Copa Libertadores 2018

Ha, I remember that. Pretty bad stuff.

River Plate was a decidedly superior team - from the 135 minutes played in that confrontation, River outplayed Boca. And apparently the same thing happened this past weekend.

Gotta give credit to the senior management of River Plate - in 2016 they went down fighting and in 2017 they were stunned by a fiery and combative Lanus. But they've kept the coach in place and the team has been a bona fide contender for what is now a fourth straight Libertadores. Not easy in the chaotic world of CONMEBOL and transfer windows with talents being snatched by UEFA clubs.

I can agree with the gist of this statement. Having said that, Cruzeiro now has to get its boots on the pitch and get the result come October 4. As I wrote above, Boca was outplayed by River days ago. River and Cruzeiro are different teams, and league play is quite different from a Libertadores elimination match. But River showed two things with its recent 2-0 win: it has a manager who knows how to use what he has and that Boca, while having good players, can be vulnerable.

Oh, there's a guy named Zarate who is not unwilling to scream obscenities at a teammate - a River player, of all people, calmed down the teammate who got yelled at... sometimes strange things happen in soccer.

 

Grêmio and River Plate to meet in the semifinals.

There are a number of commonalities between the two clubs. Both are three-time champions, with the third title having been earned in recent time (2017 for Grêmio and 2015 for River). Both are big-name teams in their countries, and both have supplied players to their national teams.

In fact, the managers - Renato Portaluppi and Marcelo Gallardo - have won with their NTs, as Portaluppi won the 1989 Copa América with Brazil and Gallardo was part of the silver-medal team in Atlanta 1996 (not the title, but silver is still a respectable accomplishment). And both have been named as future managers for their NTs, but with Gallardo ahead as Gallardo may very well take over his country's team in the near future. Portaluppi has a solid chance, but with Tite signed on for another 4 years, Portaluppi will likely have to wait quite some time before he gets a chance.

Both Portaluppi and Gallardo won the Libertadores with Grêmio and River respectively - as players and managers.

Grêmio has had ups and downs in 2018, but it managed to stay tough in this Libertadores, and it is the first defending champion since Santos 2011 to reach the following year's semifinals. River hasn't lost in 30 games (I believe it's 31 after winning tonight, 3-1 at home vs. Independiente).

They last met in the Libertadores in 2002, with Grêmio earning a global 6-1 (1-2 in Buenos Aires, 4-0 in Porto Alegre).

 

The departure of Mexican teams from the Libertadores ensured that Brazil and Argentina had to provide more teams to fill in the vacuum, given the tournament swelled to field 32 teams in 2000. But it took until 2018 for teams from Brazil and Argentina to meet at least once in every round, from group stage until the semifinals.

In 2018 alone, teams from Brazil and Argentina have met 20 times, with 12 matches occurring in the group stage. There were 2 confrontations in the round of 16 and 2 others in the quarterfinals. We are left with 4 teams and there will be another such pairing on each side of the bracket.

The statistics are interesting.

As a whole, from the group stage until yesterday, a total of 22 goals have been scored by each of the two sets of teams. Brazil's teams won 8 matches whereas Argentine clubs won 5, and there have been 7 ties (I am classifying Independiente-Santos as a draw even though CONMEBOL awarded it as a 3-0 win to Independiente; Independiente advanced, but the scoreline on the field was 0-0).

There were 5 Brazilian wins in Argentina and 1 Argentine win in Brazil.

We see on occasion a Defensor Sporting a la 2009, a Peñarol a la 2011, an Independiente del Valle a la 2016, not to mention teams who win the Libertadores such as Once Caldas in 2004, LDU in 2008, Olimpia in 2002, and Atl.-Nacional in 2016. But it appears that the final four this year are nothing more than a logical conclusion of CONMEBOL realities, and unless/until Mexican teams return, there will be this lopsided distribution in the playoffs, starting due to the sheer number of teams from Brazil and Argentine in the early stages of the competition.