2013 CWC: Raja Casablanca - Atlético Mineiro (Semifinal #2) [R]

Monterrey dissapointed me. And I still can't see Raja being the new Mazembe (Guangzhou has a better chance against Bayern IMO), although the home advantage might come in hand for them.

PS: We had 10k supporters confirmed a week ago. Considering all the late travellers, I think Galo might pull up to 15k supporters to the games.

 

From what I've seen, Guangzhou is far superior to Raja, at least technically.
My point is that Galo is not that far behind Bayern either. They may be favorites, but I don't see the tournament as a walk in the park to them. I might be wrong, tho.

Galo is playing average, but still managed to nearly finish the Brasileirão in the top 5. We are basically practicing to the CWC ever since we won the Libertadores (as you might know, the CWC is held to the highest level in Brazil and treated as such, with most of brazilian teams basically "letting go" of the national league after winning Libertadores). Multiple injuries and constant changes in the squad held us from getting a better position in the Brasileirão, but now with the full squad I believe we might play up to our full potential.

The absence of Bernard is a matter of concern, tho.

 

Exactly. If you are going to lose to Bayern, do it as Grêmio did against Ajax, which at the time was considered one of the best teams ever and had like half the dutch national squad.

Lose on penalties, and ONLY BECAUSE you played half the game one man down.

Otherwise you can win it. But don´t go fooling around and losing by a large margin. That´s a disgrace, even if it´s against this Bayer Munchen side.

 

All that may be true about putting more priority on Copa Libertadores than the Brasileirão, but the thing is that Atleti were just not that impressive in the Copa Libertadores either. Of course, we are talking about champions here, but as far as champions go this was one of the least impressive Copa Libertadores champions in recent memory: Two penalty shootout wins plus one win on away-goals rule. And as you say, now they are without one of their best players in Bernard.

All in all, this is set-up to be an ugly tournament for everyone not named "Bayern Munchen".

 

Better a Santos-Barcelona than an Inter-Mazembe.

 

Their knockout stage performances were best against (of all opponents) my team in the round of 16. But in the first round Atl.-MG was impressive. And to score the goal that gave them the PK against Olimpia, against all odds, in the waning minutes of the 2nd half of the return match, was something mediocre/average teams just don't do.

Besides, yours is a team who won 2 Libertadores on PK shootouts. If the argument is made that Newell's and/or Olimpia could've won those PK shootouts, the argument can also be made that Palmeiras in 2000 and in 2001 and Cruz Azul in 2001 could've won their respective PK shootouts. You of all people should recognize that winning PK shootouts is not necessarily evidence of not being championship caliber.

 

This coming from a barcelona fan. Ironic. By the way does december 17 ring a bell? Inter 1 x 0 barcelona.

And i disagree Inter lost to mazembe in a game dominated by Inter. It happens. Santos though was humiliated by barča.

 

Well, I'm not saying they were mediocre. Just pointing-out that they are probably the least convincing CL champion in recent memory. It's one thing to win a final on PKs, but they got through the last 3 rounds on PKs or away-goals*. All while playing weaker opposition than Boca did in 2000 and 2001.

*Including the semifinal against NOB where the AM 'keeper was blatantly cheating in the PK shootout.

 

That's merely your opinion built on nothing more than speculation. Would you say Once Caldas was a more convincing Libertadores champion given its very defensive style and its PK shootout win over your team?

They won the final on PKs. Who cares how Atl.-MG got there?

Unless you're willing to admit (which you aren't) that a 1990 PK shootout win for your country against Germany (which is all your team was going for) after 2 PK shootouts earlier on would've taken away the luster of what would've been a 3rd World Cup title for your country.

Funny you'd say that the champion of your country's league in 2013, and one of the best teams your country has produced in years, was "weak" opposition, or that Olimpia of Paraguay, one of the tougher teams this year, was "weak." You do recall Olimpia defeated Newell's 4-1 in this year's Libertadores.

The typical "you played against nobody" line which is so common from the likes of you (fans of your team, not people of your country).

You as a Boca fan have no right to mention "cheating" given the absolutely scandalous referring calls that favored your team against Corinthians.

 

It's based on the fact that in 3 out of the 4 knockout rounds they did not outscore the opposition.

Bayern was also more convincing in 2013 compared to Chelsea in 2012. Just because they're both champions, doesn't mean one can't be less convincing than the other.

 

Last match I saw by Atletico, not impressed. Far below the team that won the Libertadores, They couldn't beat Vitoria at home, a newly promoted team, doing fairly well in the Brasilerao but still, you'd expect Atletico to beat them if they were in form. They tied with a last minute penalty, so barely saved themselves from the humiliation of losing at home. Dinho is still their best player though, although he disappears for long periods of time.

 

Well, as I said earlier, it's pretty clear that Bayern are the clear favorites in this tournament. They're among the best teams in the world, if not THE best. Being defeated by them, if that happens, will be no reason for embarrassment.

My point is: it's only one game, so you might pull an upset. And, unlike Guangzhou, Galo has plenty of talent in order to do so. Talentwise, it's a much better of a team than last year's Corinthians, as well.

And yes, the "sleepwalking" in the past few months may become a problem, as you can't just "turn on" for a couple of games. But anyone familiar to brazilian football knows that this is the norm for Libertadores winners. Including Sao Paulo 2005, Inter 2006 and even Corinthians 2012.

Anyway, it's all still based on speculation.

We will get a better view on what Galo is capable of tomorrow.

 

And it's impossible to ask full focus on the Brasileirão AND THEN on the CWC. At least not under the current calendar. No team ever did, no team ever will.

So I think you should disregard what you saw against Vitória. That was nothing more than a training session against a very focused and competent Vitória side.

 

My point, exactly. Why would Galo put any effort (and risk having injuries) in a game with zero importance to the season? Vitória had something worth fighting for. Galo was just tweaking it's beak.

Exactly. I think it's actually good to have a motivated opponent in our last game prior to the final. We need all the practice we can get.

 

This is the goalie Atlético Mineiro will face.