Copa Libertadores Update

A while back, I wrote a small blog about going to see a Club Nacional game here in Montevideo for the Copa Libertadores.

To update the thread, Nacional is no longer in the competition. Their last game in the tournament was back on April 20th - Nicolás, Fabian, Mari and I went to that game as well. Unfortunately, Nacional tied the game 0 - 0 with Club America from Mexico, and without the win, Nacional didn´t have the points necessary to progress forward in the competition.


As it stands now, the Copa Libertadores is down to the semi-finales. The four teams still battling in the tournement are:

• Peñarol - Uruguay
• Velez Sarfiel - Argentina
• Cerro Porteño - Paraguay
• Santos - Brazil
  

Last night, the first game of the semifinales was played. Santos won against Cerro Porteño 1 - 0.

In about a half hour, the game between Peñarol and Velez will start. As you may remember from my last post on this topic, Copa Libertadores "is the most prestigious club competition in South American football and one of the most watched events in the world, broadcast in 135 nations worldwide". Thus, I am sure the city will be shut down tonight, as basically everyone will be indoors somewhere or other with the game on the tele.

Here, the rivalry between Nacional and Peñarol is huge, as they are the two largest teams within Uruguay. But I have begun to notice, now that the Copa Libertadores is down to the final four, that the animosity between the die hard fans has died down now that its Uruguay vs. the other competing nations. The Nacional fans can sit back and cheer for Uruguay against the competition, instead of cheering directly for Peñarol - the team they have grown to loathe.

The tournament is composed of two games per team pairing - one match played at home and one match played away. Then the points are tallied to see who moves through to the next round. The only oddity to this scheme is that when the points are tallied at the end of the two games, the away teams goals are tallied as double.

One major difference between sporting events here and in the states, is that the game starts at 10 pm - and its here in Montevideo at Estadio Centenario. I notice that things start late here for some reason. I guess the folks just like to stay up and enjoy the night.

Good luck Uruguay as we move forward in this tournament.