Palermo Stressing Team Over Individuals for Team Brazil
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – There will be multiple challenges facing Robson Palermo regarding his second stint as Team Brazil’s head coach for the upcoming PBR Global Cup USA on March 5.
There is no shortage of talented Brazilian riders for Palermo to consider to fill out his five-rider roster. Multiple Brazilian riders in the PBR have gold buckles around their waists, World Finals event titles on their resumes, and multiple trips to the PBR World Finals as well. That does not even include a new crop of young Brazilian riders beginning to make their impact on the PBR here in the United States, such as last weekend’s Duluth winner Marcelo Procopio Pereira.
Palermo knows that individual accolades do not guarantee Global Cup success, though. The three-time World Finals event winner was at the helm for Team Brazil in 2017 when an extremely talented roster came up short in Edmonton at the inaugural Global Cup. That roster had seven combined world titles on it – Silvano Alves, Kaique Pacheco, Guilherme Marchi and Jose Vitor Leme – and Brazil still fell two rides shy of defeating an underdog Team USA Eagles team featuring one PBR World Champion (Cooper Davis) and one PRCA champion (Cody Teel).
2010 World Champion Renato Nunes then took over coaching duties, leading Brazil to back-to-back titles (2018, 2019) before Marchi inherited the top coaching spot in 2020 with Palermo as his assistant. The 2020 Brazil squad wound up finishing a disappointing third overall but was only 88 points behind the victorious Team USA Eagle squads.
Now that Palermo is back at the helm, the Ring of Honor inductee hopes to take lessons learned in Edmonton and Arlington and use them to help pick a group of riders ready to lead Brazil back to international bull riding dominance at the team level.
“Coaches and riders need to play as a team and be all on the same page,” Palermo told PBR.com. “Not play individually. I feel I will have a perfect group this year.”
Palermo already has reached out to multiple riders he is considering for his team, including reigning World Champion Jose Vitor Leme last week.
The 39-year-old coach confirmed Leme will be his captain this year.
“I couldn’t have a better captain,” Palermo said.
Leme said he congratulated Palermo on being named coach of the unit but said he would not try to overstep his boundaries and influence Palermo on who he should select for the team.
The reigning World Champion trusts whoever Palermo selects to join him in green and yellow, but he is open to working with Palermo on roster construction if needed.
“I talked with him (last week) about the team,” Leme said. “I told him congrats for being the coach again, and I told him, if he needs my help, I will be there to help. I’m sure I can tell him some things. But he definitely can do that by himself. He don’t need any opinion, I think. That’s why he’s the coach.”
In other Brazilian Global Cup news, world No. 1 Joao Ricardo Vieira says he will ride for Team Brazil this season if selected after turning down an opportunity to ride for his country in 2020. Vieira’s presence may be huge for Brazil as Pacheco’s status for the Global Cup could be in jeopardy based on his left shoulder injury last weekend in Duluth.
“Palermo and I talked, and I would want to go this year,” Vieira said. “Maybe I will be asked. I am ready.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Christopher Thompson/Bull Stock Media
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