Not looking good for San Lorenzo. They have to visit the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte (to play Cruzeiro) and they also have to go to the altitud of Potosí in their remaining 2 tricky away fixtures.

D’ALESSANDRO made his debut but failed to make an impact.

Now…a little bit of “did you know?” on the Copa Libertadores. Out of the “Big 5″ (Boca, River, Racing, Independiente and San Lorenzo), the latter is the only one still to win that coveted trophy.

Curiously, San Lorenzo are celebrating their 100th year this season and they were the first Argentina team to play in the Copa Libertadores (1960) as reigning domestic champions (1959).

They defeated Bahia (Brazil) in the first round (3-0 in Buenos Aires and lost 2-3 in Brazil) but then they lost to Peñarol (Uruguay) in the semifinals with a curious note: After a draw in Montevideo (1-1) and another draw in the second leg in Buenos Aires (0-0), the San Lorenzo board decided to let Peñarol host the third and final match AT THEIR HOME OF MONTEVIDEO. They took a share of the revenue and, arguably, they didn’t consider the Copa Libertadores to be a serious or important competition. As a consequence, they lost 2-1 and Peñarol eventually became champions.

The irony is that San Lorenzo could have won that series if the away-goal rule was running and a bigger irony is that if you ask any San Lorenzo fan (including Viggo Mortensen) if they prefer their national team to win the World Cup or San Lorenzo to win the Copa Libertadores and I think you can guess what their answer would be…

It’ll be interesting to follow their campaign this year with all the hype around Ramon DIAZ snubbing River and San Lorenzo bringing D’ALESSANDRO, BERGESSIO and PLACENTE among others. They don’t have an easy group to begin with, but they should advance to the knock-out stages and try and prove fans of other teams wrong when they say their initials: “C.A.S.L.A -Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro-” stand for “Club Atlético Sin Libertadores de América” -SIN means WITHOUT in Spanish.