For The Record Books.

By: Mauro | April 16th, 2008

Libertad vs. Arsenal de Sarandi (Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay)
Tape delay, Wednesday the 16th at midnight on Fox Sports Español.

I mentioned the exceptions in South America regarding the time schedules of certain matches to not allow any advantages to any particular teams. This match is one of those, yet it completely makes sense since this group was decided two matches ago. Libertad and Arsenal play tonight and Fluminense and LDU Quito play tomorrow night. Again, no big deal this group is all but over regardless of the results in these last two matches.

Libertad and Arsenal play tonight for the honor of not being the worst team in the group. This Libertad squad is a far cry from their best form in this competition two years ago. They gave up points at home and lost all their away matches. This is their last home stand and could end the group on 6 points with a win tonight.

Arsenal are victims of not resting their players enough. They are another squad who suffers from not having near enough players to take on the responsibilities of participating in two tournaments. They played the Copa Sudamericana until late last year, had little time to rest over the holidays before having to hit the pitches again for the start of the Clausura and the Libertadores, both tournaments starting within a week or two of each other.

Arsenal were on the wrong end of two 6 goal matches and failed to recover from either one fast enough to make up for them. The good news for Libertad is that those two drubbings were Arsenal’s other two away matches. Arsenal are coming off a 2-0 win over group leaders Fluminense and could end this campaign with 9 points if they win, enough to qualify in most groups this year, just not one with Fluminense and an upstart LDU Quito in it.

Bottom Line: Neither team have anything to play for. My guess is that they’ll both field squads with lots of youngsters and hope for the best, but by the looks of it, Arsenal are fielding their full squad.My pick: 2-1 to Libertad. Away match rule, unless Libertad field a full squad of young players.

Check the CONMEBOL website for updated standings, results and upcoming matches.