It was mission accomplished in the end, as Vovô will play another season in top flight, but it was quite a ride during the whole campaign. Safety was only assured in the last round.
Enderson Moreira was hired just before the start of the season after Vovô lost the regional final against arch-rivals Fortaleza, and league season started on a very acceptable pace. Around round 14, Ceará was just 4 points behind the 6th place.
A narrow defeat to São Paulo in mid-August started an awful period of 2 months without winning, and quickly Vozão became a relegation contender. At round 24 Ceará was already sitting on red.
Adilson Baptista assumed the team in the meanwhile and things improved but only for a short time. Ceará had a very rough ending not winning any of the last 7 games, not even after bringing third coach of the season Argel Fuchs on board. Luckily, their contenders Cruzeiro were not doing any better on their own games and helped Ceará to hold their Série A position.
The squad was evidently short in numbers as a lot of injury problems affected the team since before the season started. Quixadá, William, Auremir, Wescley, Pedro Ken, Richard and Tiago Alves had all long injuries.
Centre-half Luiz Otávio’s influence on the team immense. The difference on the team’s stability at the back when playing without him was incredibly big. Otávio uncoincidentally was present in all the 10 victories of the season, and missed during the worst moments of the team, namely the 10-straigth defeats between August and October.
Next season is not expected to be any easier, as it will be hard to make any drastic improvements on the squad.
