Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, also known as Copinha, is the main youth competition in Brazil. Despite being played in São Paulo and taking the name of the State and the capital, we have the presence of the most diverse clubs throughout Brazil.

The 2022 Copinha edition is coming to an end, and we still have two clashes to decide which will be the finalists of the competition. The semifinals will be disputed between São Paulo x Palmeiras and Santos x América MG.

This text will help you better understand what are the expectations for this end of Cup and how each team arrives to face this final stretch, in addition to offering tips on bets for the big decision.

2022 Cup History

Officially, the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Junior began to be played in 1969, which had Corinthians as champion. Even today, Timão is the club that most often won this competition, having twice as many titles as the second place on the list.

In the 2022 edition, Timão was unable to maintain its favoritism and was eliminated early, in the third phase of the competition, by the Resende-RJ team.

Despite not winning the title since 1989, the second club that most won the competition is Fluminense-RJ. Tricolor Carioca also failed to go very far in the 2022 edition, being eliminated by semifinalist Santos.

Tied for second on the list of champions with Fluminense, Internacional also has 5 Cup titles. Expectations on top of Colorado were high, as the team is the current champion, winning the 2020 edition – the 2021 edition did not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Palmeiras team was not aware of the current champion and sent the team back to Porto Alegre in the round of 16.

Counting since 2011, the clubs that won the most Copinha are Corinthians and Flamengo, tied with 3 titles each.

Flamengo chose to call up the highlights of the base to compose the squad in preparation for the 2022 Carioca Championship. In this way, several players with less shooting and age below the average of the Copinha took on the mission of taking the rubro-negro in search of the competition title . The carioca giant was eliminated in the third phase of the competition by Oeste-SP.

Among the clubs that are in the semifinals, the one that most often won the Copinha is São Paulo, with 4 cups raised, followed by Santos with 3 and América-MG, with 1. Palmeiras, fourth semifinalist and rival of São Paulo in the fights for a place in the final, has not yet won the competition.

Traditionally, every year the Copa São Paulo final is played at the Paulo Machado Carvalho stadium, Pacaembu. The problem is that in 2022 the stadium is banned for renovations and will not be able to host the match.

Several stadiums in São Paulo are considered to host finalists, including Arena Neo Química, Morumbi and Allianz Parque. The São Paulo Football Federation has not yet decided which will be the venue for the final, waiting for the definition of which will be the finalist teams. For this reason, we will know the stadium for the Copinha final only after the semifinal clashes.

Odds for the Final Straight of Cup 2022

With the arrival of the final stretch of Copinha São Paulo, bookmakers pay more attention to this competition, so it is possible to find a wide variety of betting markets for these last 3 games.

One of the best-known and most used sports betting markets at online bookmakers is the match result. In this market it is possible to bet on whether the match will end in a victory for one of the teams or a draw. Remembering that as we are in an elimination duel, if the match ends in extra time or on penalties, the result of the match was a draw. This is because this betting market only takes into account the result in normal time, that is, in the regular 90 minutes.

Another market that we will have for these two games is the “to qualify”, which is related to bets on which team will advance to the final of the Copinha São Paulo – regardless of winning in normal time, in overtime, or on penalties.

A market that has recently appeared in the world of betting, however, is well accepted by bettors, is that of corners in the match. In this market, we can bet on several different lines such as the number of corners in the match, corner handicap, team with more corners in the match, etc. Betting on corner kicks is quite lucrative, especially in knockout matches where one team may have to throw themselves into the attack and seek the result, while the other holds back and defends as best it can.

Another market that is quite attractive and widely used in the world of betting is the goals in the match. This market also has several lines, the best known is the over/under goals in the match, in which the bettor must indicate whether the match will end with more or less goals than a predetermined amount. When we talk about goals in a knockout match, the results are quite difficult to predict. Due to this fact, the best thing to do is follow the match live before entering goals.

We have several other secondary markets that will be offered for the Copa São Paulo final, such as double chance, Draw Voids Bet, Handicap Result, Victory Method, etc.

In general, as all teams reached the final with merit and good football, the match odds indicate well-played games with chances for both sides. Therefore, we have high odds for several market lines in the final stretch of the competition.

Cup promises 2022

Even if being champion of Copinha São Paulo is one of the objectives of the clubs in the competition, we can say that the main objective of the teams is the discovery of new talents to become professionals or to be sold in millionaire transactions.

The Copinha is the means most used by clubs for discovering new talent and evaluating base players. Several Brazilian football stars really emerged as a promise after standing out in the competition. Among these players we have as an example Raí (São Paulo), Neymar (Santos), Gabriel Jesus (Palmeiras), Falcão (Internacional), Marquinhos (Corinthians), Vinicius Júnior (Flamengo), among many other great players.

In Copinha 2022, the story is no different and we already have several players who stood out in the competition and are seen as promising.

In the América-MG team, Adyson is the one who most actively participated in the matches, with the right to score a decisive goal in the quarterfinals. The striker can be a surprise in the team, which lost its biggest reference for Atlético Mineiro, the player Ademir. In search of a new youngster to fill the space left by Ademir, Adyson has already shown Coelho fans that he is ready to join the club’s professional.

For the West team, from the interior of São Paulo, striker Popó was one of the highlights and remained in the top scorer despite being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Palmeiras. Tied in the top score with Figueiredo, from Vasco, Popó has 8 goals and 3 assists in 6 games played. The expectation around Popó is that he rises to the West professional and receives polls from other Brazilian football clubs.

Despite being revealed by Flamengo de Guarulhos and signed by Santos, Rwan quickly adapted as a Menino da Vila. Rwan has 6 goals and 2 assists in 7 Copinha games and expectations are that the player will be registered for the Paulistão dispute in 2022.

Playing for São Paulo, Vitinho can be considered the highlight of his team. The player has already been linked to professional team games, however, without much prominence. The striker scored 5 goals and provided three assists in seven Copinha matches. The expectations on top of Vitinho are that chances in the main cast will arise, since the player has characteristics that the coach of the professional Rogério Ceni sees as a lack in the team.

Finishing the highlights section, we cannot forget the feeling of the Copinha that is the young Endrick, just 15 years old. Despite his young age, he has the mission to lead Palmeiras to its first Copa São Paulo title. In July 2022, the striker will be 16 years old and will be ready to move up to the first team and win the supporters’ favor.

How each team makes it to the semifinals

The América-MG team arrives for the semifinal with supporting status and undefeated in the competition, with 3 wins and 4 draws. Zebra is a good definition for the expectations of seeing América-MG in the final. This lack of favoritism is also reflected in the odds that bookmakers offer for Coelho’s victory. However, the team promises to arrive to compete and leave Santos for the Cup.

Speaking of Santos, Meninos da Vila are just hoping to confirm their favoritism and forward a spot to the Copinha final. However, the team comes from two difficult games in the competition and one overtime, so the physical part could weigh in the semifinal decision, since we are talking about games every 48 hours.

On the other side of the bracket, led by coach and former player Alex, São Paulo faces Palmeiras. Alex’s team proved to be well trained and ready for the different challenges that may arise during the match. The most obvious problem in Alex’s team is the lack of physical condition of the athletes against their opponents, as was evident in the confrontation against Cruzeiro.

Being favorites for the confrontation against São Paulo, Palmeiras reaches the semifinal apparently more rested and technically above Tricolor Paulista, winning fairly and trampling most of its opponents. Among the 4 finalists, Palmeiras is the favorite to win the Cup and lift the cup for the first time, a fact that should serve as motivation for the team led by Endrick.

The semifinal between São Paulo and Palmeiras is seen as a separate final in view of the rivalry between the teams and everything that is at stake. With three teams from São Paulo in the semifinals, the possibility of a classic in the final is quite high, and we already know that in classics, there are no favorites.

Therefore, regardless of the Cup final, a high-intensity and highly disputed game is expected.