This is it, folks. The power of 8 (1)

By: Lugo | May 20th, 2008

Equidad, Santa Fe, Envigado and América in group A; Boyacá Chicó, Medellín, Cali and Quindío in group B. Those are the 8 teams that in the next weeks will produce two finalists that in turn will square off for this semester’s championship star. Behind were left big sides like Nacional, Millonarios and Junior and it was well deserved. For the next season they better re-think their strategies, make a cleansing in their squads, and in the case of the greens and the blues, hire new coaches that can lift both clubs to the standards that their history and their prestige demands. Altough football is not over for the eliminated clubs because Copa Colombia is still going on, let’s focus on those who remain in the party. Let me give you a preview of each team, let’s start with group A:

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?

In case you still don't know, 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.