Juninho Wins Battle of Brazilian Marquee Players

The A-League’s two big name Brazilian Marquee Players both went head to head yesterday when Mario Jardel and his Newcastle Jets faced the Juninho Paulista’s Sydney FC. Both men have made Beckham like starts to their Australian careers, their seasons interrupted by injury. Both were (sort of) fit to start the game, with Juninho “wearing a harness to protect his damaged shoulder,” but it was the little man’s night as he provided this beauty of a through ball for Alex Brosque to score the only goal.

Jardel had two ridiculously goalful (it’s a word) spells in Portugal, while Juninho is still legend in Middlesbrough. They also briefly shared Seleção time, though Juninho has way more caps and a medal that says “World Cup Winner, 2002″ on it.

You can see from these extended highlights that Juninho looks much more influential, while Jardel (who’s Portuguese goalscoring figures really are ridiculous) can be seen sending the ball into orbit before he was replaced at halftime.

Attendance wasn’t great for the Brazilian Marquee Player showdown, with only 13,755 showing up. But if Juninho can stay fit and start putting on a show every week, that can only be good for the A-League. As for Jardel… we’ll just have to wait and see, and hope he remembers where he left his scoring boots sometime soon.

Category: World Football

Tags: World Football, Tag Index

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