América Make Some Moves.

By: Mauro | July 15th, 2008

Continuing with the dismantling of various teams, this Copa Libertadores served as a shop window for many players who performed exceptionally or have performed exceptionally in the past and have shown that they are still players that can be counted on.

Leaving LDU Quito, if you’ve been under a rock, the new Copa Libertadores Champion, is Enrique Vera. Vera had hinted at waiting to see what his offers were before sitting down with LDU to hammer out a new contract. And in almost no time, Ramón Díaz came calling, but not from San Lorenzo in Argentina, you see he also got a new job, with Copa Libertadores semi-finalist, América of Mexico, but more on him in a moment. Vera is a great midfielder able to help start a play in the midfield or defense and end the play in the penalty area. He’s great at coming back on defense as well and had a great tandem working partnership with Paul Ambrosi. Now he’ll have Germán Villa, a hopefully healthy Federico Insua as midfield partners and Alfredo Moreno and Salvador Cabañas up front to knock in goals. Nice set up to walk into for any player.

Depending on who you talk to, Ramón Díaz was either sacked or simply agreed to leave the club after a large disagreement with his players that was well documented in the press. The disagreement? Apparently, when he went to San Lorenzo, part of his contract required that the club sign his two sons who, I believe, were playing for River Plate youth teams at the time. Now this is where the story gets a little hazy and there are two versions which may have both happened. Either, the players tried to squeeze out his sons from their prize money or just the goal keeper, Agustín Orión, was critical about the coaches choices for the first team squad, where Emiliano Diaz seemed to have a regular spot. In any case, this was fought out in the press and Díaz announced that he’d leave the club at the end of the Clausura 2008, which he did, three matches before the end of the season.

I’m sure you are all aware of the turmoil at Club América this past season. A remarkably awful season where they finished last in the league offset by a remarkably amazing comeback in the Copa Libertadores with a semi-final finish and the dismissal of coach Daniel Brailovsky is what América left us with last season. Juan Antonio Luna was the interim coach who rallied his players around him but again, he was just the interim coach and América wanted someone with some weight to his name, so they signed Ramón Díaz. We’ll have to wait and see if he has success coaching non-Argentines. Carlos Bianchi had trouble with that at Atlético Madrid. Stay tuned.

Also coming to América is Alfredo Moreno. Moreno played his first division football in Argentina for Boca Juniors showing great promise. But shortly after his debut, he was transferred to Club Necaxa in Mexico and he began quite a journey. In only eight years, he has been transferred 11 times and played for 8 clubs with repeat spells with both Boca and Necaxa. This kid has experience, winning the scoring title in Mexico in the Apertura of 2007, but the one department he’ll have to prove himself is being able to take a back seat to and be able to play with the team’s undisputed center forward, Salvador Cabañas.

A week ago, Ramón Díaz, who had been trying to sign Gastón Aguirre from his old team, San Lorenzo, had to give up because as it turns out, América had no more foreign player spots available. Aguirre was Díaz’ defensive stalwart with exceptional performances against LDU Quito and River Plate. Aguirre will continue with San Lorenzo who is also qualified for the Copa Sudamericana.

Leaving América was Federico Higuain, who had only been at América since January when he was on loan from Besiktas in Turkey. Ramón Díaz let the player know he was not going to be considered on the squad for this season, so Higuain, brother of Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain, found a deal to go to Independiente of Argentina. Independiente will be participating in this year’s Copa Sudamericana starting July 30th. With experience at River Plate and Nueva Chicago in Argentina, he’s a welcome signing for coach Claudio Borghi. He also featured for Besiktas in last season’s UEFA Champions League so he’ll have that experience to bring to the table.

Keep an eye on this blog for any further developments and be sure to visit the CONMEBOL website for more info on the upcoming Copa Sudamericana.