A Tight Derby Caleño Squeezes Out a Winner.

By: Mauro | September 17th, 2008

In what seemed like a replay from the match Deportivo Cali and América de Cali played almost a month ago, both sides shared possession of the ball, but their demeanor on the pitch with it was completely different.

Just like I had presumed in my preview of this match, Deportivo came out of their corner swinging. Looking left and right for a goal that would begin to give them some hope of advancing or at very least, forcing penalties. Early on they had a goal disallowed and Deportivo forward, Sergio Herrera was causing all kind of havoc in the América penalty area.

With Argentine playmaker Pablo Batalla pulling the strings for Deportivo in the midfield, he distributed the ball confidently and found his teammates in dangerous positions well within América’s territory. Realizing this, the América defenders tightened their marking on him and brought him down on several occasions to keep him from doing any serious damage. But it was clear that when the ball was at his feet, Deportivo posed more of a threat on América keeper, Adrían Berbia’s goal.

But even though they had more of the ball and more gumption than their red counterparts, Deportivo failed to find the back of Berbia’s net in the first half and it only gave América time to find their bearing on their defensive line.

But in the second half, they seemingly willed it to happen. Almost a minute or two out of the dressing room, Deportivo found the net when Batalla broke loose on the left and his cross found a sliding Freddy Montero for the go ahead goal and penalties were within reach. 1-0 to Deportivo.

The goal hit América like a cold bucket of water. They must have realized that they were going to lose this match if they didn’t do something. From that point on, América defended in a very orderly manner, covering the spaces at the back and, like I said in my preview, waiting for the opening to play the counter which they did quite effectively and had a few chances to equalize on more than one occasion.

Still Deportivo hadn’t quite given up yet an they sought out the second goal that would keep them in the fight for the Round of 16. But all they could manage were a few off chances here and there due to América’s amateur-ish mistakes on the defensive end near the end of the match, one of which almost gave Freddy Montero his second on the night and Deportivo the opportunity to advance on penalty kicks.

The match ended despite the fans constant support of their sides. While only 10,000 people showed up for this match (the low crowd count was probably due to both team’s poor form in the local league), it sounded much more full and gave the match the atmosphere a derby like this deserves.

Final Score: 1-0 to Deportivo. But with this result, América advance. It ends 2-1 on aggregate.

Deportivo have a slight edge on América in the standings and they face each other again this Saturday in their local league. América marches on, into the the Round of 16 where they’ll face Botafogo who trounced Atlético Mineiro to secure their place.

I had this one ending in a 1-1 draw with América advancing. América is advancing and prolly had the more complete side, but they are still not up to par with the top teams in South America. Still, this could be one more notch in América’s belt that could help them gain the confidence needed to face a tough Brazilian side in the next round.

Feel free to check the CONMEBOL website for results and information about upcoming matches and for those of you in need of a bracket to get your heads around the competition, get one here.