LDU Quito Dominate in Front of Their Fans.

By: Mauro | June 26th, 2008

There was lots to make this match memorable, the constant pressure, the shower of goals (an unheard of number of goals for a final match), raucous fans who then went mysteriously silent and plenty of good football for the casual observer. If you are a Fluminense fan, my apologies, if you are an LDU fan, congrats, your boys played a hell of a first half that was enough to carry a nice lead back with you to Rio de Janeiro in seven days time.

From the get go this match was hot, hot, hotly contested. With little to no time to settle in, Flu found themselves on their back foot. Joffre Guerrón exposed the lax defending job by Junior César and placed a ball in Claudio Bieler’s path. Bieler did exactly what I said he would if he was given the ball on the ground in the area, he one-timed it past Fernando Henrique and buried in the back of the net in one fell swoop. 1-0 to LDU after only the second minute of play.

Washington had a face to face opportunity with José Cevallos a moment later but he shot it directly at the keeper. I can only wonder how the match would have progressed if Washington had put that one away.

For the next 20 minutes, LDU arrived again and again at the edge of Henrique’s penalty area with what seemed like very little effort and all kinds of time and possession. Don’t get me wrong, Flu had the ball a few times too but they failed to keep for very long and tried to move forward a little too desperately. On one of those desperate runs with the ball, Thiago Neves won a free kick for his side. Dario Conca lined up behind the ball and struck it perfectly, not onto teammate’s head but he bent it past Cevallos and into the net. The lead only lasted nine minutes for LDU and best of all, now we had a match. 1-1.

LDU was not finished however, they continually stomped forward with little regard for what Flu had planned. They completely dominated the match and possession and Flu’s attempts were a mere afterthought. In the 28th minute, Guerrón gave LDU the lead off a fantastic strike. Seriously a great goal, check the vid.

And I’d be remiss to not mention one of the best players on the park last night, Luís Bolaños. he was on fire up the left side of the pitch for his squad, finding open players to collaborate with in the midfield and plenty of players in the area to serve up some wonderful passes to (including Enrique Vera who was not a stranger to the Flu penalty area in this one). But it’s hard not to include Guerrón in my praises, he was a monster on the right as well. Maybe they could share my Man of the Match award.

Later, off corner kicks, Patricio Urrutia and Jairo Campos (off a pretty tight angle) added to the lead with a header a piece to give LDU a 4-1 lead at the half and the match seemed pretty much over.

The second half only had Thiago Neves’ goal in the 51st minute as a highlight and Urrutia almost scoring LDU’s 5th goal when he shot off the crossbar and the ball landed right next to Henrique who was able to keep it out. LDU seemed content to play out the remaining time and Flu was too desperate to score and move forward too fast to make a difference on the score sheet. Final score, LDU Quito 4, Fluminense 2.

Overall, LDU was the stronger team in the stadium that night. They were, like I said, back to front impressively organized, sharp and, oh, did I say organized? When they’d attack, they attacked with 5-6 players and when they defended, they defended with just as many if not more which was more than Flu was willing to risk at any time.

Flu opted for a man on man coverage early on which Joffre Guerrón exposed and made them pay for on the right and Luís Bolaños did the same on the left. LDU’s main strength, by the way, was attacking from the flanks. Again and again, playing the ball along the ground, finding each other with pinpoint precision, LDU played their best football in the first half and probably their best football in the Libertadores. Playing wide forced Flu’s back line to defend wide which opened up all kinds of spaces in the middle.

While only one team showed up tonight, I still don’t think it’s a done deal. Fluminense, who are unbeaten at home and have allowed only two goals in the entire competition at the Maracaná, have to win only 2-0 in order to force extra time and then penalties and need to win 3-0 to cover the aggregate and hoist the cup. It’s not impossible. They beat both Boca and Sao Paulo in the Maracaná, in spectacular fashion, to advance into the next round and if football has taught me anything over the course of this competition in particular, it’s that the Football Gods can break hearts. Just look at the Flamengo and River Plate fans.

There was a let down in the second half that was hard to ignore despite LDU’s dominant performance of the first half and it manifested itself in the local fans who did not continue to cheer their team on. LDU was not the team of the first half but they still got a hell of a result and a goal count which is not usual in Libertadores finals or any final for that matter.

I had this one going 1-1. How could I have expected this debacle from Flu? I figured they would manage a draw and then finish it off at the Maracaná. And who could have expected a performance like this from LDU Quito after drawing their last four matches? Ah well. Isn’t this why we watch? Because we don’t know what’s going to happen? LDU hadn’t won a match without the help of an away goal draw since April 30th.

Be sure to check the CONMEBOL website for any and all information regarding the Copa Libertadores, like stats, results and upcoming matches. Check out the pull down menu where you can see stats from past editions of the Libertadores.