Unexpected Guests.

By: Mauro | May 28th, 2008

So, I had some trouble logging into the site last night and I realized after trying again this morning, I’m not that good a speller after all.

So with that said, I am including the preview, of course, the match has been played, so that doesn’t really make it a preview. But still, I wrote it with no prior knowledge of the match result and I wanted you to see how cool I am because I called the score line. So here it is. Enjoy. I suck.

Club América vs. Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito (Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico)

Four weeks ago no one would have thought either team would have advanced nearly this far and invariably one of them will end up in the final. América and LDU Quito are by far the underdogs here. América rejuvenated by recent results and LDU Quito lead on by their fantastic football.

Both America and LDU Quito have had to beat some stiff competition in this year’s Copa Libertadores in order for them to arrive at the place they find themselves.

América had to beat both Flamengo (in spectacular fashion) and Santos (by leveraging their away win), both big teams. Santos won the Libertadores twice in Pelé’s glory years (’62-’63) with the club and Flamengo winning it once back in ‘81.

LDU also had to do away with one big winner in Estudiantes de La Plata. They eliminated the three time winners (’68-’70) in the round of 16. And then they put away San Lorenzo in the Quarter-finals on penalties. While San Lorenzo is not a former winner, I had expected them to field a very strong and competitive side. Instead, they showed they were a side who showed a propensity to win some big games, but proved to stumble once too often against teams who would not be forgiving.

América are coming into this match off a loss at Vila Belmiro against the host side, Santos but thanks to a great 1-0 win in the first leg, América earned their way into the Semis. They are also still coached by interim coach, Juan Antonio Luna, who took over in the round of 16 for Ruben Omar Romano when América’s hopes were in the toilet after a 4-2 loss at home in the first leg.

Luna has come out and said that this “small streak” of wins is all due to the players “effort, courage and quality.”

But, Luna is in the middle of a battle over his players. It seems that the Mexican National team is still without a proper coach and interim coach Jesús Ramirez has called up goal-keeper Guillermo Ochoa and Oscar Rojas. The players will be taken during the break between semi-final and final matches and shouldn’t really be a problem since América has only the Libertadores to play for.

LDU Quito, on the other hand, are coming into this one with all their i’s dotted and t’s crossed. They’ve only won one away match in the competition and are facing a tough squad in América, who at home have only lost once (against Flamengo, round of 16).

But LDU Quito don’t need a win to give themselves a good start in this tie. Just a single away goal will do. And that could come in the form of an inspired Joffre Guerrón or Luis Bolaños who have played stellar for their squad. Or even in the form of another Damián Manso breakout performance. This match will need to be won in the midfield before it ever gets anywhere else and LDU have the guns to do it.

América will be relying heavily on Ochoa in goal and Germán Villa in the midfield with Salvador Cabañas and Enrique Esqueda up front. LDU Quito have many attacking options with Bolaños, Patricio Urrutia, Manso in the middle and Claudio Bieler and Guerrón up front.

Bottom Line: Both semi-finals look like great matches but over two legs it’s not as cut and dry as it might otherwise seem. LDU Quito are rolling and have put together a nice head of steam with their win over San Lorenzo last week. América are also on a bit of a roll despite losing last week in Brazil. One team beat two Argentines consecutively and the other Brazilians consecutively to get here so this is going to be a serious clash.

My pick: 1-1. América will not be able to fashion a win and LDU Quito will not be able to do more than just scoring away. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out who goes to the final from this semi-final.

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