News: Por los clubes (revised)

Re: Copa Libertadores 2007 - comentarios y discusion [R]

I'm here and I stand my ground. Cucuta is playing well and is dominating our local tournament and doing well in Libertadores. Anyway they are still far from a great team: They classified second in the group round in a not so strong group, lost several points at home and only advanced in a very even game against Tolima. One game does not make them Liverpool.

Keep your head cool, because we still have one more game to go to classify to the next round, and colombian teams have not done well in Mexico. On Cucutas, favor they're peaking at the right moment, while Toluca is going the other way, struggling in their local tourney.

And that a team that is facing two tournaments, have a so-so record at Libertadores is basically one level on top of everybody else in the local tournament, shows that the Colombian tournament has a poor level.

Although this is bad luck for them, they could have been seeded differently if a couple of scores would have been different in the group round, yet it is only 2 out of 5.

Here, I totally agree with you. We should have a more dynamic way to define the number of teams each country sends, based on some formula involving their previous performances, like UEFA does.

Starting with 38 countries, most likely Brasil will earn an additional spot (6) and so will do Mexico (4). Argentina will loose one or two (4) and Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador probably should see two of their teams in the preliminary round, maybe Bolivia and Peru will loose one each. This gives us 6+4+2+2+3+1 (previous champ)=18, meaning 20 berths for the remaining six countries. How many spots should we give Uruguay? or Colombia? or Chile? Probably all of them will avoid the preliminary rounds now.... Anyway the picture won't be very different.

And same with sudamericana, keep taking spots away from underachivers and give it to deserving parties...

 

Re: Copa Libertadores 2007 - comentarios y discusion [R]

No one is making them Liverpool. Not "so strong group" HA! What a laugh... Gremio is no walkover (last time I checked they are past 2x CL Champions).
Cerro Porteno is no walk in the park and have solid players ..same as Tolima. Cucuta changed DT, which I think slowed them down a bit but picked up late in the tourney. Gremio couldnt beat them. And they beat Tolima as visitors so they made up their points. Look Im not getting ahead of myself by saying that they have been one of the most consistent teams in the tourney. They lost 1 game out of 6. Maybe they tied too many, lost points at home but they also didnt get owned by Brasil's Gremio or Mexico's Toluca.
I ask you, what makes a great team? I would think a team that wins a 2nd div championship, then wins the 1st div championship, then makes it to a 2nd round of a CL in a not so easy group is surely on the way. It's likely they are already in the next round. It's all relative dapip. Pachuca is not one of "Mexico's" typical giants - yet in the past 10 years they have done an unbelievable job in WINNING...they are a great team. If Colombia wins a World Cup, they would be considered a great team, regardless of how many "misses" they had in the past.
I'd rather have a "so-so" team like Cucuta Dep. then a bunch of players ala Millos who are star struck with their own vanity everyday... and play like it!

And regarding Argentina, did you not read the article. "Bad luck!" Maybe the tourney is not as dominant as it once was --partly because they export every up and coming player!! I love the intensity of their league but that's what CL is for... it's to say, give me your best teams to play vs my best teams. I mean 1 team, the SAME team has made it to the finals in the last 10 years... River eliminated by Caracas. How is it that Brazilians reach semis and have played the last 2 finals in their own soil. They clearly have the best league with good parity as they have had several different finalists.

 

Re: Copa Libertadores 2007 - comentarios y discusion [R]

You get money for playing in libertadores, and even more as you go on and win games...

Anyways, Blas is not going to play in colombia next year because dep. cali will ask too much for him from cucuta so they'll have to sell him elsewhere. Cucuta is however buying Zapata. And Mcnelly already belongs to them, so if he leaves that's a lot of money coming in. Besides, Bernal knew what he was getting himself into when he left another good organization in Tolima to come to this one. They'll get him players don't worry about that.

 

Re: Copa Libertadores 2007 - comentarios y discusion [R]

Yet Gremio failed to win convincingly at only qualyfied in the last matchday and Cerro lost to Tolima. Therefore no great teams either. Not a bad group, but at least until now, no favorite to win the tournament came from this group either. It was a tough group because it was even, not because all teams were great, or are you just saying that Tolima is great, probably more deserving than a few teams that advanced, but still.

You are right in that the team is improving and that probably is yet to show its best football since Bernal just took over from Pinto. But, keep it real, is not 5 goals against a full team, they had one man less for 60 minutes and it showed, besides this is not the powerful Toluca that won 2 championships a few tournaments ago in Mexico, is on the downward curve.

But Pachuca is becoming quickly what America was in Colombia in the late 80s, the dominant team of the league, not one of the traditional powerhouses but a clear favorite to win every tournament they play. Cucuta is the rigth path, hopefully they can keep it up, but again, do not get too far ahead of your self, they are one game of being in the quarterfinals and seven games away from greatness.

Who wouldn't?

I referred to the fact that they are going to be down to one team in quarterfinals regardless, but your point is taken and if you read my answer you will see that I agreed in that we need a new system to choose the 38 teams and that probably Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru should lose some spots and Brazil earn more.

Look, Cucuta is playing great football, I think that the team will be peaking at the right time, that is the best team in Colombia in the last 2 years, but its success does not make our league great, for me just shows it is a good team, is like saying that the Paraguayan league is good because of Libertad or the Chilean league is great because of Colo Colo, both are good teams, but they do not face a lot of competition back home. SA leagues are so-so and even the argentinian league is loosing its edge.

 

Re: Copa Libertadores 2007 - comentarios y discusion [R]

You guys are taking the shine away from this team with this league argument. This should be started on another thread. This team is playing great ball. Even if Tolucas player was not thrown out, I think Cucuta would of won the game. They play as a unit, their transition game is SICK. Mcnelly Torres is plain Nasty. What makes a great team is how they handle the 4 goal lead. Toluca is going to come out with everthing. If Cucuta can hold on for 20 minutes, then they can control the pace. El "toque-toque" Motilon is coming for you Toluca