Yes, it's been rather civil in here for the most part. The copa threads in rivalries used to get a lot of trolling back in the old days, between the euros who put down the tournament and the Mexicans and South Americans talking smack back and forth. But it's not been as busy lately.
Precisely why I wondered why we even needed a WR thread for the Libertadores. Let the UEFA boys remain on their side of the Atlantic. We have the most passionate club tournament of all. And they know many of their teams are excellent because the best CONMEBOL produces ultimately plays there. As for you, you must be hungry for revenge against Fluminense. I can't for those two games, especially since your team won your country's league unbeaten and since Fluminense now has one of the best offensive lineups, at least on paper, in Brazil and possibly in all of South America.
infantile defending. a weak team beating a more weak team. they did show some bright spots in the counter but no definition. at least it's a far cry from the 9-0 drubbing.......so far.
I only now remembered that the winner of this playoff goes to the same group as your team and Fluminense. I don't know Arsenal's current roster at all, but I fathom they'll be an underdog.
Sport Huancayo ------------Loco Seba-------------- Reaños---Figueroa---Farfán---Ojeda Blas----Manzana---Araujo---Cruzado ---------Ibarra---Baylon------------ Banca: Pinto; Monón Alvarado; Novoa, Salazar, Zambrano; Rouch, Smith. 2-0. Total flub by Figueroa, Zelaya catches the rebound and scores. Baylon the best in the Peruvian team, yet disconnected from Blas López, the best in midfield. Arsenal dominates easy.
Huancayo is a team assembled at the eleven hour, and it shows. They lost nearly all their players after they qualified to the Libertadores, and had to hire new players quick just to have a complete team. Even so, they only got a six player banca since one of them (Rouch?) got injured during pre-game practice. The four guys in the back line don't know each other and it shows. Ojeda is playing defensive on the left, but he was playing mainly as volante izquierdo with Cienciano. Rafo Farfan, one of the CBs, must be around 40 years old. I remember him playing for Municipal a few years back, and then he was already veterano and ready to retire.
Yea but try telling them the libertadores is better then the champions league it can get crazy quick.
Ah, who cares. People who know about the Champs League are the casual fans. People who know about the Libertadores are the true fans of the sport. That's all I need to know.
Change in Huancayo: Welington Adao Gomes "Smith" in as the RM. Luis Hernández Díaz "Manzana" out, he was playing as CM. My take: Smith will allow Blas to move more centrally, to help Baylon. PS: Figueroa showing why he never got beyond Primera B in Colombia. Garbage defending.
Lo botaron a Carbonero. Inexperienced kid, unable to keep a calm head, it was not technically a yellow but he had two warnings already. Torres in for Caffa (forward in, midfielder out) and straight change Blanco for Cordoba. The idea was to attack with three, Blanco opening to the left, Torres to the right, Zelaya in the middle. Carbonero was going to come inside in front of Aguirre, to provide balls with Marcone to the three in front. So it was supposed to be a 4-1-2-3, but with Carbonero out, now it's more a 4-2-3.
Yeah, they lost their best player and top scorer to Velez, so I don't think they'll be too strong. As far as Fluminense, yeah, it will be nice to get back at them, but I think both teams will advance. I'm just happy Boca is back, after missing it the last couple of year.
I picked it 2-0 as well. Arsenal is down a player, and still they look closer to scoring than Huancayo. But a goal by Huancayo would be huge for them going back to the altitude for the rematch.
Cambio en Huncayo: Ryan Salazar, attacking mid, in for Ibarra (forward) who had done basically nothing. The idea is to establish control of midfield (Arsenal only has two volantes left right now), so that Salazar can provide balls for Baylon and Adao, who moves forward on their right.
Arsenal keeps attacking better BUT they have lost some control of the midfield, as Company planned. Now I expect a mid to enter for Zelaya, who's getting tired. Right now the Peruvian team takes a 4-3-1-2 shape in the counter, which can cause problems to Arsenal.
As expected, Mosca in for Zelaya. Now Arsenal solidifies the midfield and forces Adao to retreat some.
Game over. Mosca 3-0, Blanco Assist. Alfarito did well with the last change. PS: Company needed to take Cruzado out immediately after Mosca came in, and bring in someone like Zambrano to cover that side.
Arsenal looking as though they actually belong in this tournament. I still have problems with the way they qualified, but that 3rd goal was sweet!
Well, Sport Huancayo could make River look good. As noted before, it's a team put together at the eleventh hour, most of those guys haven't played together but in practice. Arsenal should have won 5-0 at home. 3-0 is ok though, considering they had 10.
No se ve "ni madres," como dicen los Mexicanos, en el Atahualpa: completamente cubierto por la neblina. Ni sé para que lado está el Pichincha.
Huancayo looked good for about 15-20 minutes and then they came apart. I don't see how they can recover, even in the altitude. Arsenal should easily advance. El Nacional vs Libertad is an intriguing matchup. Not sure who has the advantage but I'd expect the home team to win. Too bad we can barely see.
It's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, fourth movement, the Song of Joy (also used often in the Olympic Games, by the way). Ideally, they should play something composed by a Latin American composer. My guess is that they never got an agreement because each country wanted to have their composers considered first. Well, so far they don't use that dreadful Marcha de las Americas ("un canto de amistad, de buena vecindad...").