Flamengo Look to Celebrate Their Qualification at Home.

By: Mauro | May 7th, 2008

Clube de Regatas do Flamengo vs. CF America (Estadio Maracaná, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
LIVE @ 6:00pm PST on Fox Sports Español.

Looking to outdo their cross town rivals who qualified in this very stadium last night, Flamengo look to put América away completely after their fantastic win in the Estadio Azteca last week.

The celebration will not only be for the Brazilian squad’s eventual qualification into the quarter finals but also this will be the last match Joel Santana will have with his squad before he leaves Brazil to coach South Africa from now until the next World Cup in 2010. So, this is a going away party of sorts.

Flamengo are also coming off a big win at the weekend where they’ve managed to beat Botafogo for the Rio de Janeiro state championship. Needless to say, Flamengo have quite a bit of momentum coming intot this match coupled with the fact that they only need a draw to qualify. In fact, not a ball needs to hit a net in order for Flamengo to qualify tonight.

But with all the partying going on from the state championship win and the ongoing goodbye party for coach Santana, this match has sort of been left by the wayside. If anything, Flamengo may suffer form over confidence and looking too far ahead. We all know how much Brazilians like to party (ahem, Ronaldinho).

América are not nearly in as good a condition as their opponents. Their coach, Ruben Omar Romano, quit after last week’s debacle in front of their home fans. It looks like German Villa is a game time decision of whether or not he will play and with the completion of the Mexican league they find themselves dead last in the standings.

While América could have that wounded animal syndrome, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to do any significant damage. Away from home their record is poor, to say the least and while they can score some great goals, they have trouble keeping them from going in on their end.

Look for Marcinho and Ibsen to hook up and create some nice plays. For América, keep an eye on the keeper Guillermo Ochoa, who is fantastic when he has a decent defense in front of him but he should play well enough to keep his boys in the match. Salvador Cabañas is also a great scoring threat for the Mexican side on the other end.

Bottom Line: This should be a cakewalk for Flamengo, they have everything in their favor including an almost full stadium (remember they play at the Maracaná, 90,000-100,000 seat venue). América’s only hope is that they can pull off an upset. My pick: 2-1 to Flamengo. América will surprise them but Flamengo should re-focus and put this one away and continue the party.

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