LDU Quito Look to Impress in Argentina Again.

By: Mauro | May 15th, 2008

Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro vs. Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito (Estadio Pedro Bidagain, “El Nuevo Gasómetro”, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

LIVE @ 2:30 pm PST on Fox Sports Español.

Since I’m trapped at work, I’ll be streaming the match live from here (in Spanish, natch).

Very familiar with Argentine teams at this point in the competition, Edgardo Bauza and his team, LDU Quito, face Ramón Díaz and his team, San Lorenzo, tonight in the early match. LDU Quito have faced and defeated two Argentine teams in this competition in Arsenal de Sarandi and Estudiantes de La Plata.

Arsenal had trouble finding their footing in the group stage and LDU Quito came around when they were at their worst to beat them 1-0 in Argentina and 6-1 in Ecuador to finish them off. Estudiantes with a much heartier squad in the round of 16, were also put to task when LDU came to visit. The Ecuadorians eliminated Estudiantes with a win in Ecuador giving them the momentum to come into La Plata and lost, 2-1, which was enough to send them through to the quarters.

LDU are competing both in the Libertadores and are at the top of their local league and the commitment to both can be both exhausting physically and mentally. With so many matches, you have to expect to have an off day here or there. But with that said, Bauza intends to have his club come out and scores goals to take back to their stadium as an advantage for the second leg.

Look for Damian Manso and Patricio Urrutia to create in the midfield and a very adept finisher in Joffre Guerron up front, LDU Quito have a team that is playing a nice offensive, collective brand of football.

The thing to look out for is if LDU play a defensive role with the objective being to take the ball away from their opponent and create some chances of their own while not exposing too much space at the back.

At this point in the quarters, LDU Quito face what will be their toughest challenge. They face a squad that plays a very similar brand of football, very offensive and also very technical.

In fact, the one glaring advantage that San Lorenzo have over LDU Quito is Ramón Díaz. As I’ve said before, he’s about as close a figure like José Mourinho as we’ll have in South America. Having coached River Plate to the title in 1996, Díaz knows how to coach a team to success in this competition.

However, San Lorenzo had to look to their bench to replace three of their starters in last week’s miracle in El Monumental against River Plate. They had to replace Sebastián Mendez due to injury and Jonathan Botinelli and Diego Rivero who received red cards last week. Coming on will be Christian Tula, Gastón Aguirre and Santiago Hirsig.

San Lorenzo, had a less than lustrous beginning in this competition. Their group stage numbers were far from impressive but they qualified and have found their footing in recent weeks in this competition with an impressive match last week and a great win on their ground the week before that eliminating River Plate.

Look for D’Allesandro to be pulling or attempt to pull the strings, depending on how aggressive the marking is, in the midfield along side Walter Acevedo and Santiago Hirsig. Look for Gonzalo Bergessio to be deadly in the penalty area. He spent most of the match last week without receiving a single decent pass, but when it finally came he was money. Andrés Silvera may find space as a result of his fellow striker’s performance last week.

Bottom Line: This is a home match for San Lorenzo and I expect them to win it. Much like last round, I do expect LDU to get one goal in before the end of the match since they were able to score two on Estudiantes in Argentina.

My pick: 2-1 to San Lorenzo. They’ll have their home crowd behind them and should be able to put this one away. LDU Quito will not make it easy and should get at least one consolation goal that will make next week’s match just as entertaining.

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