side are slowly recovering after a bad start and this draw was only their second point scoring game of the campaign. Inter are still propped just below Gremio in midtable while Coritiba remain perched precariously, just above the drop zone.
Atletico Mineiro were winless for the third game in a row, drawing 2-2 with Goianiense, at home. Stuck having to do things the hard away, Mineiro had to rely on Guilherme and Renan Oliveira to come off the bench and score after Atl Go took the lead and kept it through half time, with an early goal from Marcao. Atl Go nudge their way into the top half with four points from their last two games while Mineiro fall down to fifth, stuck in neutral.
Figueriense scored an important win as well, beating second from bottom Atl Paranaense 2-0 at home. Their season just keeps getting better and they are now up to a heady fourth. Atl Para remain 19th.
In a relegation six pointer on Saturday night, America Mineiro and Cruzeiro played out a 1-1 tie that will make neither team happy and improve the prospects of teams around them. Star striker Wallyson remained scoreless for the fifth game in a row and has now played 440 minutes without scoring. Mineiro drop to 15th with Cru now 18th. While a depressing lack of attacking intent will cause both sets of fans some concern, the fact remains that the teams in the bottom seven spots just need to string together a sequence of wins to escape the quagmire.
The remaining fixtures saw the other Rio clubs all fail to win. Each week has brought diminishing returns for the clubs from the southern city. Flamengo and Botafogo played out a goalless draw with the home side drawing their fourth game on the trot. Fluminense provided the story of the round, and proved this hack wrong, with an amazing 1-0 home defeat to Bahia, the slumbering giant from the northern city of Fortaleza.
After looking unlikely to break its winless streak, Bahia scored a crucial away win over the defending champions with a last minute goal from Jobson. Perhaps the season will improve after all. Bahia climb to 14th, just two spots behind Fluminense in 12th.
A relatively low scoring round, Palmeiras' five goal thrashing aside, Gameweek Five saw only 15 goals scored between the remaining 16 clubs.
Mineiro in 5th with 8 points are technically in mid-table - just 7 points clear of Avai in dead last, the same gap to Sao Paulo at the summit. If most of the teams don't start winning soon, the championship will quickly become a race for second and third spot.
Bahia registered the result of the round and now can return to Fortaleza having broken their away and season duck.
Palmeiras' Luan is now tied with Vasco's Bernardo at the top of the scoring charts with four goals apiece.
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Both Sao Paolo clubs who were in action won and are now 1-2 in the table.
The top three clubs in the standings are also from Sao Paolo.
All four Rio clubs failed to win with Fluminense losing at home.
Four clubs are still unbeaten, Sao Paulo, Corinthians, Palmeiras (1-2-3 in the table) and Ronaldinho's Flamengo.
Three clubs are now winless in Avai, Atletico Paranaense and Cruzeiro. Bahia left that unwanted group with a shock win over Flu in Rio.
Five of the nine games ended in draws as six clubs failed to score.
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At least the top 12 sides will qualify for continental competition next spring while the bottom four teams will get relegated to the 2012 Serie B.
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Vasco Da Gama, who won the Copa Do Brasil, have booked a spot at the 2012 Copa Libertadores.
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The 2011 Copa Libertadores second leg plays out tomorrow as Santos host Penarol.
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