South American Football Thread

Peñarol won the derby 5 x 0. Shaming for Nacional

Grêmio x Atlético Mineiro now. Ronaldinho returns to where it all began. Arena do Grêmio depressingly empty.

http://vipbox.co/soccer/watch-183178-gremio-vs-atletico-mineiro#

 

Grêmio running riot. 2 x 0 up already, 20 minutes.

 

Just watched a bit of Cerro Porteno v Cruzeiro in the Libertadores. In Brazil it was 1-1, then Cruzeiro get a man sent off in the 77th minute. * minute later Cruzeiro score :smiley-laughing002:.

Should be Cruzeiro into the next round.

 

Jesus Christ, Porteno losing it. They're now down to ten also, Porteno player shepherding it out of play and the Cruzeiro lad barely touched him, Porteno player turns round n swings a boot at the Cruzeiro player.

Been watching about 15mins and it's mad, wait and see feckin Porteno taking this into ET now :smiley-laughing002:

edit: Wait. The commentator said if Cerro Porteno equalise it will go into a penalty shoot-out. No extra time? Eh?

 

Cerro Porteno 0-2 Cruzeiro FT (1-3 Agg)

Looked it up and no extra-time seems ridiculous to me.

 

Corinthians wore crash helmets in tribute to Ayrton Senna in a Copa do Brasil game away to Nacional Manaus. A bit weird...



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGcuQx2i5A#t=13"]Jogadores do Corinthians entram em campo com capacete em homenagem a Ayrton Senna - 30/04/2014 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCkGB9efB0k"]Nacional-AM 0 x 3 Corinthians - Melhores Momentos - Copa do Brasil 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

 

It's now official. The Copa América Centenario will be held in the good old US of A. It's a gimmick on the part of CONMEBOL (and there should be more of a gap between tournaments) but it should still be a great tournament. It will also be played at the same time as Euro 2016.



The long-rumored tournament celebrating CONMEBOL's 100th anniversary was announced Thursday, with six CONCACAF sides to participate.

Come 2016, the Copa America Centenario is officially headed to the United States.

The long-rumored tournament, which will feature 10 nations from CONMEBOL and six from CONCACAF, was officially announced by the confederations during a joint press conference Thursday in Miami, with the United States tabbed as the host nation.

The event, which will come one year after the 2015 editions of the Copa America and Gold Cup, has for now been labeled as a one-off event celebrating CONMEBOL's 100th anniversary, though federation president Eugenio Figueredo on Thursday expressed hope for a "permanent alliance."

The Copa America Centenario is scheduled to be held June 3-26, according to CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, which means it will largely overlap with Euro 2016 from June 10-July 10. The Centenario tournament is not yet on the FIFA calendar obligating clubs to release players.

The six CONCACAF nations represented will be the USA, Mexico, the winner of the 2014 Copa Centroamericana, the winner of the 2014 Carribbean Cup, and the two best finishers at the 2015 Gold Cup that have not otherwise qualified.

Goal.com

So now it will be World Cup 2014, Copa América Chile 2015, Rio Olympics, Centenario USA and Euro's France in 2016, World Cup Russia 2018, Copa América 2019 in Brazil and then the Tokyo Olympics and the Euro's in 2020. Quite a run.

 

Great news!

I hope this will lead to the fusion between the two confederations, and the creation of the Copa Libertadores de las Americas, including team from Argentina, to Canada.

 

I watched the Defensor v The Strongest the other night. I was disappointed to see so many punts up the park

 

But that is to be expected when it's a Bolivian team fighting for their lives at sea level. The quality of the game is going to suffer as they try to break up play.

They often play with the same tactics at home. The thin air means the ball travels faster. This coupled with the effects of the altitude on those un-acclimatised creates a lot of advantages for the Bolivians, physically.

Bolivia has now moved up above Venezuela it league quality but it's still pretty poor overall.

How did Felipe Gedoz play?

I think it is a bit of a face saving exercise from COMENBOL. In one way it is a simple money making exercise but it's also a way of saving their system of alphabetical rotating hosts. Brazil should have hosted it next year but of course they can't stretch that far, so the swap with Chile works. Yet they couldn't stretch for 2016 either, so CONMENBOL needed the US in order to save face. 2019 may still be pushing it for Brazil. If the US didn't (or couldn't) step in it may have created some serious problems in organising these things as hosts chop and change.

Of course the US will put on a great show and it will probably be one of the smoothest Copa Américas ever.

On the other side it's the same thing going on as having the Mexican teams in the Libertadores, a purely money making operation from Asunción. CONMEBOL don't care about football there, they just want access to the huge Mexican market. Still, this can hopefully create some kind of joint club tournament across the Americas (maybe a flight from New York to Montevideo is just too far?) and a full Copa Américas. Although I can't see the corrupt and inept CONCACAF willingly give up one of their cash cows.

 

Atlético Mineiro x Atlético Nacional on BT Sports now!

http://cricfree.tv/live/watch/atletico_mineiro_vs_atletico_nacional/36708

 

gooooooooool Fernandinho Mineiro

 

Atlético Mineiro are out. A 1 x 1 draw with Atlético Nacional knocks them out. Cruzeiro are now the only Brazilians left.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7IMED1je6w"]Atletico Mineiro 1 vs Atl Nacional 1 - Resumen - Copa Libertadores - 01/Mayo/2014 - YouTube[/ame]

The last eight will be...

Nacional x Arsenal
San Lorenzo x Cruzeiro
Lanús x Bolívar
Atlético Nacional x Defensor Sporting

I think Arsenal, San Lorenzo, Lanús and Atlético Nacional will go through.

 

And now the Argentine league will be changed. They are going to change from the current model of a twenty team top division with two championships each season to a giant thirty team league with one long championship. Relegation will still be done in the same way but only two teams will go down instead of the current three.

The new format looks incredibly stupid to me. It seems to be a move by Julio Grondona to get Independiente back into the top division.

Teams will play each other once each season, with a space left at the end of the season for a repeat of the clasicos. This seems incredibly unfair to me. Say Estudiantes and San Lorenzo are going for the title on the last day and they each have their "clasico' left. One has to play a very difficult game against Gimnasia y Esgrima while San Lorenzo have a easier game against Huracán. It gives some teams a extra game which is more or less a guaranteed win. Plus, not every team in the top division will have their clasico rival in the top division, so we'll end up with nothing extra games, that benefit no one.

The only reason for the add on game at the end is so that there can be two River x Boca Superclásicos, for the international TV market. This means money isn't going to be split fairly. Boca and River will get over double the money that the other members of the Cinco Grandes (Independiente, Racing and San Lorenzo) will get. And the Cinco Grandes will get far more than the rest. Who knows what Fútbol Para Todos TV will make of this. They want to show the big teams play but this new league still be decrease the number of games each team plays, while increasing the overall number of games.

Argentinos Juniors are the only top division team to have been relegated so far so they might be saved after all. Quilmes and All Boys are the other two teams in the relegation spots so they might be kind of happy. No one has mentioned how the promedios will work now, when will it start from? So it will be a mess.

It's all a bit of a mind * (as usual) and we know of only one person who really supports this decision, the all tinkering Grondona. The room in which they drew up this plan probably looks like this...

 

From what I saw, He stuck out. I googled him during the match, I was that impressed :smiley-laughing002:

 

Good to hear. He is a great young player. Hope he goes far.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLMnCmQkYg#t=174"]Romario in Rio 1991 - YouTube[/ame]

Romário in Rio, 1991. Wielding guns on the beach :smiley-laughing002:

 

Another hooligan related death in Brazil. A Santa fan (who was standing near the Paraná torcida) was killed by other Santa Cruz fans. As he was leaving the stadium fans of the Coral chucked a toilet from the Arruda which hit him and killed him. http://tinyurl.com/m3xodu6



We are already up to three deaths (which I know about). It's almost certainly a higher total in reality.

 

Corinthains will soon move to their new stadium. Photos from last game ever and the grand old Pacaembu. The Pacaembu is probably only behind the Maracanã when it comes to history, tradition and national importance. It houses the Museu do Futebol. It will be sad to see it go.






"Saudosa Maloca, Maloca Querida"

An old song about a man being kicked out of his house. It's something like "I will miss my house, my sweet house".

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C6ezqRYWug"]Adoniran Barbosa - Saudosa maloca (1955) - YouTube[/ame]

An era is coming to an end.

 

Last game also had this pathetic scenes. Internal Flamengo torcida war. Raça Rubro Negra x Torcida Jovem plus some Torcida Independente (São Paulo). Raça in red and Jovem in White. I think Raça objected to Independente being there.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTlwKKSp_k#t=19"]Está ai a realidade dos Fatos !!!! ahahaha - YouTube[/ame]