Sao Paulo wins state tourney opener over Palmeiras

BRASILIA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- With a polemic goal off the hand of Adriano, the soccer club of Sao Paulo beat Palmeiras 2-1 on Sunday in the first match of the semifinals of the Sao Paulo state tournament.

Holding the edge, Sao Paulo will again face the same rivals as Palmeiras return to home ground at Palestra Italia next Sunday.

The victory of Sao Paulo snapped Palmeiras' 14 game winning streak as the latters was considered by many to be the favorite before Sunday's game.

Palmeiras, along with its fans, will hope to tie things up next week in search of a spot in the finals of the statewide tournament.

Sao Paulo opened the scoring of the match on Sunday. In the 11th minute, Jorge Wagner passed the ball off a dead ball foul into the penalty box. Adriano tried to put a head on the ball, but instead his right hand guided the ball into the goal.

Nearly the whole team, including the coaching staff of Palmeiras, complained of the hand ball, but to no avail as the referees did not see the incident.

"What can I do? It happened. Things like this happen in soccer. The important thing is that the goal counted," said Adriano in relation to his goal.

After the break, tt was Adriano who scored once again for Sao Paulo. In the second minute of the second half, Jorge Wagner stole the ball from Gustavo and immediately passed it off to Adriano who ran passed Pierre and fired the ball past the goalkeeper of Palmeiras, Marcos.

Twenty-nine minutes later, Palmeiras was awarded a penalty kick after Alex Silva took out Lenny. Alex Mineiro took the responsibility and did not waste the opportunity to score.

The goal for Palmeiras also marked the 500th goal scored in the Sao Paulo state tournament.