Copa Libertadores 2018

After a certain age the Nirvana albums seem to have come out yesterday.

 

I agree that Ecuador is the closest there is to a 4th placer given the performances of Barcelona and del Valle in recent memory. Paraguay always has a club advancing to knockout stages and sometimes they make deep runs (surprisingly it hasn't been done by Olimpia or Cerro, but by the likes Libertad, Guaraní and Nacional).

Uruguay IMO is clearly better than Bolivia. First of all, bolivian teams are boosted enormously by the altitude, as is proven by all the thrashings they suffer when they play away. Second, although Uruguayan football's best days are behind, they have only failed two times (2005 and 2012) to qualify a team for the knockout stages in the XXI century. Bolivia, on the other hand, in the same period failed to qualify a team for R16 in every edition from 2001 until 2012 (!) and then failed again in 2013 and 2016.
I don't know you, but for me Uruguayan league is no contest better than Bolivian.

 

Sticking to the last 3 Libertadores:

2015 : Uruguay got Nacional eliminated by Palestino in the pre, Danubio finished last in their group, and Wanderers made it to the R16. Bolivia got The Strongest through the pre (over Morelia from Mexico), and in the group stage San Jose finished last in their group, The Strongest was close but no cigar, and Universitario made the R16. Advantage: Bolivia.

2016 : Uruguay got River Plate through the pre (beating U de Chile), River Plate finished last in their group, Peñarol finished third, and Nacional made it to QFs (Boca needed a penalty shootout to beat them). Bolivia lost their first team in the pre (Oriente Petrolero fell to Ind. Santa Fe), and The Strongest and Bolivar finished third in their groups. Advantage: Uruguay.

2017 : Wanderers beat Universitario in the first stage (point for Uruguay), The Strongest beat Wanderers in the second stage (point for Bolivia), Uruguay also lost Cerro to Unión Española. The Strongest beat Unión Española, so two teams from Uruguay made it to the group stage versus three from Bolivia.

In the group stage, Peñarol was last in their group and Nacional made it through as second place in theirs. Nacional lost in the R16. For Bolivia, Sport Boys finished last in their group but the two other teams made it through, with The Strongest losing in the R16 and Wilstermann making QF. Advantage: Bolivia.

So, for me, right now:

1. Brazil
2. Argentina
3. Colombia
4. Ecuador
--- next four very close
5. Paraguay
6. Bolivia
7. Chile
8. Uruguay
--- next two very close
9. Peru
10. Venezuela

I'd say Peru and Venezuela don't make the Top 40 leagues in the world.

 

ok, pick the sample you like.

For me however, and except for clubs like Oriente Petrolero, all home results of bolivian clubs should be disregarded entirely when judging the league's level. But that's my opinion.

 

Peru is different because the biggest and richest clubs are from Lima, in Bolivia all the relevant clubs except Oriente play at insane altitude (+3000m).

I have lost count of how many 5+ goal dif. defeats bolivian clubs have suffered playing away, that rarely ever happens to uruguayan clubs, even the smaller ones.

I stand by my opinion, in normal, no-cheat conditions bolivian clubs are only better than Venezuela's.

 

I didnt know

thanks for the info.

That clubs have won something recent??


Here is similar the capital clubs arent the most rich.......bu

 

Wilstermann plays at a very comfortable 2500m. Much like cities all over South America. Likewise the teams from Sucre.

 

Brazilians are so damn good at penalties... I think I have seen brazilian teams win like 85% of PSOs in my lifetime.

 

7 of brasil, 6 argentina, 4 colombia, 3 ururguay, 2 peruvians, 2 paraguayans, 2 ecuatorians, 2 chileans

 

I'm actually a Independiente fan so of course I watched all that.

What is for certain is that our team has a lot of balls and flair, even if we don't have players as good as Boca's or River's. In both matches with Gremio we played 10 v 11 for more than 150 minutes (both legs combined) and despite that, somehow, we played better with a man down in both games.
We lost Barco and Tagliafico compared to the sudamericana team, but we bought good players to replace them. The team still has to gel however, the same idea as last year is there but the "refuerzos" have to adapt the system.

Bias aside, I'm confident we will advance to next round and even dispute first place in this tough group. Don't think our players have enough experience to actually win the trophy, though.

And I also mantain what I said about Boca, they may have the best and most expensive players and they are leading the league by a mile, but they play like dogshit currently Independiente and Racing are the two argentine teams that play the best football, even if they don't win every weekend.

 

The preliminaries saw two teams from each country (except Argentina, only one) and in the end:

- Colombia won 4/4 match-ups, cementing their position as the #3 league in South America;
- Uruguay won 2/3 match-ups, forcing me to re-assess their league strength;
- Brazil won 2/3 match-ups, which is a bit weaker than expected, considering the last one was won on penalties;
- Bolivia won 2/4 match-ups, with a big bonus because one was between two Bolivian teams;
- Paraguay won 2/4 match-ups, which is still decent;
- Chile won 1/3 match-ups, so it's not terrible;
- Venezuela won 1/3 match-ups, and that is good for their standards;
- Argentina won 0/1 match-up, but it was Banfield so meh;
- Ecuador won 0/2 match-ups, dropping in everybody's estimation somehow;
- Peru won 0/2 match-ups, which at this point is sort of expected.

 

Banfield won their tie against Independiente del Valle, so it would be 1/2.