Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Felipe Scolari led Palmeiras to clinch their 10th Brazilian Serie A title with a game to spare, their second top flight crown in three years.
It capped off a happy homecoming for Scolari, four and a half years after his Brazil team lost 7-1 at home to Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup — widely considered the most humiliating result in the country’s proud football history, reports Xinhua news agency.
The 27-year-old Deyverson Silva on Sunday scored the lone goal for a 1-0 win over Vasco da Gama in the 71st minute at Vasco’s Sao Januario Stadium with a close-range volley after a slick move involving Dudu and Willian.
Palmeiras have been unbeaten in 22 league matches since Scolari returned to coach the club for a third time, replacing Roger Machado in late July when the team was languishing in seventh place.
This is his first coaching job in his homeland since a brief spell at Gremio in 2014 and 2015. The 70-year-old has since spent his time abroad, having led Guangzhou Evergrande to a hat-trick of league titles during a trophy-laden three-year spell in China.
“There were some stronger words said in the dressing room when I arrived,” Scolari, who tasted World Cup glory during his first spell as Brazil coach in 2002, said of his return to Palmeiras.
“I demanded a little bit more in certain areas. The group knew that I was here with an aim to be champions together. Nothing more or nothing less was required. We needed the desire and determination of the players to carry out a plan.”
Scolari rejected suggestions that the Brazilian Serie A title represented personal redemption.
“People think that (the 2014 World Cup) will mark me for the rest of my life,” he said. “But it won’t. I have worked in football for a long time and … along the way there have been good and bad moments.”
Palmeiras, the most successful club in the history of Brazil’s Serie A, have now won two titles more than their nearest rivals Santos.
–IANS
