Botafogo started off really strong and bagged 47 out of 57 points in the first half of the 2023 Brazilian League. That leveled Corinthians’ numbers in 2017 as the best ever recorded since the league has adopted a round-robin format.
History suggested that 26 points in the second half would secure them the trophy, and this showed to be true. In fact, Palmeiras can only get to 72 points, meaning that Botafogo could even be champions with 25 points (depending on tie-breakers).25/26 points in 19 matches isn’t a spectacular mark. That’s just a comfortable score that sees your team have a spot next year with no further aspirations or worries.
Botafogo had built a 13 point lead to the 2nd-placer (then Grêmio)and sat at the top of the league since the 3rd round.
And now…
Al-Nassr took their coach away and they’ve already changed command twice since then. The lead melted away and the team collapsed. Botafogo lost the lead to Palmeiras with 4 rounds to go, weren’t been able to make a comeback and, with one match to go, not only are they out of the battle for the trophy, but they aren’t even in the qualifying zone that would grant them a spot at the group stage of the Taça Libertadores (as it is, they’ll have to play in the qualifiers)
You guys might remember that Borussia Dortmund bottled the last Bundesliga, but never had such a bulky lead. Then there’s Newcastle with a 12 point lead in 1995/96 Premier League. But let’s continue here: Botafogo holds the longest win-less streak in the league right now and I invite you to check out Botafogo’s last 6 matches:
83’, Botafogo 3x1 Palmeiras - Penalty to Botafogo. Final score: 3x4
46’ Botafogo 3x1 Grêmio - Final score: 3x4. Obs.: Botafogo’s home stadium has synthetic grass, but was leased for a concert and Botafogo hosted Grêmio in São Januário, which has natural grass. Grêmio’s Luis Suárez - yes, that one - prefers not to play on synth grass because of knee injuries so would either change his game or sit on the bench. Well, Suárez played and scored a hat-trick to turn the game
95’ Red Bull Bragantino 1x2 Botafogo - Final score: 2x2
Now, Palmeiras, Grêmio and Braganitno were contenders for the trophy at the time of the matches. Regardless, the lead built in each of these games should have been confirmed with a win. Let’s move on
89’ Botafogo 1x0 Santos - Final score: 1x1
98’ Coritiba 0x1 Botafogo - Final score: 1x1 (Botafogo scored a second-to-last-minute penalty, Coritiba scored less than 30 seconds after kicking off again and the match ended)
So far, a solid case for at least 12 points here plus the Grêmio match, with a possible perfect 15 point mark. With a combination of just 7 points (e.g. winning 2 out of those 3 games against Bragantino, Santos and Coritiba, and tying with Palmeiras), they would be champions with 2 matches to play.
And this all culminated today, when Botafogo drew a home 0x0 against Cruzeiro.
Coritiba were already relegated at the time of the match, Santos are fighting relegation and still have to fight for a place in the elite in the final round and today’s 0x0 made sure that Cruzeiro won’t be relegated and that Botafogo can’t be champions anymore.
I’d like to know your views about this case and if you guys have more cases like that. To me, this is the worst case of a team meltdown that I’ve ever witnessed.
TL; DR: Botafogo had a 13 point lead at the end of the first half of the national league with the best numbers ever recorded. The team collapsed and can’t win even though there’s still one match to go. In the last 6 matches, they dropped points by last minute goals, losing 2 goal leads and stumbling on teams fighting relegation
(Minor edits for wording + TL; DR)
Al-Ittihad 2021/2022 was extremely embarrassing.
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there seriously isn’t any bigger example within common knowledge that could top botafogo’s impressive feat. broke the record of best first half (19 matches) in league history, then if only their second half performance counted they would relegate.
they aren’t just mathematically out of contention for the title, they are at actual risk of staying out of libertadores group stages after leading for literally 90% of the league’s entire duration.
I mean, it’s obvious the coach leaving had a big impact on the team. It’s not like they started to play badly out of thin air. It’s like losing your best player, your performance will most probably go down. And besides that, the psychological factor has to be taken into account. I imagine the players have been listening to the press and the fans talking about a potential historical choke and they just mentally quitted once the first bad results came in. I just feel bad for the players.
They actually played most of the games mentioned quite well, for about 80 min ou more, and then completely collapsed at the end of every single crucial game
Maybe Eibar last season last 10 games top of the league before and they got 9 points out of 30
Botafogo got 6 points out of the last 30. And they spent 31 games top of the league.
By the flavor of the text, you guys might get the idea, but I’ll remind you that the idea here is for the long run, not particular matches where a team manages a great comeback like the Istambul Miracle or that crazy Arsenal-Reading league match
The 2015/16 Mesut Ozil special.
Colombian team America de Cali in 1987. After losing the Copa Libertadores final twice in a row, they made it all the way to the final once again. They undoubtedly had the best squad in the whole continent, they won their home league for around 8 straight years, and had star players from countries like Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina (financed with drug money). They had to face Peñarol this time around, a team made up solely of homegrown Uruguayan players, America managed to beat them in 2 - 0 in the home game and then lost 2 - 1 in the away game, in modern times that would mean they won the title but back then the cup had a different format, so they played a third game in Argentina 3 days later.
A draw would have been enough for America since they had a +1 goal difference and Peñarol had a -1 GD, they didn’t even need to score to finally win the cup, and everything was going according to plan until the 120th minute where a Peñarol player scored and gave the Uruguayans the title. America made it to the semifinals the next year and to another final in the 90s but to this day they still haven’t won the Copa Libertadores
To me it’s 100% the worst in the history of the sport and arguably the worst in any sport whatsoever. It’s unfathomable
Their last 5 matches are draws, and the 4 matches before that are losses, 2/3rds of which should have been wins. This is an unprecedented level of bottling.
Fuck Al-Nassr
FB
This is the type of thing I don’t see getting over without a sports psychologist. I can’t imagine they can just pick up next year and pretend like nothing happened.
And no, I don’t recall any similar thing in any sport, only small point gaps (Dortmund last year) or unique moments of blunders (i.e. Dick Advocaat’s “Sweden won’t win 8-0.”).
Blowing a 13 point lead somehow manages to be worse than Newcastle in the PL in 1995/96.
12 points clear at Christmas, they eventually finished 4pts behind Man Utd.
Arsenal bottled the premier league after leading for 95% of the season last season & it doesn’t get talked about enough.