Stakes is High

By: Scott | November 18th, 2008

Surely after an absence so pathetically long I would come in with guns blazing and summarize the last three months in great detail and with a solid repertoire of jokes. You haven’t been paying attention much, have you? The most important thing in this post is the change of theme from Rahsaan Roland Kirk to De La Soul. It’ll change again. Thank God for real artists who have inspiration and creativity to think of blog titles for me.

Now, I will make another post to fill you in on what has transpired in the league thus far (bad), but right now let’s focus on Thursday. Yes, Thursday. A midweek match. Mauro has been doing a great job previewing and summarizing the goings on in the Copa Sudamericana, but I know deep down you have been aching to know my take on the affairs, which include the meteoric and impossible to predict rise of the beloved bicho from “luckily and reluctantly invited because we couldn’t find a loophole to get Vélez to qualify” to “semifinalist that all lame American journalists now discover is the first club for Maradona and subsequently write an article on it” (Note: I have not found any article matching the second description because I don’t read American soccer journalism, but I just get the feeling that there is some genius finally putting it all together). Continue below and discover the magic.

Bullet point warning! Here are the most important aspect of this mini-run.

1. The Copa Sudamericana is NOT the same thing as the UEFA Cup. If someone says it, tell them to stop reducing everything to overly generalized analogies. If you think it…please stop. The Sudamericana is not concurrent with the Libertadores, meaning that the same team could win both in the same year (Boca barely missed out on this distinction by losing to Once Caldas on penalties in the final of the Libertadores in 2004 before winning the Sudamericana later in the year, though, interestingly enough, they would have won had South America utilized the away goals rule at that time).

2. Sergio Escudero is nuts. Dangerous, even. Sure “hot-headed Latin” is an overused cliché, but there are times in this world when it applies, and Escudero has converted himself into the stereotypical “see ankle, kick ankle” defender. He has 5 yellow cards thus far in the tournament…the team has played 7 matches. Oh, by the way, he is currently suspended for three matches in the league due to his 4 red cards over the past 2 years. Whatever it takes, I guess.

3. The team has played the best when it mattered most, and that means that they have won or done enough on the road to get this far. I cannot stress how important or stupefying this is. The round-by-round breakdown is like this:

vs. San Lorenzo: 0-0 first leg at home, 2-0 victory on the road. The first real WTF moment this year. Pavlovich, aka the Vulture, aka Everything We Were Looking For, aka This Is Why I Complained So Much About Delorte, set the tone and the defense held firm. Amazing.

vs. San Luis: 1-2 first leg on the road, 2-0 victory at home. Pavlovich again. He just got bored, burned 3 defenders, and scored on his own in Mexico to give the team the kick in the ass that they needed and some hope for the return leg. Then he helped finish the deal.

vs. Palmeiras: 1-0 on the road, 2-0 at home. This one isn’t even worth writing about. Escudero brought his reputation to an international level when Denilson (the old one) claimed that Sergio said he would “end his career”. Yeah, we’re basically a bad biker club who kicks a ball around…

As you can see, the troubles away from home that I documented ad nauseum last year (and continue this year…) were magically solved in this tournament. What the hell is that about? I have no answers, so I will just stop writing about it.

So, where do you stand now? Argentinos needs to score at least one goal. That much we know. I, as always, know very little more. AAAJ hasn’t beaten Estudiantes in La Plata since the Clausura 2005, before Verón returned from Italy, so that means little. The hill is steep, the odds are against them…and right now that doesn’t seem to mean anything to them.

More to come…