40 Years later Brazilian club Santos makes it to a Libertadores final. Pele's team will face Boca Juniors of Argentina, the same club they played in 1963. Oddly enough that same year after Santos beat Boca they went on to win the World title against AC Milan and AC Milan is already waiting for the winner of this match for the Toyota cup final in Japan later this year. Boca x Santos. What do you think will happen? I have to go with Santos of Diego , Robinho, Leo and company , they just seem to be destined to win and meet AC Milan.
sure but who plays for Boca. I think they're only good player is Tevez, right? How good is Delgado? I hear a lot about Diego and Robinho and weird that even a Brazilian goalie is a star. I'd go for Santos but Bianchi is a great coach who seems to win all the big games. Santos 2-1 at home and 2-1 away for a 4-2 aggregate score.
boca=tevez, delgado, villareal, and bataglia (sp?) if im not mistaken, but i don't think most of the people i listed are all that good. it will be up to tevez.
Santos hardly defeated the Colombians, Boca Juniors won easily. I know everybody here is Brazil´s fans but Boca has been two times better than Santos and deserve a thousand times the cup, no matter what you say.
Do you realize Santos is UNDEFEATED in the Libertadores! If that isnt living up...I dont know what is. Do you realize that Santos scored 5 on America Cali in Cali.... Its not about what I or you say, its about what they do on the field. READ ABOVE. Boca even lost at home to PAYSANDU a MINOR club in Brazil. Santos will win the Libertadores, its destiny. 40 years ago is repeating itself all the way to Japan.
Santos=hype Boca= Bianchi, Tevez, Barros Schelotto, Delgado, Battaglia, Pinto, Gonzalez, Donnet, Estevez, Abbondanzieri, Schiavi, Burdisso, Crossa AND a cohesive attacking unit!
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! now that is CREEPY! both teams in the final and ac milan waiting for the toyota cup! if you want to read something more creepy go here http://www.conspire.com/downard.html
Mario Im not a Santos fan and you are obviously a BIASED Boca fan. Santos win. Boca goes home crying.
i dont care if they are undefeated they have not played well at home... they have not lived up to their hype Robinho is good but im yet to see the so called 'next Pele' Diego is 5 times better than him IMHO
As for being defensively weak I agree, I still remember that 4-4 thriller vs Nacional. BTW I'm with ADA, Diego is better than Robinho.
Santos has some great individual talents but they are very unpredictable. They play well when they attack, but defending they have weaknesses. They blew out the competition in the first round, but then struggled to get past Nacional on penalty kicks, and also had trouble with Cruz Azul in the quarterfinal. Boca is a more organized, better coached team, and they should be slight favorites. Although they finished second in their group, they beat Paysandu 4-2 on the road and then easily dispatched their next two rivals, culminating with a 6-0 combined score against America. So they are peaking at the right time. Boca has in Tevez the player who I think is playing the best football right now, and they get back injured striker Guillermo Barros Schellotto, who is a headache for defenses and always seems to score at key times. They are also getting back attacking defenseman Ibarra who provides another variable to the attack. Santos also has their top striker, Ricardo de Oliveira, back in action for the final, to join young stars Robinho and Diego in a formidable attacking team. So both teams should be at full strength. It will be a great matchup, great for football fans everywhere, even if you are not a fan of either team. I predict Boca will win, but I am speaking with my heart.
You Argies are too much. "Santos is unpredictable" you say! Lets see....2002 Brazilian Champs...undefeated so far in Libertadores 2003 and in the top of the charts in the 2003 Brazilian Championship....unpredictable? You must be joking. Santos is not the greatest team ever but they have been pretty predictable by putting up good results for over 1 year now. How on Earth can you say they are unpredictable. If anything Boca losing at home to a lowly Paysandu should make you guys question Boca. I also agree Diego is a more complete player than Robinho. Robinho need sto learn now how to play with the spotlight on him. He has done very little lately, but he can strike at any moment which makes him very dangerous.
To be honest, I have not seen Santos play much in the Brazilian league, except for occasionals highlights that I can catch. But I have been watching them carefully and with interest in the Libertadores. By unpredictable I mean this: You watch them for 20 minutes and you think they will score 12 goals. But then they go into a lull, and next thing you know their opponents are getting all the chances. It seems like sometimes they turn it on and off. The series with Nacional (a tough but not particularly brilliant team) was a perfect example. At times it looked like Santos was going to destroy them, but at the end they needed penalties to advance. That is why I think Boca plays more consistently. As far as the debate about Robinho and Diego, I agree that Diego is now the more complete player and more important to the team, but I have a feeling that Robinho has the potential to be the more brilliant of the two in the long term, if he becomes more consistent. He has shown some flashes of play that is unbelievable. PS: Oh no! I said Nacional is not brilliant. Now the Uruguayan fans will also get upset.
On second thought... Boca will destroy Santos. Coutinho is pretty good, but that Pele kid is overrated. Boca has the leadership of Rattin, the dynamism of Rojitas, and the lethal scoring of Sanfillippo. I say Boca wins by 2 or 3 goals.
I rate Papao's game in Bs As as the worst game of my beloved xeneizes in CL (and America's destruction in Cali as the best!) I wouldnt take that fatidic game as reference, Mathuzalem! but be confident if you will, you'll be dissapointed!
Well, even if Santos manages to pull it off at home, it would only prove my paisano's point. You have to admit that he was right. The thing about Santos, which showed in the first leg of the final, is that they have some players that are world class level and others (like the goalie and some defenders) that appear to be way over their heads playing in the finals of the Copa libertadores. So the good players carry the rest of them. They can have some great soccer when the good players have the ball, but at other times they look bad.
Im sure you though Boca players were well over their heads when they got B-slapped by Paisandu at home. Please, Santos is a top pro team, nobody on that team is in over their heads.