Cúcuta Host Santos, Look to Turn the Tables.

By: Mauro | May 8th, 2008

Cúcuta Deportivo vs. Santos FC (Estadio General Santander, Cúcuta, Colombia)
LIVE @ 7:00pm PST on Fox Sports Español.

If Cúcuta have a big top hat to start pulling tricks out of, they had better start pulling those tricks out now. According to Cúcuta coach Pedro Sarmiento, he and the team believe they can close out this tie with a win on their ground.

With a 2-0 score line, they get penalties. With a 3-0 score line they go through automatically. Stranger things have happened and last night’s result in the Maracaná is a testament to that. The matches are played for a reason.

At home, Cúcuta have had a modest 1-0 win and two 0-0 draws. Away is where they’ve earned their bread and butter, winning two away matches and losing the very last one at Santos. Basically, this means that Cúcuta have lost two in a row to Santos, both at Vila Belmiro.

Out with a broken toe for Pedro Sarmiento is Leonard Pajoy. He made up with Matías Urbano, a troubling strike force for opposing defenders but in his place will be Bolivian Diego Cabrera.

Despite having, what seems as, the upper hand coming into this match, Santos coach Emerson Leao has decided his boys will play a counter attacking style in this match since they want to wait for Cúcuta to come out and look for the match and when they do, they’ll leave themselves unguarded at the back for Santos to swoop in.

This will be interesting to see since that style of play has been Cúcuta’s brand of football since the beginning of this competition.

Santos brought along their two most recent signings for the Copa Libertadores, defender Marcel Guedes Filho and striker Rodrigo Lima Santos. Wesley is not an option for this match since he was sent off in the first leg of this tie.

The winner of this tie faces América and the long flight to Mexico City in the quarter finals.

Bottom Line: Cúcuta need a convincing win by a wide margin and fortunately they are at home and have quite a few things in their favor, except the score line in the first leg. Santos have a nice lead in their favor and with a single goal or a draw will qualify to the next round.

My pick: 1-1. Santos qualify with a modest match and Cúcuta won’t overcome their mistakes from one week ago.

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