With all eyes on the Ronaldo and Neymar in Sunday's showdown between Corinthians and Sport in the Sao Paulo state soccer tournament, it was Dentinho who provided the game's only goal.

By defeating Sport, Corinthians closed their dry spell against their cross town rival and gained ground on the leader of this year's tournament Palmeiras.

The game's only goal came in the 15th minute of play. Off a crossed ball from the recently returned player to Brazil, Roni, Dentinho split the Sport defense to head the ball into the right side of the Sport net, surprising the goalkeeper and brining the home crowed to their feet.

Attention and expectation was built over the week in hopes of seeing a showdown of Ronaldo with young, but talented revelation from Sport, Neymar.

The 18-year-old had few opportunities to display his talent while Ronaldo had many more chances to live up to his name as the phenomenon. Despite neither of the two having scored any goals, it was Ronaldo who created more room, dribbled past the defense and passed off more balls for his Corinthians teammates.

Corinthians had not beaten Sport, one of their three main regional rivals since the second half of the 2007 Brazilian soccer championship. It was head coach Mano Menezes' first victory against the Corinthians' main rivals in his time with the team out of Sao Paulo.

With Sunday's victory, Corinthians reached their 33rd point in this year's tournament. They stand in second place, behind Palmeiras with 37 points. Santos remain with 27 points and fell to fifth place in the state rankings.

Source:Xinhua