Too close to call in the Copa Libertadores final

The Copa Libertadores de América has been an annual cup competition since 1960. It is the most prestigious club trophy in South American football. Despite being a South American competition, Mexican teams have been invited since 1998.

This season the competition has generally seemed to be less impressive than in recent years although the exit of the Mexican teams due to concerns over swine flu hasn’t helped.

Formats

The competition has had several different formats since it began, but today at least three clubs per country compete in the tournament while Argentina and Brazil each have five clubs.

It consists of three stages. In it’s present format it begins in early-February with one knockout qualifying round known as the first stage. The six teams surviving stage one join twenty-six other teams in the second stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter stage three, the final knockout stage, which ends with the finals in July.

Mediocre

Some of the football played in this year’s competition has been described as ‘mediocre’ and not worthy of such a prestigious tournament. Now that the competition has reached the final, it is down to two teams to rescue the competition in it’s fiftieth anniversary.

With Argentina and Brazil being the two most famous South American footballing nations it is perhaps surprising that before this season there have only been eleven finals between teams from the two countries. This season the twelfth such occasion is here as Estudiantes of Argentina take on Cruzeiro of Brazil over two legs on 8th and 15th July.

Form

These two famous old clubs go into the final in good form. Estudiantes have gone nine games unbeaten in the competition and will be full of confidence. The club, best known in England for the ‘brutal’ way they beat the great Manchester United side of 1968 in the Intercontinental Cup, will be looking to add to their three previous Copa Libertadores triumphs. The last of these came back in 1970, and apart from the Argentinean Apertura Cup in 2006, Estudiantes have enjoyed little success for over twenty years.

Cruzeiro are unbeaten in their last seven games of the tournament and will also be confident. The club, which was formed in 1921, will be looking for their third triumph in this tournament having been successful in 1976 and 1997. They qualified for this year’s tournament by finishing third in the Brazilian championship. They last won their domestic title in 2003 and have won their state championship for the last two years.

Interesting

The final could be interesting as the two clubs actually played each other in the group stages of this year’s competition. There may not be too much to be gleaned from what happened in those games though as Cruzeiro had an easy 3-0 win in Brazil and Estudiantes had an easy 4-0 win in Argentina.

The first leg of the final in Argentina this Wednesday will see Cruzeiro desperate to score a crucial away goal. Estudiantes are notoriously mean defensively but Cruzeiro will be looking to their twenty-five year old support striker Kleber to produce some magic to create that all important goal. He scored twice in the 3-0 group win against the Argentineans but also got himself sent off. As well as being a great talent, Kleber also has a poor disciplinary record and that is something that Estudiantes may well play on.

Genius

The main man for Estudiantes is the former Manchester United and Chelsea playmaker, Juan Sebastian Veron. The genius midfield man who never produced his best in England is thirty-four years old now but is still the man who makes the team tick. He was voted South American footballer of the year in 2008 and his performances for club and country, for who he has sixty-one caps have been of the highest order.

The final should produce some great football and the usual fireworks associated with South American football. It is impossible to call which team will be triumphant in the end. It may well come down to Kleber staying on the pitch and Veron recovering fully from an injury he picked up in their semi-final.

I have no idea what the outcome will be but I wish I was going to see it.