Final update, for now: Boyacá Chicó are the champions of the 2008 Copa Mustang I. Congratulations to them and their fans on their first championship star.  

So to those arrogant fans my message is clear: Wake up. If you ever wondered why 50% of this confederation has a chance of going to the world cup with only 10 teams, make an effort to start watching most of this teams and you’ll see the reason. Argentina and Brazil will be at the world cup, make no mistake about it. But you better believe they’ll be earning it. Because it’s neve been a cakewalk for them and it never will.

Here are the standings to back up what i’m saying.

Update: Argentina managed to get a 1-1 last minute draw. But that’s nothing for them to be proud of so my point still stands.

America’s safety on goal lies upon the hands of Adrian Berbia, The Uruguayan has shown stability and experience in leading the defence. Besides the much heralded wingers, the central pair of Viafara and Valdés has been rock solid so the team hasn’t missed Emmanuel Acosta (injured) and Andres Gonzalez (sold to Santa Fe) at all. The midfield with Arango, John Valencia and youngsters Jaime Cordoba and Duvan Zapata plus the occasional import of vets Jersson Gonzalez and Oscar Restrepo provide more than decent service to the Panamanian beast Luis Tejada, the flashy Adrian Ramos and Victor Cortés, all three having pretty good seasons on scoring terms.

America has 9 points for winning all first 3 matches on the group playoff stage. If  they make it to the final, and win it, they will tie with Millonarios on the all-time highest number of domestic titles (13). So it lies upon the feet of these young, skillful and hungry red devils to make history.

And six months later, qualifiers return.

The Colombian NT is ready to visit Lima, the city where never rains. But hopefully it will rain good football if not goals on the peruvian net. Colombia remains undefeated with 2 wins and 2 draws on the 4th spot  and  i’m optimistic  that we can stay undefeat after the next 2 games at Peru and Ecuador. A minimum of 4 points from those 2 games for us is what I expect. Hopefully, the newly-recalled striker duo of Rodallega  and Dayro Moreno can provide the goals that we lacked on the last two friendlies against Northern Ireland and France. Altough both were losses, Colombia showed signs of a consistent game. If only we can have that punch up front, we should overcome the Peruvians who, despite having top-notch attackers, are known for their lack of defensive organization. According to the papers, Pinto should be starting in Lima with Julio on goal, Zuñiga and Velez (why?) on the wings, C. Zapata and A. Mosquera on defence; Amaya, C. Sanchez, Vargas and Torres on the midfield, Rodallega and Perea up front. But there’s quite a few days until saturday so anything can change.

After Santa Fe’s last weekend 0-1 home loss against La Equidad, the Cardinal’s 7th star seems to fade away all over again. Santa Fe’s dead last in its group after 2 losses. And who’s to blame? The finger points a the usual suspect: the coach. But in this case, I feel is more than justified.

Fernando “Pecoso” Castro is a firecracker as I said before. The guy’s been sacked by teams such as Cali (despite ending a 22-year championship draught the year before), Once Caldas, Millonarios and Santa Fe itself before and it’s always the same story: Castro ends up fighting with half the team, the players do not want to perform under him and he gets the boot amid loud cries from fans and the media alltogether.

And rumor has it that fellow firecracker and former Guatemala Manager Hernan Darío Gómez already has a pre-agreement with the execs should Castro fail in the pursuit of the 7th star. Alongside  Gómez,  posible  reinforcements are Krylya Sovetov’s Juan Carlos Escobar, Xerez’s Abel Aguilar or  Tolima’s John Charria. So wether or not they can get the championship this season, The Cardinals directive seems to be relentless in their pursuit of buying success

In this day of the official birth of the south american union

Croatia: (Mention of Honor) Eduardo “Dudu” Da Silva-BRA. No doubt he would have been on the list for the tournament if it wasn’t for that BUTCHER named Martin Taylor who should be banned from anything resembling a soccer field for the rest of his miserable existance.

France:

Florent Malouda- French Guiana. The Chelsea winger will probably start for les bleus. No matter that the french got a little corner of our continent for themselves, the boy is still a born and maybe raised South American.

Not making it in the squad is Argentinian-born David Trezeguet from Juventus.

Germany

Kevin Kuranyi- BRA and some others: The quick Shalke forward is, according to wiki, born to a German-Hungarian father and a Panamanian mother, but born in the home of the Carnival, Rio de Janeiro.

Italy

Mauro German Camoranesi- ARG. The Argentine is a well-known name for the Azzurri. Already a world cup champion and a lock at serie A outfit Juventus.

Amazingly, this time we’re skipping the Netherlands as no player born in Suriname is into the squad this time (After Seedorf decided to quit) Altough Ryan Babel has Surinamese ancestry.

Poland

Roger Guerreiro- BRA. The newest naturalized player and the source of much controversy. After a few years at Legia Warsaw, he’ll be providing some good support in the midfield.

Portugal

While Anderson de Souza “Deco” is the highest-profile Brazilian player not to play for Brazil, Kleper Ferreira “Pepe” was pretty much out of the radar for the verdeamarelha.

Spain

Marcos Senna- BRA. Is an established midfielder at Villarreal and also traveled to the last world cup with La Roja. Missing from the squad is Argentinian winger Mariano Pernía.

Switzerland

Johan Vonlanthen- COL. So HE IS the reason why this post is in this blog. you got it. Vonlanthen would be a regular with the swiss squad if he was not so injury-prone.

Turkey

Marco Aurélio Brito dos Prazeres “Mehmet Aurelio“- BRA. He had to adopt a turkish name to be able to get citizenship. Now, that’s a stretch…

So next time you’re thinking about saying “The Euro is like a World Cup without Argentina and Brazil”, think again…

City: Tunja

Regular season position: 2

Titles: 0

Best Players: Miguel Caneo, Victor Pacheco, Marcos Pérez

Strengths: Surprise of the season. After the financial semi-crisis when Pacheco traveled for a trial over in Canadá (not exactly next door), this team got back together and turned around the season in style kicking some major behind. It’s been so amazing, that the blend of offensive football and defensive seriousness has the media fallen all over for this team and dubbing it title candidate. I don’t trust those without the pedigree that much, but in Colombian football it certainly can happen.

Weaknesses: Such favouritism from the media can set the checkereds up for a monumental choke Mexican style (see: Atlas today). Only mental toughness can take them to the final. It will be interesting to see if they have it.

Independiente Medellin

City: Take a guess…

Regular season position: 4

Titles: 5

Best Players: Omar Perez, Diego Alvarez… But no one really “shines”

Strengths: The unpredictable. This team can paint anybody’s face (does that reference make any sense in English?) or it can suck monumentally. To be honest, I really don’t know how they gathered so much consistency because they qualified so safe but everytime I saw them, I didn’t enjoy watching them at all.

Weaknesses: Ditto what I just said. They can choke or they can pull an upset. It’s just 50-50.

Deportivo Cali

City: Duh!

Titles: 7

Regular season positon: 6

Best Players: Sergio Herrera, Paolo Frangipane, Freddy Montero

Strengths: Overall good squad loaded with players that have international experience.

Weaknesses: Perennial underachievers. This team fields ‘dream’ squads year after year and it ends up losing. But success eventually comes easier if you have good players, i guess.

Deportes Quindio

City: Armenia

Titles: 0

Regular season positon:8

Best Players: Ivan “champeta” Velazquez

Strengths: Ivan “champeta” Velazquez, who is a proven goalscorer.

Weaknesses: They qualified on goal difference and I don’t expect too much of them. In fact…

Yesterday’s results- Game 1:

Quindio 0×0 Medellin

Cali 2 x2 Chicó

Group A:

Envigado 2×0 Santa Fe

Equidad 0×2 America.

Tough beginning for the Bogotá teams. The capital city is demanding a title after 20 years. They better step up. Tell you more over the weekend.

Seguros La Equidad

City: Bogotá

Titles: 0

Regular season position:1

Best players: Stalin Motta, Roberto Polo, Gabriel Torres (Pan.)

Strengths: A tight pack. They’ve been playing together forever. And as I mentioned in earlier posts, Motta just runs the midfield like a master. They’ll have the altitude of Bogotá to rely on against Envigado and America.

Weaknesses: Chockers. Maybe is a little unfair to stamp the label on them after only one chocking moment: Their one and only final against Nacional. But they better not pick-up the habit.

Independiente Santa Fe:

City: Bogotá

Titles: 6

Regular season position:3

Best players: Luis F. Mosquera, Leider Preciado, Luis Seijas (ven), etc, etc, et al…

Strengths: The all-stars. Undisputed maximum favorites for the title even tough they relaxed a bit after they secured qualification which explains their final position. They’ve been waiting 30 years for another star and with our local version of Abramovich backing them (yeah you can erase like 5 or 6 zeroes to the right) now it seems like the perfect time to win it.

Weaknesses: The press is on their backs. Anything else than the title would send this team to the depths of media hell. This much pressure can crack the team from within and their firecracker of a coach might not help things much.

Envigado F.C. :

City: Envigado (Medellin suburb)

Titles: 0 (unless, as in the case of Equidad, you want to count the second division)

Regular season position:5

Best Players: Giovanni Moreno, Giovanni Moreno, a couple of vets and…. Did I say Giovanni Moreno?

Strengths: The underdogs. A team that has nothing to lose and a lot to win. If they can get their younglings to march under the rhytm of Moreno and Neider Morantes they can inflict some serious damage on somebody else.

Weaknesses: Maybe a little too much of an underdog side to do something. I just can’t picture them reaching the finals.

America de Cali:

City: Cali (Duh!)

Titles: 12

Regular season position: 7

Best Players: P. Armero, P.Arango, L. Tejada (Pan.), I. Vélez.

Strenghts: The hidden threat. America is a team with the pedigree to challenge and with an energetic, enthusiastic group of young players capable of countering the presumptive Santa Fe dominance. Speed in all its members, mystique in their coach and an overall offensive mentality make this team a real danger to anybody who crosses them.

Weaknesses: Crazyness in the F.O. Things haven’t completely settled at the Red Devils house. (Google for ‘Clinton List’, i guess Obama has a few unlikely supporters nowadays) Their coach has wisdom but he’s still a bit of a nutcase so if he doesn’t get focused on these semi-finals, there might be some ugly surprises in the making.

10. Giovanni MORENO

Young creative midfielder whom at his 1′90 mts of height (sorry, Americans) it’s not your typical south American short-sized fantasista. Already dubbed “the white Freddy Rincón” for his stamina and strenght, Moreno can also play as a supporting striker and has the goals to prove it. Also, he plays for a team that’s dedicated more to sell players than anything else. I’m sure Giovanni has places to go even if they are still inside Colombia. He’s been on trial on some European teams, but is seems hes not quite ready for that yet.

9. Pablo ARMERO

It’s not easy to find left wingers in Colombia at all. However, Armero has the makings of a good one. Deadly on the offense and with limitations on defense. He has at least 5 years of dominating the left wing at godspeed. After that, it will be interesting to see how his game evolves. It would be better if he ends up in Brazil.

The good thing is that there are a few more names to the elimination list. (I know that’s not too good for the fans of those teams, but still) Once Caldas, Cucuta and Pasto’s chances are slim to none while Junior, Pereira and Tolima are absolutely out of the picture. Therefore, this whole affair, with two games to go and 4 spots remaining, will be contested by the following:

Deportivo Cali:

A win, and the greens are in. Nevertheless is should not come easy having to face away Quindio, a team that is very much alive. TV- Worthy game.

America de Cali:

Unlike their city rivals, America must get at least 4 points in these two games to secure their place. The first three, however, seem guaranteed having to face a Pasto side that will be fighting for pretty much nothing.

Atlético Nacional:

The greens’ recent revival must continue not only at home but in libertadores as well, where they will have to overcome a 2-1 home loss to Fluminenese on Brazilian soil. Failure to do so could have a devastating effect on the team’s morale thus making the greens an easy prey for one of the best visiting sides in the Copa Mustang: Boyacá Chicó.

Envigado FC:

It has been an acid path to qualification for the Oranges but now that seems to be somewhat relaxing as they have to face dead-last Deportes Tolima. The only hurdle for the newly-promoted acids are their history (or lack thereof) which could make its players negatively relaxed since they are expected to underachieve anyway.

Atletico Bucaramanga:

One of the weakest visitors of the league, the Cheetahs have their strength playing at home so it is unfortunate for them that next game they have to travel to Bogotá to face a revived, points-hungry Millonarios. The good side is that the Ambassadors’ worst disgraces this season have been witnessed on their home soil.

Deportes Quindio:
Tough task having to stop a squad as strong as Deportivo Cali’s. However this team is consistent enough at home and could pull it off.

Millonarios:

After Bonner Mosquera dropped all the thinkering and weird lineup changes, Millonarios returned to its pre-Chicó game form in their away win against Once Caldas. And they will have to keep showing such form in the next two games if they are to qualify.

Atletico Huila:

One of the most unpredictable teams in the league. Their next game is away against an eliminated Junior side that would like to say goodbye to the season on a decent note.

My prediction? Based on history and squad strength both Cali teams should be in. Also, there are two more teams with the pedigree and the roster to be considered candidates in Nacional and Millonarios. However, these team’s lack of consistency could open the way for the likes of Quindio and Envigado to claim these last two spots. We’ll just have to wait and see how everything unfolds before the last matchday.

Yesterday’s results:

Meanwhile, at the middle of the table there is total congestion since now the fifth placed team (Chicó) has 23 points, Envigado has 22, Quindio, 21; America, 20 and from there are 5 teams with 19 points each (Cucuta, Nacional, Once Caldas, Pasto and Bucaramanga) and Millonarios and Junior have 18. In other words, it will be impossible to know who are the final eight until the last round and even Medellin (25) and Cali (24) don’t have anything clear. So how did we got in this mess? Well, i’ll tell you at least what happened last sunday:

The Greens of Nacional got back to dreaming after playing an entertaining match against the Red Devils of America. The Cali reds seemed to be dominating on the first half but thanks to the boost given by Chilean Fernando Martel, the greens had the strength to pounce twice and turn it over for a final result of 3-2. In another one of those ‘vibrant’ games by the looks of the score, last-placed Deportes Tolima thumped Once Caldas 4-3 thus delaying the All-whites qualyfication to the next round. And the hat trick dose continued as Cucuta struck Chicó 3-0 and Huila and Pereira drew 3-3 at the Cane Cutters home field. It should be noted that Huila got that same score on its previous game against Millonarios at home.

The Green Menace of Deportivo Cali came one step closer by getting rid of Envigado 2-1 at home and sending the Acids to the Unglamorous Land of Suffering. Junior continued its comeback by beating Pasto 2-0 and the Miracle Greens of Quindio got a cool 1-0 victory against contenders Medellin.

So whatever happens be sure that this league will stay exciting until the end. There’s also Copa Colombia tomorrow wednesday and our teams at libertadores will try to stay alive against Brazilian opposition and also, our NT will feature almost a Copa Mustang All-star squat on tomorrow’s friendly against neighboring Venezuela. There’s a lot going on. So stay tuned.