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Copa Libertadores 2017


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Hard to pick a favourite this year. I think last year it was fairly obvious after the first game that Atletico Nacional were gonna win it. This year its a bit more difficult. I think the 2 main favourites are Flamengo and River. I'd like Flamengo to do well because of Paolo Guerrero and Miguel Trauco and have looked good overall so far. As for River, not totally impressed with them under Marcelo Gallardo but they weren't in 2015 either and they still won the competition. They have all the quality in the world to win it.


I'd like Melgar to do well as they are Peruvian. I can't stand Sporting Cristal though. Good side, complete bottlers though.

 

My team Universitario was embarrassing. 3-0 loss at home to Capiata...

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13 hours ago, LaSambadeStGermain said:

Hard to pick a favourite this year. I think last year it was fairly obvious after the first game that Atletico Nacional were gonna win it. This year its a bit more difficult. I think the 2 main favourites are Flamengo and River. I'd like Flamengo to do well because of Paolo Guerrero and Miguel Trauco and have looked good overall so far. As for River, not totally impressed with them under Marcelo Gallardo but they weren't in 2015 either and they still won the competition. They have all the quality in the world to win it.


I'd like Melgar to do well as they are Peruvian. I can't stand Sporting Cristal though. Good side, complete bottlers though.

 

My team Universitario was embarrassing. 3-0 loss at home to Capiata...

Palmeiras are the favourites, imo. Great squad, lots of money and a winning run against big teams. 

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1 hour ago, Bravado said:

Palmeiras are the favourites, imo. Great squad, lots of money and a winning run against big teams. 

Palmeiras are very good. I really like El Lobo Guerra. Great player. Miguel Borja is also good but sometimes I feel he misses way too many chances.

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Just saw this

 

65893a26aafc2ab680789f9ec8c0f022.png

 

In my opinion the 2 River players are wrongly there. Lucas Alario is class but he is not even close to Paolo Guerrero. He scores more but Guerrero can do so much more with his incredible strength, hold up play and other on the ball duties. I think Berrio is a bit repetitive with his movements sometimes but after last year he fully deserves his place. No argument on Cueva or Trauco. Felipe Melo is a bit daft to have on here. He has just joined the club and he's played 2 Libertadores game and mostly state championship games (some against good teams). Way to early. Who I'd replace him with, its hard to analyse defensive midfielders to be honest. Especially when there are many good ones. I just don't think Melo should be on for the little time he's been back in South America. Lastly, I think De Arrascaeta should be replaced with El Lobo Guerra. De Arrascaeta is brilliant but Guerra didn't win the best Libertadores player by luck. Sure he's dropped a bit in level but I see it as just bad form as what he showed last year was massive. For both Nacional and Venezuela. Armani and Bocanegra well deserve their place. Armani isn't just the best keeper in SA club level, but the best South American keeper full stop.

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Point taken, but – even though I reckon Guerrero is a world-class player – I don't think he's been doing that well lately. Or at least not as much as at Corinthians. To be fair I don't get to watch the Argentine league very often,  but I've heard Alaro has been shining.

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19 minutes ago, Bravado said:

Point taken, but – even though I reckon Guerrero is a world-class player

I love the praise Guerrero gets, and he's definitely a weird example. Many pundits say that about him here in South America (Vignolo the most recent) but in my opinion there are a few things that hold him back.

 

Vignolo reckons he's at the level of Luis Suarez and Gonzalo Higuain. I fully agree with his point on Peruvians not getting the love they deserve simply because we don't win the Copa Libertadores, we don't qualify for World Cups but this nation has a lot of brilliant players. There is also no "parent league" for Peru. What I mean by this is that they aren't exactly scouted due to the amount of immigrated citizens. For example, there are a lot of Africans in France. Many French teams like to buy players from Africa and develop them. This is a large part of the reason George Weah got to play in Europe. Its more the french speaking nations but he was in Cameroon which I believe there are a lot of in France. Another notable example is Venezuela. Venezuela has a ton of Spanish immigrants. Venezuelans often move immediately to Spain in their football career. Salomon Rondon and Juan Pablo Añor are 2 examples of this. We don't have that so Peruvians have to work a bit harder. Solano and Jefferson Farfan both had to show a lot in order to get moves to top European leagues. The only example I can think of that didn't have to work that hard in a smaller league was Claudio Pizarro.

 

Back to your point about Guerrero though. As I said he's a weird one. He's a player who is inconsistent in the scoring but is superb in his strength and hold up play. When he's on scoring form, then yes. He is world class. However world class players do need to keep consistency though and unfortunately Paolo Guerrero doesn't exactly have that. The weird part though is that he's a player who would succeed in any league in the world in what he does, but he wouldn't be better or worse. He could play in the Premier League or in Serie A and he'd be just as good in those leagues as he is in Brazil. No better, no worse. For this reason I'd comfortably put him over Alario as he is possibly the best player in South American club football. Alario has yet to prove himself in a top standard. Guerrero has already proven himself in the Bundesliga and in the South American qualifiers. He has gotten better since his time in the Bundesliga and for me is at his peak right now. He's not a crazy goalscorer but he offers so much on other fronts and that makes him a top player for me.

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Tim Vickery posted this link on Twitter

 

https://www.espnfc.com/photo-gallery/3085617/photo/1/yerry-mina-colombia-22-years-old-palmeiras

 

A gallery of the players to watch out for in South America.

 

Here is one of my lists

 

1. Jose Manzaneda - Academia Cantolao

2. Nicolas de la Cruz - Liverpool de Montevideo

3. Jefferson Savarino - Zulia

4. Josue Colman - Cerro Porteño

5. Yefferson Soteldo - Huachipato

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16 hours ago, LaSambadeStGermain said:

Just saw this

 

65893a26aafc2ab680789f9ec8c0f022.png

 

In my opinion the 2 River players are wrongly there. Lucas Alario is class but he is not even close to Paolo Guerrero. He scores more but Guerrero can do so much more with his incredible strength, hold up play and other on the ball duties. I think Berrio is a bit repetitive with his movements sometimes but after last year he fully deserves his place. No argument on Cueva or Trauco. Felipe Melo is a bit daft to have on here. He has just joined the club and he's played 2 Libertadores game and mostly state championship games (some against good teams). Way to early. Who I'd replace him with, its hard to analyse defensive midfielders to be honest. Especially when there are many good ones. I just don't think Melo should be on for the little time he's been back in South America. Lastly, I think De Arrascaeta should be replaced with El Lobo Guerra. De Arrascaeta is brilliant but Guerra didn't win the best Libertadores player by luck. Sure he's dropped a bit in level but I see it as just bad form as what he showed last year was massive. For both Nacional and Venezuela. Armani and Bocanegra well deserve their place. Armani isn't just the best keeper in SA club level, but the best South American keeper full stop.

Ah, ah, ah... Should be these guys.

C9BDF548E7EE4469BB08FB4D36EFFC93.ashx?w=

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22 hours ago, tarzanontoast said:

What happened exactly at the Palmeiras v Penarol match? Filipe Melo threw some punches?

BBC news story here…

He was surrounded by some very aggressive Peñarol players right after the game was over. The whole stadium descended into chaos; dressing room doors were shut (and Palmeiras were forced to remain on the pitch), Peñarol fans (with the help of their security staff) attacked the away fans. Truly a mess.

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Right now the early favourites are River Plate.

I'd have Gremio in second. Best Brazilian side so far for me.

I hope Flamengo wins it though because of Paolo Guerrero and Miguel Trauco. Flamengo have been good but they need to get better away from home, although on paper they are easily the best team in the continent. Paolo Guerrero, Diego, Miguel Trauco, Orlando Berrio, Dario Conca, Leandro Damiao. 

As for the Peruvian sides, I dream of a day that a Peruvian team does well again in the Libertadores. Funnily enough, the best performances came from Deportivo Municipal, who got knocked out last minute in the playoff. I never had faith in Cristal, but I was hoping Melgar could manage a bit better.

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Barcelona and Nacional de Montevideo the 2 favourites outside of the big 2 nations for me. The former is very impressive, the latter can get a result against anyone.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Speaking of River, really good photo they posted of the estadio de la UNSA in Arequipa. El Misti is lovely in the background. Arequipa is still one of the big Peruvian cities I've yet to visit.

 

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Chapecoense taken their points away after the win vs Lanus for fielding an ineligible player. Took longer than I thought to be honest. This eliminates them from the Copa. Thought they proved something during this campaign either way. Good side and they'll do well domestically.

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I know the last Brazilian winner of this competition wasn't that long ago, in 2013, but still it has been interesting to see Brazilian clubs underachieving in this competition over the past few years, given how much richer they are than clubs from the other countries. 

I'm not anti-Brazil or Argentina or anything, but from a novelty factor and in terms of parity, it was really cool seeing a final with neither a Brazilian or Argentinian team in it last year. 

I have managed Deportes Iquique on FM (I wanted to be hip and choose a Chilean club other than Colo-Colo or La U), so for that reason I l want to see them doing well. It's unlikely that they will win their final group game in Paraguay to qualify for the knock-out stages though. 

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Happy The Strongest went through their group. Chumacero and Escobar are class. I'm even more happy that Santa Fe are out. Less chances for 0-0 games with that!

Sporting Cristal on the other hand, are an embarrassment. Worst Peruvian side to play in this competition in ages. THAT is saying something because Melgar got 0 points last year, Universitario just 1 but this team was worse than both.

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Not even a minute in and Gremio are in the lead! Great play from Rocha to beat his man and cross it in to an unmarked Ramiro. 1-0

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Gremio are brilliant. They always know where everyone will move, they understand each other well. Their off the ball movement is impeccable. They also have some pace up front to beat their opponents. Don't even get me started on their passing game.

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Gremio ended up winning 1-0, Godoy Cruz got a few of their own chances and got back into the game but wasn't enough. As I've been saying for a while, Gremio to me are the best team in South America right now. They play absolutely brilliant football and they're my favourites to win this tournament.

River also won last night, away at Guarani. Not an easy game to win so to come home with a 2-0 score line is very good for River. Scocco gets his first goal for Los Millonarios. I've always liked Nacho.

Matches today

 

Atletico Paranaense vs Santos

Barcelona vs Palmeiras

Wilstermann vs Atletico Mineiro

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Looks like this years tournament will be dominated by Brazilians and Argentinians for the first time in who knows how long.

Hopefully Barcelona can knockout Palmeiras. Same with Wilstermann, although the latter is quite unlikely. I still have some faith in Nacional de Montevideo to beat Botafogo despite losing the first leg 1-0 at home.

Gremio vs River Plate final.

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