Perhaps the most positive surprise of the season. Fluminense overcame a lot of difficulties to achieve a great 5th place, finishing just 7 points behind the champions.
Having lost Gilberto and Evanilson to Portuguese football and, most importantly, not having brought any significant new signing, there was no reasons to believe the team could be doing much better than last seasons.
The start of the season wasn’t too bad, but it was irregular as expected, with Tricolores oscilating from good wins (like a 2-1 over title contenders Internacional) and poor runs (3 games without winning from 7th to 9th round.
A good 4-0 win over Coritiba in round 12 was the ignition for a very positive run under Odair Hellmann. It was 13 games with having known defeat only twice (7W, 4D). But this good form led to Odair being lured to sign a more profitable contract in Asia.
Houseman Marcão assumed the role, first as interim. And things seemed to be heading down, for a while, with 3 games without winning in the start of Marcão in dugout. In the meantime, midfield reference Dodi was also leaving, while Nenê and Ganso were having continuous physical issues.
Marcão decided to bring some youngsters to the side (Martinelli above all), letting some unsettled players out for good (Marcos Paulo, Muriel), and Flu found their winning pace once again.
Humiliation against Corinthians in the 29th round seemed to have been the ultimate motivation for the team to proceed on a memorable last 9 rounds: 6 wins, 3 draws and 0 defeats.
Centre-half Luccas Claro was the most regular unit of the season. Perhaps the only one to have kept a very high level from beginning to end. Michel Araújo had a good run in first months; Martinelli was the sensation in the end.
