Still something to play for in Sarandi.

By: Mauro | April 8th, 2008

Arsenal de Sarandi vs. Fluminense FC (Estadio Arsenal, Sarandi, Argentina)

I had said in yesterday’s posts that the matches left in this group are meaningless. Well, it turns out, I was wrong. LDU Quito and Fluminense are looking to try to finish first in the group to avoid a tougher opponent in the 2nd round.

Arsenal and their supporters are disappointed in their results this year and have been a total flop in my estimation. They are victims of a rough schedule that brought to light the fact that they don’t have a roster of players that would allow them to play more than one tournament. It also didn’t help that they finished the Copa Sudamericana participation and had only a short time before training for the 2008 Clausura began. Couple that with stretching your squad between two tournaments and you have a team that will allow 6 goals in one match. Grim. But it’s almost over for them.

Fluminense on the other hand, will be without striker Washington for at least the next two weeks. He was injured in their league match, which Flu won, 4-0, against Madureira at the weekend. Flu’s coach has announced that he will not be resting his starters in this tournament and that his squad must earn first place in the group. Dodo, meanwhile is still injured and should be back after the round of 16 should his team still be participating. It’s a shame he’ll be gone, he was impressive until he became injured. Look for Cicero, Dario Conca and Thiago Neves to start and make up for Dodo’s absence.

Bottom Line: Flu have been pretty strong in this group so far, they even forced an away win at Libertad a few weeks ago. They are unbeaten, period. Still though, tonight smells to me like another draw. Arsenal have nothing left to fight for and a Rocky Balboa type comeback here is not a possibility in my book. My pick: 0-0. Not enough on the line for Flu to go all out, and Arsenal have nothing left to play for. Some might argue that when a team is down and out, they are at their most dangerous. Go ahead. Start an argument, I dare you.

Check here for standings, group positions and upcoming matches.