Vasco da Gama and Coritiba, two former Brazilian champions, were the last two champions of the Série B (Vasco da Gama in 2009, Coritiba in 2010) and were the "teams-sensation" of Brazilian football.
Vasco da Gama, after a poor start in the Campeonato Carioca, has rebounded with the arrival of players like Diego Souza, Alecsandro, Bernardo, and especially the coming of the coach Ricardo Gomes, which along with players like Fernando Prass, Dedé, Anderson Martins, Felipe, Éder Luís, Eduardo Costa and Rômulo, not only reaching the Copa do Brasil finals, as well as the Taça Rio Final (on penalties being defeated by archrival, Flamengo).
Vasco da Gama had already played a final before: in 2006, the team lost the competition for his archrival, Flamengo. On this occasion the team cross-Maltin was defeated in both games: 2–0 in the first game and 1–0 in the second.
Coritiba already had an excellent stage for an undefeated title (Campeonato Paranaense) and a record winning streak unprecedented in football worldwide, getting into the Guinness Book: 24 wins, being broken in the second game of the quarter-final against Palmeiras. The young team led by players like Rafinha, Davi, Marcos Aurélio, Anderson Aquino and the coach Marcelo Oliveira, who continued the work of Ney Franco (who went to the Brazil U-20), charmed and surprised Brazil in the first half of 2011.
Before to that final, the Coritiba had never played a Copa do Brasil finals. His best result in the competition came in 1991, 2001 and 2009, when the team played in the semi-finals in this years.
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