The 2008 Brazil Football Season Kicks-off This Saturday 10th May...
Série A (Brasileirão) is where
the big boys play, there are currently
20 teams in the league, who play the usual one home and away against each other - the objective besides winning it, of course, is to avoid the drop into
the wilderness that is Serie B - but 4 teams will ultimately, at the end of the 40 games
have to face that humiliation.
Most bookmakers offer odds on Serie A games, and with careful selection it can be a profitable league for your football betting.
In this pre-cursor I will try and point you in the right direction, beware though, because it's mostly based on observation in addition to some thoughts - always do your own reserach before placing a bet!
One of the things to realize about Brazil is the huge geographical area it covers, and an away game can take a few flying hours - this however, doesn't usually affect the teams, but what it does do is ensure that home crowds are partisan - this is lessened in games involving teams from the same state, because there will be some away fan presence.
The teams that tend do dominate the top-half of Serie A are the Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro sides, and that is where to concentrate your mind if you are looking for an outright winner.
At the time of writing however, the bookies are yet to publish odds on the outright winner - But my idea of the winner will come from the following 4 teams:
SAO PAULO (last years winner)
SANTOS
BOTAFOGO
FLAMENGO
Sao Paulo are favourites to take it again, but I like
Botafogo for a top 3 spot with
Santos being next best.
Here is the way they finished last season:
(Team- Matches- Win -Draw- Loss- GS- GA- Points)
Sao Paulo 38 23 8 7 55 19 77
Santos 38 19 5 14 57 47 62
Flamengo 38 17 10 11 55 49 61
Fluminense 38 16 13 9 57 39 61
Cruzeiro 38 18 6 14 73 58 60
Gremio Porto Alegre 38 17 7 14 44 43 58
Palmeiras 38 16 10 12 48 47 58
Botafogo 38 14 13 11 62 58 55
Atletico Mineiro 38 15 10 13 63 51 55
Vasco da Gama 38 15 9 14 58 47 54
Internacional 38 15 9 14 49 44 54
Atletico Paranaense 38 14 12 12 51 50 54
Figueirense 38 14 11 13 57 56 53
Sport Club Recife 38 14 9 15 54 55 51
Nautico Capibaribe 38 14 7 17 66 63 49
Goias 38 13 6 19 49 62 45
Corinthians 38 10 14 14 40 50 44
Parana Clube 38 11 8 19 42 64 41
Juventude 38 11 8 19 43 65 41
America Natal 38 4 5 29 24 80 17
As a guide to help you decide which teams to follow in home and away games, here is a list of the teams which perform best and worst at home and away - this list is based on last seasons performance(s) and may not reflect this seasons games...
But anyway, here you go:
BEST PERFORMING HOME TEAMS:
(Team- Matches- Win- Draw- Loss- GS- GA- Points)
Sao Paulo 19 13 3 3 35 8 42
Flamengo 19 12 4 3 37 20 40
Gremio Porto Alegre 19 12 4 3 32 17 40
Atletico Paranaense 19 11 6 2 29 15 39
Internacional 19 12 2 5 27 16 38
Sport Club Recife 19 11 5 3 40 23 38
Santos 19 11 4 4 36 19 37
Vasco da Gama 19 11 3 5 40 18 36
Cruzeiro 19 11 2 6 43 29 35
Figueirense 19 10 5 4 35 22 35
Botafogo 19 10 4 5 38 25 34
Here are the best teams to follow away (based on last
seasons performance).
(Team- Matches- Win- Draw- Loss- GS- GA- Points )
Sao Paulo 19 10 5 4 20 11 35
Fluminense 19 8 5 6 27 24 29
Cruzeiro 19 7 4 8 30 29 25
Santos 19 8 1 10 21 28 25
Palmeiras 19 6 7 6 21 26 25
Atletico Mineiro 19 6 5 8 23 28 23
Botafogo 19 4 9 6 24 33 21
Flamengo 19 5 6 8 18 29 21
Corinthians 19 4 7 8 23 30 19
Nautico Capibaribe 19 5 3 11 31 40 18
Figueirense 19 4 6 9 22 34 18
Vasco da Gama 19 4 6 9 18 29 18
Gremio Porto Alegre 19 5 3 11 12 26 18
Internacional 19 3 7 9 22 28 16
Atletico Paranaense 19 3 6 10 22 35 15
Sport Club Recife 19 3 4 12 14 32 13
And finally, here the games for this coming weekend, prediction is in bold type - there are no odds available yet - so
these are NOT recommended bets, merely predictions for week 1 of SERIE A Brasil.
SATURDAY
10/05/2008
São Paulo x Grêmio
Náutico x Goiás
Vitória x Cruzeiro
SUNDAY
11/05/2008
Internacional x
Vasco
Ipatinga x
Atlético-PR
Botafogo x Sport
Coritiba x Palmeiras
Portuguesa x
Figueirense
Atlético-MG x Fluminense
Flamengo x Santos
Good Luck, we got a great season to look forwatd too 
PS: This is only a pre-cursor, I will expand on this over the coming weeks.