Santos, Unquestionably the Better Team.

By: Mauro | May 9th, 2008

Having to follow up the River Plate-San Lorenzo match was tough work for these two and if anything you’d think it would have energized Cúcuta more since they were coming home after having faced an adverse result at Vila Belmiro a week ago.

Santos had smelled blood in their stadium and are back this week in Colombia looking for more of that. They had been able to get two goals past Cúcuta keeper Leandro Castellanos on their ground last week.

In my preview of this match, Emerson Leao had said his boys were going to adopt a more counter attacking style of play last night and they did. They defended well in the midfield, dissecting Cúcuta’s midfield and forward line forcing them to beat Santos’ players in one-on-one situations. Which proved to be really tough.

Despite that, Cúcuta was able to keep possession regardless, they were just not able to do much with it. In fact, the Brazilians had the early chance to go up a goal because they were deadly on the counter. A fact that made Cúcuta’s keeper Castellanos, his team’s best player.

But Kleber Perreira had a chance after a rebound from the keeper and was able to bend it past Castellanos for the opening goal of the match about three minutes from the end of the first half. In order to qualify, Cúcuta would need to score four goals to secure their pass into the next round. A huge uphill battle faced them. One they were not ready for.

In the second half, it only took seven minutes for Santos to put Cúcuta away this time for good. On a return play from a poorly taken corner kick by Cúcuta, a three on three counter attack allowed Lima to get the ball with space and shot it past Castellanos at the first post for the 2-0 score and the qualification for Santos.

Santos continued to press forward and looked for the third goal while Cúcuta completely folded. At this point the match became very predictable, Santos searching for the third with Mariano Tripodi, Michael Jackson Quiñonez (I swear, that’s his real name) and Kléber (Not that Kléber, the other one) making more of a mess in the back for the Cúcuta who looked like they just wanted to hear the final whistle.

I had this match going 1-1 with Santos going through. I didn’t expect Cúcuta to fold the way they did. I believe they are the type of team that can grind out a 1-0 type result, not one to score 4 or 5 goals in a single match (despite doing that in the high altitude of San José’s stadium), especially against a quality opponent or a better opponent which Santos truly was last night

Santos, on the other hand, have the players and the football play that allows them to light it up. They’ve got a solid defense and can adapt to various styles of play. In the next round, Santos face América and the long flight to Mexico City in the first leg.

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