Atlas Surprise Lanús.

By: Mauro | April 30th, 2008

I honestly didn’t expect Atlas to come out and be, top to bottom, the better team in south Buenos Aires last night. Now it would be easy for me to extol the virtues of Bruno Marioni and to say that he was the best player on the pitch and call it a day and walk away from my laptop.

But no, for a striker to be on, he’s got to have the ball on his foot. And for that to happen that means that someone has to take the ball away from the opposition. That somebody was, well it was two somebodies, Juan Medina and Robles Ramirez. They suffocated Sebastian Blanco and Diego Valeri and made it hard for them to do their magic.

José Sand had only a handful of opportunities and made Atlas keeper Jorge Bava sweat a little, but only a little. With that said, I love it when I’m right. While I’m not completely correct, I did call out that Bruno Marioni was going to be very important for Atlas and he wasn’t just important, he was downright spectacular because in the 37th minute, he scored a fantastic goal. Check the vid, at first it looks like no big deal but watch the replay, amazing technique.

After that, Lanús poured on the speed and assaulted the Mexican side of the pitch. But Atlas did not budge from the back. It almost seemed like Atlas were daring them to score. They had gotten what they needed to take back to Guadalajara, a very important away goal, and that was it, they were clocking out on that note in the 37th minute.

But Lanús didn’t just give it up but in the end didn’t have enough to make it happen. And with that, Atlas stand with the advantage and their toes starting to cross the line separating the round of 16 and the quarter finals.

I had this one going 2-1. I think, like all of the Granate’s fans, I expected more from them, especially at home. Atlas came out like gangbusters and didn’t let their away standing bother them at all. Ironically, it was the two Argentines on Atlas’ squad who came together in one brilliant moment and downed Lanús. We’ll see how this one ends up next Tuesday.

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