Danubio, the poorest and most loser side in Libertadores?

Commonsense in football journalism says it's ill-advised to write about poor and loser sides in any given competition; unless, of course, the poor and loser is a big club whose misery illustrates decadence and deterioration. Uruguayan side Danubio FC qualified to this Libertadores as reigning champions of their domestic league, and yet, their continental record this year can't be poorer: all games lost, the bottom place of their group already guaranteed with one match to go, fourteen goals conceded.

Having watched all of Danubio's losses so far, however, something keeps telling me I'll regret it for long if the chance to write about them is simply let pass by. That is because Danubio is not a poor and loser side: it is merely a too young one, if not entirely juvenile, that ran with the awful luck of being seeded within this Libertadores's Group of Death along current monarchs San Lorenzo and Paulista powerhouses Corinthians and Sao Paulo FC. In any other group, the odds could have been rather good to make a decent stage and even dream with progression.

Their boss, Leonardo Ramos, went bold and courageous enough as to field a three-man defensive line in which the most experienced member was the sweeper, Matías de los Santos, with just 22 years old. To the latter's right was Federico Ricca, 20 years old, and to the left was Cristian González, 18. When De los Santos was unavailable, Ramos picked Joaquín Pereyra, 20.

Training Athletic de Bilbao, Marcelo Bielsa used to say that, as a coach, it was cynical to field youngsters in order to expose and prove them unable to compete in tough scenarios. Well, in the case of Danubio, Cristian González endured a true nightmare in Montevideo trying to cover Corinthians' experienced striker Paolo Guerrero. The Peruvian himself had endured a difficult first half under the supervision of impressive Federico Ricca; by the second half though, Guerrero moved towards González and Corinthians finally found the path to victory in Uruguay. What did Leo Ramos do afterwards? He gave confidence to González and his young folks as undisputed starters for the subsequent matches.

Brazilian supporters of both Corinthians and Sao Paulo might cast my interpretation of Danubio as highly partial and over-romanticized as the Uruguayan side showed lots of dirtiness that went unpunished by apathetic referees. It is true. There is no innocence in their youth: with clenched teeth, more often than not the Danubio players indulged on unnecessary challenges and blatant aggressions which made many of them well-deserving of straight red cards. Killer children. Uruguayan ones who see in violence, either in physical, verbal, or in footballing terms, the only way to lift their club from the humbleness of the Uruguayan league and make it compete with South América's finest.

One feels he will regret not writing about the likes of Ricca, González and De lo Santos as they can well turn into the future Uruguayan centre-backs plying their trade in some European superclub. The same can also apply to the correct holding midfield duo of Fabricio Formiliano and Nicolás Milesi. Albeit Danubio is neither Peñarol nor Nacional (not even Defensor Sporting for that matter), notable former players include Marcelo Zalayeta, Álvaro Recoba and Edinson Cavani.

Danubio, the poorest and most loser side in Libertadores? Not at all, they are by far the most refreshing side in Libertadores and well worth watching them.

Corinthians 2-0 Sao Paulo: Cohesion versus separation

   In the Arena Corinthians the home side thoroughly overplayed their city rivals, Sao Paulo FC, by quick aggression attacking both from the outside (pushing with the full-backs Fabio Santos and Fagner), and from the inside, (surprising with box-to-box midfielder Elias). After the opener, the Timao soaked pressure up with the very same cohesion deployed at attack. Sao Paulo, on the other hand, showed themselves as quite disjointed a squad with three men (Luis Fabiano, Alan Kardec and Paulo Henrique Ganso) in charge of offending and the rest taking the brunt of defensive duties.

The Corinthians boss, Tite, chose what actually is a 4-3-3 formation: Renato Augusto (the launcher) and Elias (the runner) stuck close to Ralf (the protector) in midfield, while Danilo came on for suspended Peruvian central striker Paolo Guerrero, moving constantly away from the Sao Paulo center-backs. This latter vertical mobility proved crucial as Corinthians overloaded the center of the pitch and controlled the flux of play. The image that precedes these lines being a good example, Elias's gol was created from a nice combination between him and Danilo to surpass Denilson with the assistance of a great Jadson lobbed ball.

                    

The formation employed by Muricy Ramalho was a wingerless midfield diamond (4-3-1-2) in which Ganso performed the trequartista role, and both Luis Fabiano and Alan Kardec failed to move to the channels to provide the much-needed width given the lack of true wingers. In fairness to Ramalho, he could not use Alexandre Pato, a more versatile striker, since he's in loan from Corinthians, and could not use either Ricardo Centurión, the Argentine winger brought from Racing de Avellaneda, due to suspension. The problems for Sao Paulo, however, had more to do with their little cohesion rather than with some certain formation.

Until the Elias's opener eleven minutes from the start of the match, Corinthians pushed Fagner and Fabio Santos in support of Jadson and Emerson (who regularly cut in from the channels). As Denilson, Souza and Maicon were occupied with Elias and Renato Augusto, Corinthians caused one-two situations against the Sao Paulo full-backs almost by default. Even at those early stages Fabio Santos had shot twice against Rogerio Ceni's goal. As the Sao Paulo forward trio was almost totally oblivious to defending, Souza and Maicon faced this impossible dilemma: Should we track the Corinthians full-backs at expense of exposing the midfield, or should we stay in position at expense of exposing the flanks?

The midfielders of Sao Paulo tried to cover both the center and the flanks and, at the end, got caught by Danilo's false nine movement, Renato Augusto's fine passing and Elias' impressive work rate. Had they counted with some help from upfront, they could perhaps offer more in an attacking sense to exploit the space left behind the enemy full-backs. Instead, Corinthians have once again shown their cards as a cohesive squad that moves along the field as a unit but, more importantly, as a well-drilled machine that creates and exploits space from the inside and the outside.

Boca, Corinthians, hegemonía pasada, hegemonía presente.

   La gélida noche del 20 de junio de 2007 en el Estadio Olímpico de Porto Alegre, casa del Grémio, un formidable zapatazo con comba de Juan Román Riquelme le daba a Boca Juniors su cuarta Copa Libertadores en menos de una década. Tras 4 largos años de sequía copera, se creía que los Xeneixes por fin habían dado con la tecla que haría repetir la fórmula del éxito continental en la época post-Bianchi.

Razones había para pensar que el nuevo Boca se enfilaba rumbo a una nueva era de gloria y triunfo. Tras una seguidilla de técnicos incapaces de salir de la sombra del Virrey, Miguel Ángel Russo proyectaba un aire ecuánime y prudente capaz de manejar uno de los vestuarios y salas de prensa más calientes de toda la Argentina. Asimismo el cuadro porteño contaba entre sus filas con una mezcla adecuada entre juventud y experiencia cuyos nombres propios eran los Riquelme, los Rodrigo Palacio, los Éver Banega, los Neri Cardozo y los Cata Díaz.

Finalmente, la desmedida presión mediática provocó la marcha de Russo tras una derrota frente al Milán en Japón, y la desmedida presión económica de una Liga que necesita exportar hizo lo mismo con el talento joven bostero. El Boca campeón de la Libertadores 2007 quedaría así completamente desmantelado y una derrota en Río de Janeiro frente al Fluminense por semifinales de la Libertadores 2008 vaticinaba un proceso de deterioro todavía más dramático.

Después de varios años sin Libertadores, el regreso de Boca en 2012 al máximo torneo continental de América parecía haber reencendido la esperanza de la mano del viejo caudillo Román y los goles de Pablo Mouche. No obstante, cuando Boca por fin había regresado a la final por el título tras un largo peregrinar cobrándose venganza del Flu, se encontró con que Corinthians estaba ahí también.

El Timao de Tité no necesitó florituras para imponer su superioridad sobre los argentinos y levantar la Copa en su primera aparición en la final. Un sólido 11 inicial que ciertamente echó de menos la presencia de un delantero asesino compensó la escasez goleadora con la solidaridad defensiva del omnipresente Paulinho, y de Ralf, su socio en el medio campo. Cuando el Corinthians necesitó goles bastó con la irrupción del rebelde Emerson Sheik.

Tité, a sabiendas de que Liedson no llenó el lugar reservado para el 9 del poderoso cuadro paulista, mandó a fichar a Paolo Guerrero del Hamburgo alemán y además completó la plantilla con la incorporación de Juan Manuel Burrito Mártínez, entonces estrella creativa de Vélez Sarsfield y hoy titular en Boca Juniors. Con equipo apuntalado, el club de Sao Paulo voló a Japón para arrebatarle el Mundial de Clubes al Chelsea de Juan Mata, Oscar, Frank Lampard y Peter Cech gracias a una solitaria anotación del peruano Guerrero. Corinthians, vigente monarca de América, vigente monarca mundial.

Ahora que la Libertadores 2013 vuelve a enfrentar a argentinos y brasileños es inevitable concluir que Corinthians y Boca juegan en ligas distintas. El Timao es, según la revista Forbes, “el único club de fútbol billonario de Brasil” que trae de Europa a jugadores como Alexandre Pato y Renato Augusto, y que además está a punto de inaugurar la moderna Arena Corinthians con aforo de hasta 65 mil espectadores para el juego inaugural del Mundial 2014. Por su parte, el gran fichaje de Boca para el 2013 lo gestó Carlos Bianchi al convencer a Riquelme de regresar del retiro para derramar su fútbol sobre el césped de una Bombonera tan tradicional como vetusta.

El Boca-Corinthians de octavos de final traerá la confirmación de un cambio de hegemonía en América. La hegemonía indiscutible del Boca del Virrey y de Román ahora es cosa del pasado.  Corinthians se asoma como el nuevo Rey del continente y no encontrará un auténtico desafío quizás hasta la final del Mundial de Clubes 2013 en Marruecos para defender su título global.