Argentinos Host Mexican League Leaders For a Spot in the Final 8.

By: Mauro | October 1st, 2008

Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors vs. San Luis F.C. (Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, La Paternal, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

LIVE @ 6pm on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

Despite winning the away match, San Luis has a tough one coming into Buenos Aires this week. How so? Well, San Luis had their work cut out for them when Argentinos surged in the second half only to suffer from poor finishing. Their ability to find a goal or two tonight could mean the end for San Luis.

In the first leg, San Luis seemed to have the match well under control, but 2-0, in my opinion, is the most dangerous score in football. Because while you have a lead, give up one goal, and the opposing team will attack you like a hungry dog trying to get at a piece of raw meat. Not big enough of a lead to be comfortable and not small enough of a lead to keep attacking.

So, San Luis had it well under control but a moment of brilliance by Nicolás Pavlovich and Argentinos could smell blood in the water. And they held San Luis into their penalty area for the rest of the match.

Escaping by the hair on their chinny chin chins, San Luis are coming into the away portion of their match up with Argentinos with the slightest of advantages. But Argentinos’ home ground is notorious for being a narrow small pitch and that could be a large advantage for the home side. In fact, Argentinos’ pitch is the smallest pitch in Argentine football.

Still, with all of this in their favor, they are coming off a terrible win in this very stadium. They lost 0-4 to Newell’s Old Boys in the Argentine Apertura and that leaves Argentinos in second to last place on the table with only 7 points out of 24 possible.

San Luis coach, Raúl Arias, will have to count out Ignacio Torres – red card in the first leg – and Oscar Morrosco who has muscular fatigue, for the second leg.

Meanwhile, Argentinos coach, Nestor Gorosito will not have Gabriel Peñalba at his disposition since he hurt his right ankle. Look for Francio Quiroga to replace him.

Bottom Line: Argentinos are running through quite the patch of shit form right now and need a little something to get back on the right track. A win tonight could do just that. San Luis have never been in better form. They are riding the top of their own local league and have been playing strong ball. Basically, Argentinos are going to have to have the match of their lives to advance to the next round.

My Pick: 2-2. San Luis advance. Argentinos don’t have the defensive presence to keep out San Luis’ goals. San Luis will not be able to really put a massive dent enough to win this one.

The winner of this one plays the winner of the Sport Ancash – Palmeiras match played at exactly the same time as this one.

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.