Comments on: Apertura ’08: Round 16 goals

By: hastaelgolsiempre

hastaelgolsiempre — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:43:26 +0000

We’ll have to agree to disagree then, Seba. The grass is always greener, I suppose. But at least in the Copa, more often than not you’re watching a game between two teams who both want to score, and a more even level of competition over all. The Champions League is all about money and three semi-finalists from one country isn’t fun for anyone (except the English media).

And I say that as someone whose side are the current champions of the thing.

By: Seba

Seba — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:17:48 +0000

I agree regarding there’s no need to post the groups right now. Who wants to know in which group will Brazil 3 or Ecuador 4 play?

But I disagree with the Libertadores being more entertaining than the Champions League.

I’m a romantic and I love football the way it used to be. In that sense, the Copa Libertadores is closer to be regarded as a romantic tournament than the Champions League.

But the level of club football in South America is appalling. Very rarely you see good football played in a Copa Libertadores match and only a handful of matches are worth being watched.

The Champions League gives you the best players in the world in perfect pitch conditions and with a level of organization that is second to none.

You know when your team will play with 3 months in advance (some times), you know your rival, you know the kick-off times, you know everything. Whereas in South America you don’t even know which team you’ll face next week or where will you play that match.

I find the Champions League to be more entertaining by a long distance.

By: hastaelgolsiempre

hastaelgolsiempre — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:40:59 +0000

Seba, the thing is, it’s a WAY more entertaining competition than the Champs League, and the traditional start to that entertainment is always watching the draw and wondering how much longer it can carry on before Leoz and Grondona start to look rather embarrassed about the whole thing.

I’m going to put the groups up when at least the majority of the teams are actually known, in case anyone’s wondering – some time in the new year. There’s no point in doing so right now.

By: Seba

Seba — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:25:52 +0000

Off topic…the Copa Libertadores draw has just finished.

It was another HORRIBLE thing to watch! Very disorganized, it was announced at 1 PM Buenos Aires and finally started after 3 PM and the whole draw consisted in:

COLOMBIA 2 will face the winner of PARAGUAY 3 and ECUADOR 4.

Group A will have BRAZIL 1 as number one seeded and they will play with ARGENTINA 2, etc. etc. etc.

Which makes me wonder (for a second year running), why do the have this draw televised and performed when they only have 3 or 4 team names confirmed?

What’s the point?

It made for a terrible “tv show” if you want to call it a tv show and nobody knows how the hell will the groups look like!

Incredible staff, compared to the UEFA Champions League draw or the UEFA Cup or any draw not conducted by Conmebol.

I’m not asking them to have a standard that matches the ones from FIFA or UEFA, but come on Conmebol, do you really think that draw (and the moment in which you chose to conduct it) makes sense?

By: hastaelgolsiempre

hastaelgolsiempre — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:19:42 +0000

I agree about Salvio, Matthew. Sadly GolesTV have stopped posting (embeddable, individual goal) videos so I can’t do my personal selections any more – they were previously the only site who did vids of single goals rather than one vid of all the goals in a match.

It was a glorious goal though, as was Maxi’s – but you don’t need me to tell you that!

By: Matthew Gilbert

Matthew Gilbert — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:01:31 +0000

Top three goals of the week…

1 Salvio (Lanus) for the build up not shown in the clip… I like goals like this, it’s the old Total Football enthusiast in me…

2 Maxi (Racing). Didn’t see it live, just heard the Gimnasia radio commentator stunned into silence on AM Provincia, but it does look good in the clip. Had I seen it live, I might well have leapt into my ceiling. I mean, tennis is all very well, but there is a limit… particularly as Argentina didn’t even win : (

3 Saavedra (SMT).