Monday, March 7, 2016

Plaza Colonia rocks Uruguayan football

When you think Uruguay, you think Nacional or Peñarol. It's what you do. In 2016, we might have to think something new. Plaza Colonia are on top of the Clausura table after 5 matches and unbeaten in 12. 

The man who makes it possible: Coach Eduardo Espinel. (Photo: Tenfield)
Where did that come from? The small club from Colonia del Sacramento shows the big guns and the rest of the league what's good this year. 13 points from 5 games means 4 wins and a draw. Only last summer, the club returned to Uruguay's Primera División for the first time since 2006.

While beating Rentistas, Liverpool, Nacional and Montevideo Wanderers, the draw came very unluckily against lowly Villa Teresa. The even bigger outsiders equalized through a 90th minute penalty from Jhonatan Souza Motta. When ending the Apertura with six straight draws, noone would have thought they suddenly started beating half the league as well. But ever since then, Plaza have shown tremendous comeback qualities that you cannot underestimate. 

On Sunday, they stayed on top of the table thanks to a 0-1 win away to Wanderers. Germán Rivero scored the goal that proved golden by the full time whistle. Here you can see his turnaround strike.


Plaza Colonia's biggest strength is clearly their defense. Only giving up two goals in 5 games makes them #1 in the league in that department, along with CA Cerro. Germán Rivero is somewhat being their insurance though, scoring 3 of 8 goals, the most of any Plaza player. 

Surprisingly, CA Fénix are the ones closest to the leaders as of now. Martín Ligüera has scored four times already, helping his squad to three wins and two draws, giving them 11 points. Plaza Colonia and Fénix are the only two teams in Uruguay that have not lost a single game yet. 

The big three find themselves in the role of the hunter. Peñarol, Nacional and Cerro follow in positions 3, 4 and 5. This is mainly thanks to Peñarol's and Nacional's previous two outings. Both lost in matchweek 4 due to resting players for the Libertadores, only to follow it up with draws this weekend. 

They are still up there, but need to step it up significantly to gain the chance to compete for the Clausura, a seemingly natural right for the two famous clubs.

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