Flamengo v. Boca in the final? The two most popular teams from Brazil and Argentina respectively! It would be great!

Careful, Seba – if Flu and Fla both get as far as the semi-finals, they’ll have to play each other, remember. CONMEBOL will re-arrange the draw if two teams from one country make it that far, to avoid an all-one-nationality final.

So there’s a possibility, a slim one, of Fla-Flu in one semi and a superclásico in the other. We’ll see…

And Seba, thanks for the predictor link. For future reference, due to a lot of spam comments a few days ago, I’ve had to tighten the filter – if there are any links in a post from now on, it’ll have to wait until I approve it before it shows up here. Do share them still, though!

Bostero Forever: Don’t forget D’Alessandro is a Racing supporter. I’m sure he won’t like the idea of playing in River against River but it’s not like that’s the team of his heart. Yes, he is very identified with River but I’m sure he’ll be fine and he’ll be keen on showing what River are missing after not taking the chance of signing him before he went to San Lorenzo.

The Brazilians really underperformed last year. I genuinely think that Brazilian sides are intimidated by Boca. Which is understandable, yet Mexican and Colombian sides don’t seem to be. Boca still gets results against them too, but they don’t roll over and die in la Bombonera as did Gremio last season, and most Brazilian sides Boca has played over the years.

Go there and make your predictions.

Click on MATA-MATA (which means KNOCK-OUT STAGES in Portugues).

I’ve got Boca v. Estudiantes in the final.

Boca beats Fluminense in the semis while Estudiantes knock out Flamengo after eliminating River in the QF.

The champion?

Deja-vu of the Apertura 2006. Es-tu-dian-tes!

What about you’re forecasts?

I’ve checked the draw and Flamengo won’t have to play either Fluminense (the enemy!) or Boca until the final. But a possible semifinal against Estudiantes will mean the end of the road for the black and red hoops, I’m afraid.

Nice River vs. San Lorenzo match-up. The two less-successful Argentine team in the history of the Copa Libertadores! River won only twice in I don’t know how many editions (they hold the participation record for an Argentine team in the Copa Libertadores. And they only won it twice because they faced America de Cali in the final, a team that lost all of their 5 Copa Libertadores finals in history!) and San Lorenzo are yet to win this elusive title that they’d kill for winning.

It’ll be interesting to see Ramon Diaz and D’Alessandro facing their old team.

So it’s 5 Argies, 5 Brazilians, 2 Mexicans, 2 Colombians and 1 from Ecuador and Uruguay. Surprised to see no teams from Paraguay! They usually perform well in the Libertadores.

Intriguing matchups. I will be interested to see how Club America play at the Maracana. I can see them getting overwhelmed there. Atlas on the other hand looked very comfortable away to Colo Colo (tho of course they got routed in la Bombonera). I think Lanus may have problems there.