Brazil Serie A: Sport Recife- Joinville

 

Last week I looked at how the opening five rounds and last 12 months had played out in Brasileirão in terms of home wins......

Home wins are running at a very high 56% through five rounds in Brazil and I am hoping that trend will continue this evening, actually, over the last 35 rounds of Serie A action, we have seen 54.67% of matches end in home wins, which is as high as you will see anywhere over such a large sample in what is a highly competitive league and back to a level we have not seen for 6-7 seasons and we can definitely use this to our advantage in the coming weeks, especially when allied to another trend, but I have no need to discuss that today, so let's hold off on that for the time being.
 

Round 6 saw five of the ten end in wins for hosting teams, Joinville bucked the overal trend by losing at home to Corinthians and Sport Recife also proved the exception, with a draw at highflying Fluminense to preserve their unbeaten start to the season. Hosts are a perfect 3-0-0 this season and were 10-6-3 at home last season, they could go top with all three points this evning as long as Sao Paulo do not follow suit at Chapecoense and that is a very big incentive for a club who have won the title only once in their history, which was almost three decades ago and for much of recent years they have been yo-yo-ing between the top two divisions and only returned to Serie A last season. They are looking to cement this time round and despite their very solid start, they have shown ambition by adding Marlone from Fluminense and Andre from Atletico Mineiro  this week to add to offensive options and both took part in training yesterday and seem sure to play some part this afternoon. Andre scored 12 goals for relegated Vasco in 2013 from just 28 appearances and Marlone impressed in the same team, both earned good moves away from Vasco and both are now looking to get back on track. they should be good additions.
 

Joinville have one point and a single goal from six starts following promotion last season and have already parted company with their coach, but Adilson Batista has a big job to turn them around and any improvement is more likely to come on home soil, as even in their promotion campaign they lost nine on the road. The new coach shoehorned in double training sessions on a couple of days this week and that might have benefits down the line, but could leave players a little "leggy" this weekend, short of options, especially in midfield against an up and coming team, who have strengthened and are so strong on home soil, this looks a very big ask.