South American Football Thread

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool River! Cavenaghi!

The eight year drought is coming to an end.

 

Figueirense beating Corinthians

 

Goooooooooooooool River! Mercado.

El Monumental in fiesta mode now.

The two young guys are playing incredibly well today. Manuel Lanzini running rings round people and Álvarez Balanta is a brick wall right now. Ledesma is also playing well.

 

It's 3. Ledesma getting in on the act. Rocket of a goal, 30 yards out and he smashes into the top corner.

 

gooooooooooooooooooool 4. Cavenaghi with his second.

 

River are champions of Argentina with 5 goals on the night. Teo Gutiérrez capping it in style.

 

http://www.rojadirecta.me/goto/paisa30.blogspot.com

First leg of the Colombian Apertura finals. Junior de Barranquilla x Atlético Nacional, 0 x 0 after 30 minutes.

 

A professional football club in Bolivia has signed President Evo Morales as a midfielder for next season.

The 54-year-old, an avid football fan, will play next season for Sport Boys, a team based in the south-eastern province of Santa Cruz.

The first division club said the president would play for about 20 minutes per match but not in each game, owing to his busy schedule.

He will receive the minimum salary, about $214 (£127).

"He loves football and plays well," said Sport Boys' president Mario Cronenbold. "He'll wear the No 10 shirt."

"We'll send him a list of matches and he'll chose which ones to play in," he said.

A local politician with the governing MAS party (Movement towards Socialism), Edwin Tupa, said playing with a professional football club is a dream come true for President Morales.

The president is said to be fit and very excited with the prospect of playing.

Mr Morales has played in several well-publicised matches with journalists, union leaders and other presidents.

In 2007 he played a match at 6,000m (19,700 ft) above sea level in a protest against efforts to stop Bolivia playing its international fixtures at high altitude.

And in 2006 he suffered a broken nose in a clash with a goalkeeper.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-27463520

Some might remember Sport Boys of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Last year they became one of the first clubs in the world to have a female manager, Hilda Ordoñez.

http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/showthread.php?t=139575

 

Very big win for famous old Independiente tonight. They beat Douglas Haig 2 x 1 and move into the last promotion spot. Defensa y Justicia and Banfield have already been promoted to the top division.

Independiente only have three games left of the season. The other teams with a decent chance of stealing that spot off them are Instituto, Atlético Tucumán, Huracán and Crucero del Norte. Instituto play Independiente in ten days, who ever wins that should go up but the others have a smaller chance.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKNr_enMXlU"]GOL PENCO INDEPENDIENTE 2 DOUGLAS HAIG 1 HD 19/5/2014 - YouTube[/ame]

Argentinos Juniors (1.105 average over three years) and All Boys (1.158 average) have been relegated from the top division. Colón and Atlético de Rafaela both finished on an average of 1.246 after three years so they will have a play-off match.

 

And the last game of the Torneo Final and the 2013/14 Primera División. San Lorenzo x Vélez Sarsfield.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uIBAG7ETAM"]Fútbol en vivo. San Lorenzo - Vélez. Fecha 19. Torneo Final 2014. Fútbol Para Todos. - YouTube[/ame]

The stupid "super final" between San Lorenzo x River Plate is in five days. No one really that this game seriously, as the AFA can't make their mind up about the "super final". Should they give a team another league title for winning one game? Well no, but they can't make their minds up. Saying yes one day and no the next.

Oh well, at least next year will be the last season of the current format before this weird 30 team league comes in.

 

All even at half time. Zárate opened for Vélez then straight from that kick off Mauro Matos equalised.

Very even game, but both teams struggling to create anything. Both unwilling to pass and move the ball, instead aiming to physically power their way through.

 

Much better second half and a 3 x 2 win for Vélez, Lucas Pratto scored a wonderful "Panenka" to get the win. This win means Vélez Sarsfield qualify for the 2015 Copa Libertadores, due to having the highest number of points over both the Torneo Incial and Final combined.

 

The Copa Sudamericana (the South American Europa League) draw was today. The first round of the draw is split into geographical zones. These zones are... and all teams from the Brazilian and Argentine zones go straight into the second stage and there is no group stages.

The South Zone, teams from Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The North Zone, Teams from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
The Argentine Zone, Teams from la Argentina
And the Brazilian Zone, Teams from Brazil

So the draw was...

First Stage
Huachipato (Chile) x San José (Bolivia) G1
Universitario (Bolivia) x Iquique (Chile) G2
Deportivo Capiatá (Paraguay) x Montevideo Wanderers or Danubio (Uruguay) G3
Rentistas (Uruguay) x Cerro Porteño (Paraguay) G4
General Díaz (Paraguay) x Cobresal (Chile) G5
Nacional Potosí (Bolivia) x Libertad (Paraguay) G6
Universidad Católica (Chile) x Uruguay 2 G7
Peñarol (Uruguay) x Jorge Wilstermann (Bolivia) G8
Inti Gas (Peru) x Caracas (Venezuela) G9
Barcelona (Ecuador) x Alianza Lima (Peru) G10
Venezuela 4 x Atlético Nacional (Colombia) G11
Itagüí (Colombia) x Emelec (Ecuador) G12
Universidad Técnica de Cajamarca (Peru) x Deportivo Cali (Colombia) G13
Millonarios (Colombia) x Universidad César Vallejo (Peru) G14
Venezuela 3 x Independiente del Valle (Ecuador) G15
Universidad Católica (Ecuador) x Deportivo Anzoátegui (Venezuela) G16

Second round

Brazilian tie
G3 x G9
Argentine tie
G1 x G16
Brazilian tie
G8 x G13
Argentine tie
G2 x G14
Brazilian tie
G15 x G4
Gimnasia y Esgrima x Estudiantes (a La Plata derby)
G12 x G7
Brazilian tie
G10 x G6
Rosario Central x Boca Juniors (both Argentine)
G11 x G5

The only Brazilain teams to have qualified so far are Vitória and Goiás.

 

Not that i would dare to question you, but do they not still have the Champions game to play on Sunday before they are crowned Argentina Champions?

 

The classic Apertura (Torneo Inicial) and Cluasura (Torneo Final) are the leagues really. Everyone sees the winners of those as league champions and they are officially treated as such. To win one of these goes down as winning the league, instead of just reaching the league final.

There have been a lot of problems with the "Super final" as the AFA can't make up their minds about it. They can't make up their minds, should they treat the "Super final" as a another league win or just a show piece game like the Community Shield? Of course it shouldn't be seen as another league win, it's just one game.

So last year Vélez Sarsfield won the Torneo Inicial and their 9th league title. They then won the "Super final" which is weirdly counted as their 10th league championship. Another problem is that if the same team wins both the Inicial and Final then this "third league" disappears. Vélez were the first team to win it as it was only created last year.

But this is the last year of this system. Next year will be the 2014 Torneo de Transición, which I think will be a league in the European style before the move to the 30 team top division. It's all a bit of a mess really.

The other system is in place in Uruguay. The Apertura winner plays the Cluasura winner in a "semi-final" then the winner of that plays the team with the most points over both championships for the title. In Urugauy the Apertura and Cluasura aren't treated as actual league titles, but rather qualification for the final. Venezuela and Nicaragua also use the Uruguay system. All other countries that use the Apertura/Cluasura have two league champions per year.

Peru has it's own three stage league. Their one is very weird. Firstly they play a full European style round-robin season with 16 teams. At the end of that they split those 16 teams odds and even according to where they finish in that first league. From there they then play everyone in a league of 8 round-robin. Then the winners of those two leagues have a two game play off to crown the league champions.

 

Ok, now simplify the Brazilian system for me!:icon_mrgreen:

 

:smiley-laughing002: I'll try.

The Brasileirão is unique in South America because it has the same model as the European leagues. It's the same system as the Premiership, but four teams go down instead of the European standard of three. Season is May to December to make room for the State Championships (Campeonatos estaduais). The big ones such as the Campeonato Paulista and the Campeonato Carioca run from January to April while smaller ones such as the Campeonato Brasiliense run into May. São Paulo is so big that is has four division in it's estaduais.

On top of the estaduais many states have their own state cup championships. These are really for the worst teams in each state as they are unable to play in the national leagues as they failed to qualify. Each state FA gets to pick a certain amount of teams to play in Série D, so they often pick the best placed team not already in Série A, B or C. These cups are played in the second half or the year to stop the other teams from shutting down completely after the estaduais have finished.

Then there is the Copa do Brasil. This is for the top ten teams in the CBF rankings plus the seventy best teams in the estaduais. Each state has a set allocation with the biggest (São Paulo) sending five teams while smaller ones (Tocantins) sends just the one.

 

Round in Brazil tonight.

Flamengo x Bahia at 11.30PM

http://aovivoagora.com/AoVivo/jogos-flamengo-ao-vivo/

Other games tonight...

Coritiba x Internacional
Cruzeiro x Sport Recife
Criciúma xChapecoense
Fluminense x São Paulo
Corinthians x Atlético PR
Grêmio xBotafogo
Palmeiras xFigueirense
Goiás x Santos

 

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL DO FLAMENGO!!

Éverton makes a good run down the wing and ball to the back post which Paulinho smashes in.