Archive for the ‘South America’ Category

Dorrington: South American football marred by recent incidents of fan violence

Posted by admin under CONMEBOL, South America on Apr 02, 2013

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By Nick Dorrington

When 14-year old Kevin Beltrán Espada took his place on the terraces of the Estadio Jesús Bermúdez ahead of San José’s Copa Libertadores match against Corinthians of Brazil on the 20th February he could not have imagined that his last memory would be Corinthians opening the scoring six minutes in. A star pupil at the Edmund Bojanowski school in Cochabamba, he and his family had made the three-hour trip to Oruro to watch their beloved San José attempt to upset the competition holders.

Their innocent family trip descended into tragedy when a triumphal flare fired by the Corinthians supporter-group Gaviões da Fiel struck Kevin in the eye, killing him instantly. Handheld flares are commonplace in South America, forming an integral part of the spectacular pre-match shows by supporters of clubs such as Newell’s Old Boys of Argentina and Uruguay’s Peñarol, but this particular flare was launched from a device normally used to fire distress signals from ships.

Corinthians were immediately repentant, with teary-eyed declarations from their coach and sporting director speaking of sympathy and remorse. CONMEBOL, South American football’s governing body, acted quickly, decreeing that all of Corinthians’ subsequent home matches would be played behind closed doors and that their supporters would be banned for attending away matches for the remainder of the competition. Suddenly the club’s contrition gave way to repellent incredulity, and they threatened to pull out of the competition unless the home ban was lifted.

Corinthians played the first match of their Copa Libertadores defence in front of a near empty stadium, defeating Millonarios of Colombia in the midst of an eery silence only punctured by the exhortations of their gruff coach, Tité. A week later, CONMEBOL announced that upon further consideration they had decided to amend the sanction: supporters would be allowed to attend future home matches, but the away attendance ban was extended to 18 months and the club were fined $200,000.
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The Story So Far — March 27th Punchy CONMEBOL, wide open CONCACAF

Posted by Richard Whittall under CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, Mexico, South America, The Story So Far, Uruguay, USA on Mar 27, 2013

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The Lead

European World Cup qualifiers are what put asses in the seats, but the football drama seems to be lingering squarely in the middle of the Western hemisphere. Last night, the United States made history with a 0-0 draw in the Azteca stadium. It was, as Jeff Carlisle wrote this morning, only the “second in its history” that the US managed to secure a point at the Azteca in qualifying.

There will be quibbles with the aesthetic of the US national team in their draw, particularly as Mexico managed 19 attempts to the USA’s 1. But that’s the nature of CONCACAF: it’s a dirty, mud and snow soaked horror show right until the dying stages. You watch these things with an upset stomach, not a stimulated mind—why else would DaMarcus Beasley be out there? The US clearly did what they needed to defensively to leave the Azteca hype for another day.

Meanwhile the Hex table speaks for itself, even at this relatively early-ish stage. Panama is first, followed by Costa Rica, the USA and Honduras, all tied on 4 points and separated by goal differential. Meanwhile Mexico is in fifth on three points. This is of course bound to change significantly as the campaign progresses, but is already far from your dad’s Hex.

As for the Brazil-less CONMEBOL, Uruguay’s struggle to compete continued yesterday with a 2-0 loss to Chile, a game that may lead to a lengthy suspension for Luis Suarez for punching Gonzalo Jara in the first half (he’s already out of the next game against Venezuela on yellows). If you don’t think that’s a bad thing, Suarez has been scoring a lot of goals this campaign with a total of 8, tied with Lionel Messi. Uruguay are struggling this time around, two points outside the playoff spot.

Finding all this compelling doesn’t make you a hipster. It makes you a conscious person who likes football.
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Campo: Ecuador elbows its way through in South American qualifiers

Posted by admin under South America, World Cup 2014 on Mar 25, 2013

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By Carlo Campo

The seemingly endless cycle of South American qualifiers is back underway and, believe it or not, it’s finally approaching the final stages. After Tuesday’s fixtures are completed, no team will have more than six fixtures remaining. There should be a clearer picture as to what nations will reach Brazil 2014 and what nations will miss out.

Not surprisingly, Argentina’s lethal offence has the country leading the supergrupo. With 23 goals in 10 matches and the best goal difference on the continent, a win away to Bolivia on Tuesday would give La Albiceleste a total of 26 points, a number many believe is already good enough to qualify them for next year’s World Cup.

And if there’s one team that’s making a lot of noise in the region, it’s Colombia. After a sketchy start that included a draw at home to Venezuela followed up by a 2-1 home loss to Argentina, Los Cafeteros are on a four-game winning streak that has seen them tear apart Uruguay 4-0, snatch an important 3-1 away win against Chile, and humiliate Bolivia 5-0 last Friday. Some believe Colombia’s current crop of players is the best generation of players their national team has ever had.

Against this backdrop, there is a third team whose campaign is also in cruise control and who is quietly sitting in third place in South American qualifying: Ecuador.
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Brazil’s midfield and Argentina’s attack will have continent’s football giants at the top of the Sub-20 pile

Posted by Jerrad Peters under South America on Jan 04, 2013

In 2005 a 17-year-old Lionel Messi scored his first competitive goal for Argentina in the inaugural match of that year’s South American Youth Championship. Three weeks later he bagged the final goal of the tournament, which just happened to be the winner against Brazil.

Already a known quantity at Barcelona, where he had been playing his youth football since the age of 13, Messi’s first, true taste of international attention came that January in Colombia, where journalists, talent scouts and everyday fans were blown away by the pale, awkward kid with a hint of a mullet who seemed to have the ball attached to his foot with a string.

Similar breakthroughs occur at each instalment of the South American Youth Championship, or Sub-20, and while no one is expecting to discover the “next Messi” at the 2013 competition that kicks off Wednesday in Argentina, there will no doubt be one or two players whose performances will offer tantalising peaks at promising careers at the highest level of the sport.

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The Review: City scout Neymar (pffft); Flamengo come in for Robinho (legit); Mourinho gloomy over Lucas Moura (and just gloomy)

Posted by Jerrad Peters under Argentina, Brazil, Neymar, South America, The Review on Dec 24, 2012

It seems appropriate that on the day before Christmas I’m writing about yet another Neymar transfer rumour. Despite his oft-repeated intention to stay at Santos—at least for the time being—the 20-year-old nevertheless remains atop the wishlist of almost every European club that can afford him.

For three years talent scouts have been dispatched to the Vila with care, in hopes that Neymar soon would be theirs.

Manchester City’s Txiki Begiristain is just the latest club official to have made the pilgrimage to Santos, where he is thought to have spent two days making overtures to the São Paulo side and the player’s other rights-holders regarding a move to Eastlands at the end of the Premier League season.

City are by no means the only club with designs on prying Neymar from the Vila Belmiro before the 2014 World Cup, which is widely understood to be the point in time when the world’s best footballer not currently playing in Europe will most seriously entertain offers from the other side of the Atlantic. But their interest did find its way into the English press, and while that in and of itself doesn’t make such rumours worth addressing, the resulting commotion and potential misunderstanding of the situation probably warrants a brief response.

So here it is.

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Quirky Copa Libertadores draw easy on Brazilian teams, sets up Group of Death

Posted by Jerrad Peters under CONMEBOL, South America on Dec 21, 2012

Club World Cup winners Corinthians will face Bolivia’s San José, Colombia’s Millonarios and Mexico’s Tijuana during the group stage of the 2013 Copa Libertadores—South America’s Champions League equivalent. The competition’s Group of Death (Grupo dela Muerte/Grupo da Morte) will pit 2012 runners-up Boca Juniors of Argentina against Barcelona of Ecuador, Nacional of Uruguay and Toluca of Mexico.

The draw for the first two stages of the tournament took place at CONMBEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay (near Asuncion), and as far as draws go this one was especially long, untidy and jam-packed with extra-curriculars.

After Brazilian guitarist Rafael Moreira kicked things off CONMEBOL president Nicolás Leoz took the stage and delivered an address dealing mostly with the importance of developing regional football.

Then followed what Brazilian outlet Globo referred to as “a long session of tributes” to pretty much everyone and everything connected to South American football, from long-time manager José Pekerman to former Bolivia midfielder Milton Melgar, Deportivo Cali and Colombia goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón, ex-Peru attacker Percy Rojas and the entire 1991 Colo Colo team, who that year became the first (and so far only) Chilean side to win the Libertadores.

There was some housekeeping to do as well. One-match bans will be issued for players who accumulate three yellow cards, but once the group stage is complete all existing bookings will be wiped off the record. Also, teams qualifying for the group stage will be able to register 30 players, while first-stage teams will initially name a 25-man squad with an additional five spots to be granted should they progress.

Finally, the draw.

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The Footy Show Vodcast — September 5th

Posted by Richard Whittall under Canada, Footy Show TV, South America, World Cup on Sep 05, 2012

KJ talks World Cup Qualifying of all sorts! First with Tim Vickery on South America, then with Canada head coach Stephen Hart in studio as the Formation Geek returns.

You can download the video and watch it here.

If you’re not a fan of video you can listen to the audio here.

Subscribe directly to the YouTube channel here.

Subscribe to the video podcast on iTunes here.

Subscribe to the audio version on iTunes here.

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