FPC Roundup: Highlanders seize the day

By: Lugo | April 14th, 2008

With a questionable (to say the least) 5-0 pounding on Bucaramanga, Independiente Medellin grabbed the #1 spot on the on the standings thanks to the stalemate that the Santa Fe vs. Equidad match turned out to be. So at this point you must be wondering about the “questionable” bit, huh? well, let me tell you: It turns out that new Bucaramanga’s new coach Victor Luna has shares on Sueños del Balon corporation, an entity which owns a controlling interest at Medellin. So it says conflict of interest all over the place but these are the sorts of things that go on in our football and nobody does anything about them. But in Medellin defense, i should say that The Cheetahs F.O. knew the whole time (like pretty much the rest of the country) about Luna’s interest in Sueños del Balon, among other famous head coaches like Trinidad & Tobago NT boss Francisco Maturana and former Guatemala manager Hernan Dario Gómez. Now, does that make it legit? I don’t think so.

But moving on, the Checkereds of Boyacá Chicó continued their rampage to a total of 19 goals in three games after severely crashing the party of Millonarios in Bogotá and putting a serious dent in the Ambassadors’ hopes of reaching the final 8. The ace trio of veteran Victor Pacheco, Argentinian Miguel Caneo and versatile Edwin Movil totally dominated the field leaving the attack for the new teen sensation Marcos Perez to run circles around the slow, elefant-esque Millonarios defense. Much of the fate of the home side could be attributed to their ill-tempered manager Mario Vanemerak whom after last week’s mega-tantrum earned a well deserved 3 months suspension from the bench. His team is headless and that is reflecting in their game.

Meanwhile in Barranquilla, the home side got a much needed 3-0 win over the Greens of Nacional, but this game too was not out of controversy since the Nacional first team was actually stranded in Buenos Aires up until saturday after their libertadores game because of a delayed flight so they traveled back to Colombia early sunday morning so after 10 hours of flying they got to Barranquilla and went to the stadium right after their plane landed. Hence, the result. But the obvious question, and one that shall remain a mistery is: Why didn’t they just field the B-side which was scratching their balls in Medellin? Go figure that one out.

The Cali teams got mixed luck but overall good because while Deportivo breezed trough Once Caldas 3-0, America got an away draw in Cucuta, a fairly complicated place. As for the rest of the games, Tolima finally won again 2-1 against regional rivals Huila, Pereira completed the matchday goalfest with a 5-2 at home against Pasto and Quindio drew 2-2 with Envigado. So, as you can see, in Colombian football anybody can defeat anybody, in any given day.

Note to Colombian Trolls: I will not let this become another El Tiempo. You know what i’m talking about.