All three Colombian teams play this week. Santa Fe tonight, Cali on Wednesday and Nacional on Thursday. All matches will be shown live on Fox Deportes in the USA.
Watched this match last night. Santa Fe looks like the real deal here. They need to strengthen their back line some but overall this team is VERY quick. EMendez finally looked well placed on the field. I think having Arias and Anchico support him (along with Torres) when defending helps EM be a bit more offensive. Speaking of, that Torres goal was 'crack'.
Cali with the three points. All things considered with their poor form in the League this was about as good as it gets. The victory got them out of their slump.
watched the game. Soooooo glad our NT is not with Leonel. He is a very conservative coach. One DCali scored (Viafara of all people) he puts on a DMF (Bolivar) and takes out his attacking MFs. That stadium does look nice from far out but verrrrry empty. I wish America was playing this tourney
great match to watch. Newells has some tough veterans: Maxi, Banega, Trezeget, Heinze.....just to name a few. This is the real group of death
That change was actually planned before the goal was even scored, just so happened they managed to score a minute before it went through. Unless that was part of his master plan (Cali did pick up some pace for moments afterwards) Leonel was settling for the tie.
GOlazo de Cardona! Great to see him finally score. He missed a few of good chances but buried this one.
Great week! And great match! Though it was anguishing to the last minute Nacional showed some impressive futbol. I hope Cardenas and Cardona continue to gel. Both had impressive games in their own right but didn't link up too much. A brilliant way to commence the tournament. Confidence should be high.
Newells didn't come to Colombia to win and thats why they lost. They didn't even attack in the 1st half. Cardona was very good in the 1st half but super selfish. If he had passed they could have lit Newells up. Really liked the defense of Nacional. Bocanegra, Medina as Sweeper and Murrillo are very good. Diaz FING SUCKS !!! and Angel my boy hood hero is done. Love him still but come on Osorio .... Angel doesn't have it any more to start one of these games. He is a rotation guy at best for the league against crap teams and Copa Postobon. If he had come out with Valencia instead of Diaz and Duque instead of Angel from the start this would have been a very different game. The announcers kept mentioning the disallowed goal but Tezeguart was defiantly off sides. They said he didn't go for the ball but he did have 2 CBs marking him. What did you guys think about that?
you make it sound like there weren't another 11 players trying to stop them from winning. Newells came to fight. This was tagged the GOD group because of the caliber of the teams involved. As for Angel, he still commands a presence in the box but I do prefer Duque as well. Needless to say between Santa Fe and Nacional, we have at least 2 candidates to go pretty far. D CAli, wasnt so impressive to me.
I'll have to agree, Newell's is a tough rival and I doubt they wanted to settle for a draw in medellin
It is possible. The back line has to improve though or else a good team is going to burn them for a lot of goals.
Pretty cheap goal to give up on a free-kick by Cali but hey, they got the lucky bounce last week for the three points. This time they lose.
Leonel's line up is not impressive. His strikers stink and he uses Marrugo all wrong. They are going to miss Marin big time. The group is level enough where they may sneak thru but they don't offer much past that.
Tricky road games in Brazil for Nacional today and Santa Fe tomorrow. To be frank, I would be happy if each team got a point this week.
If Nacional wins in Brazil then they are the real deal and I will put money on them going to the final. Thing with Nacional is they do bad in this tourney. The team can't handle the pressure and striker wise I don't think they have what it takes. Santa Fe even tho they are a crappier team I think will go farther but then be knocked out again because you can't base your whole attack on 1 dude.