New week, new category on Germancopa. This is a look at one top match from each South American league on the last weekend.
Argentina
Last night, San Lorenzo beat Racing Club in a path-breaking game 2-1 at home. After dominating possession especially in early parts of the match, Mauro Cetto gave the hosts a 20th minute lead. The rightback was there to clean up the mess right in front of the goal after a direct freekick from Cauteruccio hit the crossbar. Racing, who had left Diego Milito on the bench until it was too late, improved their game in the second half and had some more chances. The consequence was the tying goal from Iván Pillud in the 78th minute with a wonderful strike from distance through a crowd following a corner. Emanuel Mas did not like that a lot and made a commanding run forward shortly after, which ended in the winning goal. His tap-in after another assist from Cauteruccio went by goalkeeper Saja and keeps San Lorenzo close to table toppers Boca.
Bolivia
Bolivia’s game between 1 and 2 went to 2 as The Strongest celebrated a 1-2 away win against Sport Boys Warnes. A horrible defensive giveaway in the fourth minute led to the guest’s opening goal from Rodrigo Ramallo. Still, the Sport Boys kept on competing and finally in the 41st got a little lucky. Alejandro Morales’ shot was deflected into the bottom right corner for the equalizer. It paid back at the start of the second half on the other side though. An own goal header from Helmut Gutiérrez proved impossible to save for goalkeeper Carlos Lampe. The Strongest have taken over the lead in Bolivia’s Apertura table with this win, one point ahead of their weekend’s opponents.
Brazil
It was actually not easy to pick only one game here, but let’s go with the battle between the teams doing the chasing. Palmeiras hosted Grêmio and celebrated a 3-2 victory at Allianz Parque. A strong header from Vitor Hugo gave Palmeiras an early lead (7th) which they did not hold for too long though. Luan equalized with his 7th goal of the season after 20 minutes. Paraguayan international Lucas Barrios, this time a starter after his midweek 30 minute hattrick, paid back his coaches trust yet again. He headed home a cross in the 32nd minute after he was left pretty much wide open in the penalty area. In a game that was all about the offense, Palmeiras made it 3-1 early in the second half through Rafael Marques’ 7th league goal. Luan again, this time via penalty, could only make the scoreline a ted nicer for the visitors five minutes from the end. Grêmio stays 3rd, Palmeiras is the new 4th.
Chile
Did not see any club football action this weekend.
Ecuador
The traditional battle between Barcelona and Deportivo Cuenca ended in a 1-1 draw. The hosts were the clearly better team in front of a great crowd and had multiple chances to take (and later extent) the lead. It took them until the 52nd minute though until Ely Esterilla fired home a shot through a chaotic penalty area. After hitting the post with a freekick on top of things, they conceded the simplest and weakest way possible. A long kick from goalkeeper Ordóñez found the run of José Gutiérrez who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner (61st). Cuenca had finally arrived in the game now too and hit the post themselves shortly after. Still, all goals had gone in and it stayed 1-1 until the final whistle. Three teams now lead the league with 20 points each.
Colombia
Alianza Petrolera, who lead the Colombian table, have lost 2-1 away to Atlético Junior. Sadly I could not find any highlights of this game yet, so we’ll go with the short version. Still, the loss was seemingly avoidable, as Petrolera took an early 14th minute lead due to a goal from Victor Castillo. Vladimir Hernández (45th/pen) and Michael Ortega (61st) turned the game around for the guests. With his successful strike, Hernández has joined Duque and Preciado at the top with 7 goals each.
Paraguay
Olimpia celebrated an exciting 4-2 home victory over Sportivo Luqueño. The visitors started pretty well and had the first few chances of the contest, would eventually score the opening goal. Derlis Alegre was the target of a long through ball that sliced open Olimpia’s back four and put it through the legs of goalkeeper Centurión. Still, the hosts kept calm and hit back twice before the halftime whistle. Robert Piris (31’) and Freddy Bareiro (42’) scored, the first one after a bad punch by opposing goalkeeper Giménez, the second from a short distance after a nice low cross from the right from Salgueiro.
Right as the second half started, Luqueño was back in it again, after an own goal from Carlos Rolón. While both teams kept having chances up and down the pitch, the breaking point was the second yellow card for Sportivo player Marcelo Báez in the 70th minute, which was the right decision. Olimpia went on to win the match through a fantastic flying header from Cristian Riveros (78’) and a penalty from Pablo Zeballos in the last minute. The hosts are top of the league, but Cerro Porteño have a game in hand.
Peru
Sporting Cristal continue to dominate the league early on with the fourth win in as many games, this time a 4-0, which was never in any doubt, over Ayacucho. Twice, Cristal scored both goals in the last 15 minutes of each half. César Pereyra (32’, 7th goal in 4 games!) and Alexís Cossio (38’) as well as Carlos Lobatón (82’) and Irven Ávila (90’) were the goalscorers. Particularly the first three goals are worth a look and you can get it here.
Uruguay
Nacional were victorious against CA Cerro last night and now lead the Uruguayan table after week 6 of the Apertura. Admittedly, they had to wait until the very end to be sure of it. A 4-3 win in a game that went back and forth was definitely worth watching and I am glad I did. Man of the match was Iván Alonso, the experienced striker scored Nacional’s first two goals himself and assisted on the last two.
Cerro took the lead early through a Correa goal (3’), equalized before the half hour mark through Alonso via penalty. Only two minutes into the second half he scored again, this time from open play. Luis Urruti made it 2-2 again after an hour and Urruti in general was a huge danger throughout the game. He made Santiago Romero look old in particular on multiple occasions. It did not matter though, since Nacional had more in the tank. Goals from Seba Fernández (69’) and Alejandro Barbaro (74’) in quick succession put the game to bed, at least theoretically. A Richard Porta penalty seven minutes from the end put a little scare back into the home fans, but the Uruguayan record champions held on until the end.
Venezuela
Caracas FC have lost their home game against Aragua FC 1-2. While Caracas was the better team throughout the early parts of the game and took the lead through a tap-in from Felix Cásseres in the 13th minute, they lost their way a bit after. The second half belonged to the guests, who scored twice. A shot into the bottom left corner from Raul Vallona (51’) and a nice lob from Tulio Etchemaite two minutes after decided this battle. While Caracas could have equalized with a shot that hit the crossbar, the score remained 1-2, putting Aragua up to third in the table, equal with leaders Zamora.
