Adriano and His Boys Roll Into Montevideo.

By: Mauro | April 30th, 2008

Club Nacional de Montevideo vs. Sao Paulo FC (Parque Central, Montevideo, Uruguay)
LIVE @ 2:00am PST Thursday May 1st, on Fox Sports Español.

A few weeks ago, I would have had Sao Paulo strolling into Uruguay and slapping Nacional around a bit getting quite the result. But today, given the results in the group stage, not so much.

In the group stage, Nacional won all three of it’s matches, including a nice 3-0 spanking to Flamengo. They were even able to win away to the Peruvian Coronel Bolognesi, 1-0. They have a tough squad and a clear defined leader in Richard “El Chengue” Morales. Look for him to get a good header or four inside Sao Paulo’s penalty area.

Sao Paulo had a tough time through their group stage, but their record was not all bad. They won all three of their home games and managed to draw two away matches, which most teams in the group stage wish they could have done. They lost only once, but their play on the pitch failed to convince, winning a few matches off of late winners by Adriano and by the grace of Rogerio Ceni’s hands.

They scored 6 goals in the group stage, five of them off headers, three of which were scored by Adriano, two of which were in the last ten minutes of the match. The aerial game is one of Sao Paulo’s strong points and don’t be surprised to see Morales come back to defend corner kicks and free kicks near the penalty area.

The small advantage for Nacional is that they’ve faced a club similar to Sao Paulo when Flamengo came to town. They could expect a similar type of game but Sao Paulo do have one thing to their advantage. Rogerio Ceni. He’s got plenty of experience at 35 years of age, in Brazil as well as in this tournament and he won’t be a pushover. The bummer for Sao Paulo is that Adriano is a game time decision. Should he not be able to play Borges will replace him.

The duel here? Morales vs. Rogerio Ceni. Look for Alex Silva and Miranda try to hold off Morales. This is quite possibly the most evenly matched tie of this round. It’s difficult to see where one team could be better than the other.

Another note: In the match that Nacional played against Flamengo, a Flamengo player was sent off due to an altercation with the ball boys. The ball boys allegedly took very long to get the ball back the visiting side inciting the player. That will be on the Brazilians’ minds

Bottom Line: Nacional is tough at home, Sao Paulo is tough to beat anywhere. My pick: 1-1, this one has draw written all over it. Sao Paulo manage an away goal to take back to the Morumbi next week.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.