Pentagon Pursuit | Part 35 | Recovering From Final Heartbreak

“To play your best in the present, you need to turn the page on the past. To move forward, see the past game as a footnote in yesterday’s newspaper. Imagine yourself flipping through yesterday’s news and refuse to see what happened yesterday.” That was the advice of Robaato Rasamu’s lead sport psychologist to his Athlético Paranaense players and staff as they tried to recover from the absolute heartbreak they’d suffered in Paraguay.

Rasamu initiated a Voldemort-esque ban on “the game we do not speak of” as he aimed to instill new levels of mental toughness at Paranaense. That began with a clearout of players who didn’t deliver last season, led by ineffective attacker Arian Castro going to Saudi for £8m. Also leaving were striker Rafinha, midfielders Pauleta, Ney and Vicente, winger Jorge Augusto and defender Cláudio for a total of £17m.

That left Rasamu with a warchest of £120m that he couldn’t dream of spending. His first signing was exciting playmaker Váldson, who looks like being a significant upgrade on Fábio, for a new club record £21m from Fluminense. He was joined by holding midfielder Juan David Castro for £3m from América de Cali and centre back Geovane Henrique for £4.4m from Serie C side Mirassol. But the most important signing could be centre back Leandro Soncini, who joined for £6m from Ceará after ignoring interest from Chelsea and Liverpool.

Rasamu decided it was time for a slight tweak in tactics and introduced a 4-2-4 approach in the summer of 2039. The new centre back additions were crucial as both prefer to be Liberos, which Rasamu will harness by using Luiz Carlos as an inverted wing back. Fábio or Váldson slot back into holding midfield alongside 13-time capped Brazil international Lucas Pena Barcelos as a roaming playmaker with the left winger pushing forward and changing the second striker role to a complete forward.

Campeonato Paranaense Domination Continues

The new formation looked very impressive as Paranaense strolled to a 7-0 win over Cianorte led by a Pipoca hat trick. That set the tone for a fourth successive undefeated state league success, which took Rasamu to 72 games unbeaten in the competition. During the campaign, Paranaense became the longest reign of Rasamu’s career as he went past the 234 matches at Albirex Niigata and Pipoca became the club’s all-time record league goalscorer as he surpassed Julimar’s tally of 81.

Back Into Copa Libertadores

Rasamu didn’t particularly want to think about Copa Libertadores, so was dreading the group stage draw in mid-January. However, the result of the draw gave him a little tonic as Paranaense got a group alongside Argentina’s Racing Club, Peruvian side César Vallejo and Paraguayans Olimpia.

The group began with a trip to Peru and Rasamu’s players looked to keen to lay a marker. Winger Rodrigo Bracamonte scored a delicious 20-yarder after 15 minutes, left winger Carlos Eduardo doubled the lead after good roaming play by Carlos 10 minutes later, striker Roameth Merino whipped in a 25-yard screamer and Bracamonte made it four just before the break. They didn’t let up as Eduardo and Merino also doubled their tallies before five subs allowed the hosts to get a couple of consolations.

Their first home game was against Racing, who led at the break with their only shot. But Paranaense kept pushing and Augusto Barros levelled before Esdras cut inside and whipped one into the bottom corner to earn them a deserved late victory. They were more in control at Olimpia as Fábio’s penalty, Aguilar, Pipoca and Soncini’s first goal for the club eased them to a 4-1 win. An fast start at home to Olimpia saw Váldson tee up Pipoca to tap home after 17 seconds. They wasted a mass of chances but Merino wrapped it up late on, even after Yago absolutely snapped Olimpia’s striker.

That win was enough to seal qualification and they should have wrapped up top spot with a dominant performance at home to César Vallejo. Eduardo got them started, Bracamonte’s header doubled the lead and Pena Barcelos drilled home the third after 19 minutes. The backup keeper somehow conceded all three shots on target, leaving Rasamu fuming at a 5-3 win. But he needn’t have worried as a strong performance in Argentina saw Pipoca’s hat trick inspire a 4-0 victory at Racing.

Strong Form Carries Into Série A

The bookies fancy Paranaense’s chances this season, predicting them to finish 3rd with odds of 17/1. Flamengo remain 13/8 favourites followed by Palmerias at 8/1. But Rasamu’s focus during the Série A campaign was mostly on balancing keeping his key players fit, rested, in form while also not getting unhappy with a lack of league gametime, which was harder said than done.

The formation switch continued to excel in the early days of Série A, going unbeaten through the first eight games. The brutal nature of the league soon caught up with them as a rotated side lost to Internacional and at last season’s heartbreakers Corinthians, before they somehow won 2-1 at Flamengo to go top of the league. And they stayed there at the halfway mark of the season with Abel Aguilar’s strike earning a 1-0 win over Gremio.