South American Football Thread

Nacional x Peñarol. Only a friendly...

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2SwEgMCnk_0[/ame]

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9rtlRmQnk[/ame]

Nacional won 1 x 0.

 

We had two new Hitler's and a James Dean, to name but a few from this year but what the * is this?

 

All internet scouts get ready. The South America U-20 Championship has begun.

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRrOQH0nEk0[/ame]

Check out the second goal for Paraguay. Sergio Díaz is only 16 and has a handful of games for giants Cerro Porteño under his belt already. Special talent.

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7fDKQi6sBIg[/ame]

First and last goals for Argentina scored by scored by Diego Simeone's son Giovanni. The second was by Ángel Correa who has just been signed by Diego Simeone from San Lorenzo.

Brazil currently beating Chile 2 x 1. Marcos Guilherme of Atlético Paranaense with two for Brazil. Chile's goal from Cristián Cuevas, one of the many Chelsea players out of loan. Had his career kind of wrecked by going to Chelsea so early.

 

Paraguay have beat Argentina 1 x 0. Good result but they spent much of the game defending their own goal after going a goal up early in the game. Peru start their campaign tonight against Ecuador, roll on Sudamericano

Uruguay beat Colombia 1 x 0 last night.

 

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps2OHkUVk8Y[/ame]

Oh Peru... Argentina went on to win 6 x 2.

Uruguay beat Brazil 2 x 0. Uruguay have a nice player in Guillermo Cotugno, of Danubio. Played out on the right-wing in this game but can also play at centre back I believe.

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=58-O_CoMuqA[/ame]

 

Football is back in Brazil today, with the start of the worlds worst leagues, the State Championships. Some states have had their leagues going for a while already, such as Pernambuco (minus the big teams) but now the 'big' states get going with the Paulista, Carioca, Gaucho, Mineiro and Baiano.

The only place in the world were you can see teams with 30 million plus fans playing pub teams in a proper league.

 

And some of those Flamengo "fans" felt the need to invade the Macaé players dressing room and attack that team. Fla will probably play behind closed doors, which is like a normal state game.

Pipaco (popcorn) scored for Macaé before Alecsandro made it 1 x 1. Poor result.

 

The Copa Libertadores (easily the best club tournament in the world) started last night and it was a very good night for the away teams. Alianza Lima, the Peruvian cup champions lost 0 x 4 at home to the Argentine cup champions Huracán. A horrendous result for Allanza, made even worse by the fact Huracán have only just won promotion back to the top flight in Argentina. So it wasn't as if they where up against a team packed with quality.

What made this even better for Huracán was that they were without Cristian Espinoza, their "next superstar". He is away with the Argentine U-20 side right now.

Huracán will join the group with Cruzeiro (Brazil), Mineros (Venezuela) and Universitario (Bolivia).

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ror26t4VVAg[/ame]

The Strongest of Bolivia got a very respectable 1 x 1 draw away in Mexico to Morelia. Their goal was a bit fluky but it is pretty good to see Bolivian teams getting results. This is The Strongest's second draw in their last 20 away games and they have only won 4 away games ever, for example.

Bolivia is the worst country in South America (even worse maybe than baseball loving Venezuela). Last year they did amazing, with Bolívar making the semi's for the first time in decades and The Strongest making the Last 16. They need to keep this upward momentum.

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=99iTXx5qTm4[/ame]

I'd say the favorites are River Plate, São Paulo, Cruzeiro and I like Colo Colo if they can get pasted this terrible start to the season they have had.

To give you an idea of how unpredictable this tournament is, only one of last years semi-finalists has even qualified this year, but only because they won it - San Lorenzo. The other three didn't even get in. Imagine Bayern, Chelsea and Atlético Madrid didn't even make the qualifying rounds.

First really big game is tonight, Corinthians at home to Once Caldes of Colombia. Corinthians are the only Brazilian side to go out in the qualifying rounds, when they lost to another Colombian side, Tolima in 2011 (Ronaldo's last ever game). Tolima are a small side while Once Caldes are giants (2004 champions), so it will be a very hard game.

 

I'll be following this tournament this year as I got Premier Sports on demand for the tablet.

Boca are my team, but they're not so hot right now, are they?

 

They weren't the best last year (and can't be counted as one of the favorites this time) but they have had a pretty good transfer window so far with Nicolás Lodeiro coming into their midfield. Dani Osvaldo is also now in talks with the club. He would add some much needed quality up front, to go with Andrés Chávez who is like a Pit bull. The back is still a worry, with people like Daniel Díaz (big, old lump) controlling their back line.

They did have an upswing in form when Rodolfo Arruabarrena replaced Carlos Bianchi. The style of play didn't improve though and they lagged way behind River. It will be interesting to see if Arruabarrena can close the gap.

They have some stand out names but they lack decent players across the full length of the pitch. While River, Lanús or Racing can look to decent/good players in a number of potions Boca last year only had the odd name, teamed with below average players elsewhere. But they should still get out of their group.

But they did do this a couple of days ago...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD4aIwA7mZE[/ame]

The other first leg games in the qualifying rounds...

Corinthians 4 x 0 Once Caldes

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES4wA9Mm6LI[/ame]

Deportivo Táchira 2 x 1 Cerro Porteño (best result of the round)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6moQwQ83_0w[/ame]

Palestino 1 x 0 Nacional Montevideo

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GLk9guGJRg[/ame]

Independiente del Valle 1 x 0 Estudiantes

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKUqhJZJgAk[/ame]

 

The Paulista Derby between Palmeiras and Corinthians is tonight at 7PM, on BT apparently. It will be the first derby played at Palmeiras' home stadium, Palestra Itália since 1976. Since then Palmeiras have moved around a lot, using the council owned Pacaembu and the São Paulo FC owned Morumbi (the biggest club owned stadium in Brazil). But now Palmeiras have rebuilt their stadium and will use it for the first time in a long time.

The stadium has been a big issue coming into this game. Palmeiras fear that Corinthians fans will smash up the away end to * Palmeiras over. So they banned away fans, with the support of the Federação Paulista de Futebol I believe. Corinthians weren't having this so they threatened to boycott the game if they weren't giving 10% of the stadium. So in the end Corinthians won out.

I'd put my mony on Palmeiras. Corinthians are resting some players as they are focusing on the Taça Libertadores. The club is also in its election season. Roberto de Andrade won the election yesterday but there could be some lingering feelings, which can be common when politics is always taking place within the club. New signing Vágner Love won't play.

Palmeiras have a load of new players, partly paid for with a loan from the clubs president Paulo Nobre who is a rally driver. New players include Ze Roberto who is still a force at 40; Dudu who they managed to win in a battle with Corinthians, Kelvin on loan from Porto, Alan Patrick from Shakhtor, the keeper Aranha from Santos, Cleiton Xavier from Metalist and Robinho from Cortibia who I think is a pretty handy player.

After that there is the ambitiously named Clássico dos Clássicos between Sport do Recife and Náutico. Sport are the only team from Northeast in the top division this year but both clubs are yo-yo clubs (but massives fan bases). Or the Clássico do Equilíbrio between Goiás and Atlético Goianiense in the central Goiás state.

 

http://www.rojadirecta.me/goto/prostreams.in/r6.html

Palmeiras x Corinthians

 

Going back to Buenos Aires at least for three weeks, hopefully three months. Definitely going to do a better job of taking in the occasional match than I did last time.

 

Corinthians win the derby with a goal from Danilo after a terrible back pass. Weird sending off for the Corinthians keeper Cássio.

Who is your team out there?

 

Undecided to be honest. I usually was more into the continental competitions and would support any club from Argentina which I realize is heresy, but such is life. Only exception is Racing, who can burn for all that I care. There's a young American who plays for Boca, so if he develops I can see myself feeling closer to them. I also have a soft spot for Lanus after what GBS did for MLS and Columbus.

 

Well if you hate Racing and like the continental cups more Independiente is calling.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuUCF9ITwuc[/ame]

Sport won the derby. They also did this...

A Brazilian football club has employed fans’ mothers to act as stewards in the hope it will discourage supporters from fighting.

Sport Club do Recife trained around 30 mothers for Sunday’s derby against Nautico and put them to work patrolling the pitch perimeter dressed in high visibility vests bearing the words “Seguranca Mae,” or “Security Mums” in Portuguese.

Their presence was highlighted on big screens before and during the game in a bid to make fans aware of their presence.

The club said the mothers got the same training as all security officials and volunteers working at the game, one of the biggest derbies in Recife.

“The idea was to make the most fanatical supporters aware and help in some way to bring peace to stadiums,” Aricio Fortes, vice-president of Ogilvy, the PR company that dreamt up the idea, told Sport’s website.

“At the end of the day, no one wants to fight in front of a mother, especially his own.”

Sport won the match 1-0 and the club said there were no arrests. Recife is one of Brazil’s footballing hotbeds and fan violence there has been endemic in recent years.

This is not the first time Sport and Ogilvy have collaborated. In 2013, Ogilvy ran an award-winning campaign to encourage Sport fans to sign up for organ-donor cards.

http://www.theguardian.com/football...iolence?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

I like Velez sarsfield.

 

Funny you mention that as my softest spot tended to be for them. For now though, my seat on the fence is fairly comfortable.

 

I'm going in April but the only game that's on when I'm in the city is the Superclasico at La Bombonera, so I don't stand a chance of getting a ticket.

Probably end up watching in a bar or something. I'm keen to take in the atmosphere.