South American Football Thread

50,000 people welcome Tevez back. Even Maradona showed up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVOYhTGjl7Q

 

Just watched Tevez return to Boca, looked incredible

 

The Copa Libertadores returns tonight after its Copa América break. The first semi-final is River Plate against Guaraní of Paraguay.

Guaraní have played quite defensively in the knock-out stages and haven't conceded a goal so far. They have had a experienced back three. Former Boca Juniors man Julio Cáceres in the middle of defence (35), Rubén Maldonado (36) to his left and Juan Patiño (31) to his right. They don't have the pace that they used to so they have become good as holding their line, not rushing into tackles, keeping the space between each defender limited and just generally reading the game.

They also have this years best attacking player in Federico Santander. He has a great finish on him, and the midfield has been able to adapt for each game to suit him. So they have been able to defend when called on but for home games when teams sit deep they have enough creativity to supply the forwards. Fernando Fernández is another good striker who scored a hat-trick in his last game a broke records last season in the league.

Expect them to play like they did away to Corinthians tonight. With a back three, the win backs pushed slightly forward for the counter-attack and then four deep lying midfielders.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3CFEH9AYOE[/ame]

River will be without Teófilo Gutiérrez but do have some 'new' faces themselves. Lucho González has returned, old legs but can still move the ball well. Javier Saviola is also back, not the goal scorer of old or like Gutiérrez but should provide some options. Tabaré Viúdez is another new guy who is quick, skilful and a goal threat. Home advantage should give them edge tonight but I don't think they tie will be but beyond all doubt in the first leg.

1AM kick off on Premier Sports.

 

Should be interesting seeing Tevez back at Boca. At 31, he still has plenty of fire and hunger to succeed.

Any idea when his first game is likely to be?

 

Boca's next game is at home against little Quilmes on Saturday. He was in training today so he should play. The Quilmes players will have to fight like the famous tribe they are named after to have any chance.

 

Guarani is actually attacking :smiley-laughing002:

 

Best stream for the Libertadores semi-final that I can find.

http://vipbox.biz/soccer/watch-1jd8l-river-plate-guarani

 

Have it on the TV myself :icon_mrgreen:

Joys of having a wee illegal TV box. :smiley-laughing002:

 

I can't watch football any more unless its on a tiny, blurry screen, full of pop ups and in an incomprehensible foreign language :smiley-laughing002:

 

Well you'll be looking forward to a CelticTV stream tomorrow then :smiley-laughing002:

 

It would be better if instead of commentating in a way that sends people to sleep, they spoke in a foreign language on CelticTV :smiley-laughing002:

 

Not a great first half but I guess that suits Guarani. Playing exactly like they did in previous games with just sitting back and more often than not hoofing it up field looking for a runner :smiley-laughing002:

In saying that River have only created one good chance that I can remember with the header. You'd think Guarani would need a goal in this game though.

 

Plus, I didn't want to ask during the game but now it's half time you should have time to explain 31B404 :icon_mrgreen:, but why has the Argentinian league adopted the new format? When it went to 30 teams I just assumed they were creating a huge league, simple as.

Read a bit around it tonight and seen that each year, progressively more teams get relegated, with no increase in promotion numbers. As such, each season, the league continuously gets smaller until there are only 20 teams left in the top tier again. I think I read it was a 5 year league plan by the Argentinian FA.

Do you know why the * they chose to do this?

 

Guaraní would be happy with a 0 x 0. They've been very disciplined in defence so far. A clean sheet looks the most important thing for them. They probably don't have enough fans to fill the del Chaco for the return leg but you always back the home team in this competition (unless of course they pour acid on the away team).

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I'm sure I posted about the league changes in Argentine a while ago but can't find the post right now. I'll write up some stuff tomorrow, but it basically comes down to the Argentine government wanting to win votes.

 

True enough. Last year, I think a commentator said something along the lines of San Lorenzo nor Nacional had won away in the tournament, but neither had lost at home and it was both sides first showing in the final :smiley-laughing002: I think maybe in Nacionals case it might've been their first ever time in the knockout phase?

Ah, no worries, mate. Politics and football eh, bet the * Green Brigade were involved.

 

River 1-0 up, looked like it was coming since the 2nd half kicked off.

 

2-0. What a goal, chipped the keeper who was not far off his line from the edge of the box, bar and in. River could make this 3, playing some great stuff in the second half.

 

In 2009 the government stepped in and bought the rights for the Argentine Primera División. The chance to buy the rights came about as clubs worked up debts so big it put the league in danger of folding (the start of the season was suspended). Clubs like River Plate, Racing, Independiente (those three all went down a division), Newell's, San Lorenzo, Huracán and Rosario Central had debts over $182 million. Then before the 2009 season the players union, Futbolistas Argentinos Agremiados, called in the debts.

Before this the rights were owned by Grupo Clarín, a media group which has been in open conflict with the government. In 2008 the Argentine government got into a scrap with the agricultural sector. They wanted to raise export taxes on a few different products that sector exports, like soybeans. Clarín at the start of this conflict offered to support the government if they would give a green light to their take over of a phone company called Telecom Argentina. But the government refused and so Clarín supported the farmers in revenge.

When the debts were called in the AFA and Julio Grondona turned to their current partners, Clarín. They asked for the deals for the next few seasons TV rights to paid in one bug lump some of A$720 million. Clarín said no and the government grabbed their chance to * Clarín over and take their prized asset. They came in with a bid of A$600 million, which was accepted. Fútbol Para Todos was created, with its revenue being split 50-50 between the AFA and the Argentine Olympic committee.

Football was a big TV draw, so it cut Clarín's revenue from advertising. They also lost a lot of customers who used the pay-per-view. Now the only adds on during Argentine games is for Iveco, with the rest being filled with government propaganda. They even rooted out the leagues other sponsors, such as Movistar.

As the government had saved the AFA they now had a lot more power within that organisation. So to win votes they had lost in more rural areas during their farmer conflict they decided to get more of their football teams into the top division. As many of these teams are so *, they only way to get them into the top division was expand the number of teams in the league.

These teams have been kept in the dirty by years of neglect. Argentine football is still very centralised around Buenos Aires. Before the '90s the league was split between the Metropolitano championship and the Nacional championship. The old Metropolitano was only open to teams from the old tournaments based around the cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario and La Plata. While the Nacional gave token representation to teams from cities like Mendoza, Tucumán, Bahía Blanca and Córdoba. So this gulf in quality meant the only option was to expand to a mental size and decrease the quality of the league.

But this isn't the maddest example of political parties using football for their own gain. During the dictatorship in Brazil if ARENA (the military party) was doing bad in one state, they would get the local football into the first division. So you'd end up with massive leagues, such as 1978 which had 74 teams and 1979 which had 94 teams. ARENA would also * over small teams for the support of big teams, such as in 1972 when they promoted Moto Club to the top division at the expense of small clubs that finished above them such as Ferroviário-MA. They keen completely removed the second division to * these teams even more.

The other weird method they used to help big teams was changing the qualification criteria. So in 1974 Fluminense finished six places outside of their groups qualification zone, but they did win another kind of group. They won the "made the most money from ticket sales" group and so made it into the next round that way. 1975 also had a cool group system were no matter what, every team made it into the next round :smiley-laughing002:

Julio Grondona was the strong man of Argentine football. He kept the clubs in their place and forced this expansion through. But the big clubs have been against it from day one, because the money is split evenly among all the teams. Now the league has increased the but the money hasn't, so it is spread a lot thinner now, meaning clubs get less. Now that Grondona is dead there isn't anyone who can really stand up to them (and no president wants to anger the hordes of Boca fans) so the league is been slimmed down again so they big clubs can get some more money.

 

Pablo Aimar ended his career. Struggling with some injuries, after signing for River Plate he finally realized his body no longer could manage to play at an high level.



A great player and a gentleman off the field.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EteQ2QcdAWQ[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN-uPV7V014[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJp_AzazBZ0[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHSCm-YNEt4[/ame]