Paraguay has pretty much the same candidates every year, Cerro, Libertad, Olimpia - Chile, the same with Colo-Colo, Univ. Catolica. This is Uruguay's best showing oin I can't remember how long, and even then their past history is all Nacional + Penarol. The others aren't really ever in contention. But Colombia brings a different team to the mix every year and makes a decent showing. I can think of right away DIM in 2003, Once Caldas 2004, (in 05' we had all 3 teams reach teh Rnd of 16), Santa Fe 2006, Atl Junior '94... and then add to that the America de Cali , Dep. Cali, Atl Nacional CL 'powerhouses' for Colombia and I would say that's a pretty good mix. Colombia has been a SF on 23 occassions,2 less then Uruguay, but we didi it with 7 different teams (Brazil has the most with 13 followed by Arg 10 and then Colombia...then it's a big drop off)!. That has to say something about the quality of play in our league!
well, im really impressed with cucuta. its comforting to watch them play such fluid football. although they just lost 2-0 im very satisfied with that result and with the way they played.
Ok, one more step toward greatness. Cucuta has two ingredients needed if you want to go far in this tournament: Luck and coolness. They were very lucky not to concede an earlier goal, because Toluca had plenty of chances in the early minutes and Cucuta looked a little panicky. But after Zihnas's goal they did not loose concentration and kept playing their game. Still for periods of time they were losing the ball in their own half of the field and allowing Toluca to keep sending crosses and shooting from the outside. When Toluca ran out of gas, Cucuta was finally able to control the pace and to create some danger on the other end of the field. I think that the weakest link is in the midfield, I think that Castro and Rueda are too limited and do not defend the way defensive midfielders are supposed to. Other than that, I think that every player played his role as requested by Bernal. Zapata had a brilliant night despite the two goals. Macnely knows what to do with the ball and Martinez is very talented and creative upfront. But after watching the game I still feel the same, Colombian tournament could be fun because is very even, but I think that we are a step below Argentinian and Mexican tournaments and far far away from the Brazilian league. Probably we have a better tournament than most other countries in conmebol, but that is not so difficult.
I dont really agree that Mexico has a better tournament than Colombia's, they have a better federation that runs the league but thats just because of mexicos economical status i have said this many times before and so have others. Colombian players are better than most Mexican players BUT Mexicans play to win not to look good like Colombians do almost ALL of the time. Another thing i was wondering was why the hell was Cucuta allowed to go sight seeing and shopping before the game, i had read in a newspaper that instead of training they took a tour of the city.
I am with you, Mexican players are not better than Colombians, but they play to win until the last minute. But we are talking about the leagues. Colombian players are leaving Colombia earlier and earlier and we do not get top talent from other countries. Look at the powerful teams right now and they have either young promising players that are looking for the opportunity to play elsewere (Ospina, Castrillon, Estrada, Mcnely, Caracho), players that went to other places and did not have enough success to stay (Murillo, Bedoya, Patiño) and foreigners that are not that relevant at the international level (Villagra, Frangipani, Galvan Rey, Blas, Martinez). Mexico on the other side, tends to keep most of its top players playing locally and import a fair amount of players not wanted in Europe but that could be very well playing in an intermedite league like Portugal or Turkey, and also some over the hill players that want to make some extra bucks before retiring. Kleber, Calero, Chitiva, Zihna, Piojo Lopez, Chamagol, LG Rey, Tressor, Cabañas, Cuevas are just a few names of players that fit this description. At the end having Money does make a difference.
of course they don't. Dapip is OBSESSED with making comparisons that can't be justified. If you live here in the states, AND ARE FED, the same image, the same mktg, the same 'pitch' every time...you start to believe it. Even I like the MExican tournament now (still hate the announcers ), but that's after years of resisting. They've put in a ton of money into their stadiums, infrastructure, payroll, etc... but let's face it, it's a better league because of the foreigners... That being said, they get the 'left overs' from the European clubs, so again, the difference in results and talent arent' so different. I'd put this stat out before, but I'll remind Dapip, who really is thick-headed: Mexican Clubs in Copa Lib (starting 1998): Champions: 0 SubChampions: 1 Semifinalists: 5 (with 3 diff. teams) Colombian Clubs in Copa Lib: Champions: 1 SubChampions: 1 Semifinalists: 4 (with 4 diff. teams) ...really Dapip, think about it a bit more. And then add the Argentinos and Brazilians + 5-6 teams per tourney and you realize, we actually have very competitive teams. We dont 'lend' players from one club to another in the middle of QF like they do in Mexico. Each team that has been in these final instances for colombia has fairly unique players. What more proof do you need? We dont get good tv coverage, the camera work needs help, the narrators are horrible on GolTv,I agree that the mktg is horrid.
Colombia has won it two times Atletico Nacional and Once Caldas. I just remembered something that my father used to always tell me, although it did not happen this year the Mexican teams would enter in the second round without even having to qualify in the first round i think it was last year or probably the year before that. This is going a bit back but did anyone ever hear about the scandal surrounding Tigres Vs. Once Caldas two years ago... The Caldas players told the papers that they had seen members of the Tigres team entering the refs training room with duffel bags full of "sports memorabilia" Tigres eliminated Caldas that same night, i read it in El Diario.
knock, knock..."hello?" Note that i mention CL since 1998, so it can be 'apples vs apples', as Mexico started their participation in 98.
o whoops well i was only 9 years old at the time Cucuta's next rival will be either Nacional de Uruguay or Necaxa of Mexico... Necaxa looks the most favorable in advancing even though they lost 3-2 their 2 away goals can prove to be vital. Well if we face them its just another mexican team we will have to beat.
Read the part in bold again..... I agree with you, our league could be a lot better with some marketing and investment, but if you want to put numbers, look at our record in libertadores against the mexicans: Before Cucuta - Toluca. 10 games, 0 wins, 2 ties, 8 lost, 9 goals scored, 23 allowed. With the last matches it improved to : 12 games, 1 win, 2 ties, 9 lost, 14 goals scored, 26 allowed.
There is something wrong with that statistic cuz i remember Once Caldas beat Tigres 4-1 in Manizales.
You're right, it was only till 2004. The correct record before this year was 18 played-2 wins 5 ties 11 lost 23 goals scored, 38 against With last series is 20P, 3W, 5T, 12L, 28GS, 41GA 11 points out of 60 scored 1.4 goals per game allowed 2.05 goals per game
who cares dapip?? last time I checked it was called Copa Libertadores not Copa Mexico... I agree we fair poorly against teh Mexican teams but we also do well vs Argentinian teams and at times Brazilian teams, that means squat. At the end of teh day, it's who wins or who get;s further in these tournaments, in which case it's an even draw.
When they are draws in the table what do they use to decide who's on top? mmmmm.... oh yeah how they fare against each other.... Besides you have already said what I being saying all over, so what's the point of keep arguing if you have already conceded One more point, I can't stand the Mexican commentators, I watch only a few games of their league and I am far more involved with the Colombian league because I care about who wins. But I am objective enough to know a good game from a bad one and a good collection of talent from a so-so bunch. P.S. Look at the beauty I've found in the mexican forums.... hahaha
a uruguayan club has not made the semifinals in 18 years! i think they might be due. pero vamos cucuta!
2 underdog teams this game... def a cucuta victory the 1st game but they need to win decisively because i dont thikn a 1-0, 2-1 is good because tits going to be difficult to beat this team at home. any way im really excited to see the game tonite on fox sports and hoping for Mcnelly to show off his skills so alot of top clubs will be askin about him and for a little luck. and as for uruguay they have another team in the last 8
hey, just quickly off topic ... Itried to call Vez today for Copa America tix "El número de acceso es el 0 501 DELUJO 1 (0 501 335856 1) "" How do you dial from the US... the country code is 58 but it says the # isnt registering? is there another # I would need?? BTW ...Fuerza Cucuta! WHY IS IT AT 10PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
nice pressure that national is playin tho I hope that cucuta start actually touchin the ball tho, neither team right now is doin to well but Nacional seems like the stronger team at the moment and ahve more ball possesion hope that Cucata can wake up b4 they get scored on
Que GOLAZO de Macnelly! Preciso cuando los Che's lo pedian para salir del partido, el joven llego con un verdadero golazo tanto por su definicion que por la manera de rendir en el momento de la necesidad. Barbaro! Vamos Cucuta!
Lindo gol de Perez (por fin!) que habia desperdiciado varias oportunidades de gol. Impresionante la solidez de este Cucuta, pocos nombres, pero todos juegan a full. Ojala que Pinto le traiga esta entrega a la sele. La seriedad del equipo que dejo en Cucuta es notable.