Arsenal Begin Their Title Defense.

By: Mauro | August 19th, 2008

Arsenal de Sarandi vs. CD Motagua (Estadio Julio H. Grondona “El Viaducto”, Avellaneda, Argentina)

LIVE @ 5:30pm PST on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

Arsenal begin to defend their title tonight with their Sudamericana opener against Honduran side, CD Motagua. Both sides have had their share of bruises but now have to bare down and get ready to start the tournament on the right foot in their first round match.

Alright, let’s lay it down like it is. Arsenal were pure crap at the beginning of this year’s Copa Libertadores. They came to far too late to make anything of their campaign, but they finished the Clausura in 10th place and have had modest showing internationally since last year’s Sudamericana where they won the cup in spectacular fashion, taking matches to teams in their own stadiums.

But Arsenal are coming off a crushing 1-3 defeat in front of their home crowd against Boca Juniors in the Recopa Sudamericana and they lost their Saturday match against Tigre 1-2 in the Argentine Apertura. Shortly before that, they won the Suruga Bank Championship against J. League Cup Champions, Gamba Osaka with a 1-0 score line.

Coach Daniel Garnero is hoping his side will be able to pull itself out of the slump it’s been in since early February. Which is why we should see most of the same line up we saw against Boca last Wednesday.

Ex-coach Gustavo Alfaro and goal scorer José Luís Calderón are no longer with the club. Facundo Sava, a man who can breathe a sigh of relief after having left Racing Club, has arrived in Calderón’s place and they picked up a handful of players from second division sides and Guatemalan midfielder José Manuel Contreras fom his native Comunicaciones.

Now that I’ve got it straight, Motagua is here instead of either Costa Rican side Saprissa and Mexican side Pachuca or anyone else who finished ahead of them in the CONCACAF Champions Cup because they failed to qualify for this year’s CONCACAF Champions League. Motagua are representing the CONCACAF alongside Mexican sides, San Luís Potosi and Chivas de Guadalajara. Motagua are also the reigning Central American champions.

Motagua’s Colombian coach Jaime de la Pava was present at Arsenal’s last match and is hopeful for his team in their first appearance in the Sudamericana. The nice thing about this side is that because the large majority of their players are Honduran, we’ll get a front row seat of what Honduran football is all about. Despite this, Uruguayan forward, Oscar Torlacoff and countryman defender Guillermo Díaz, and Brazilians forward Jocimar Nascimento and Milberto Da Silva should all make the start tomorrow.

Bottom Line: I don’t know a lot about this Motagua team but if their anything like the Mexican sides I’ve seen or even the Olimpia side I’ve seen, they should be pretty tough nut to crack. Arsenal are in no shape for a match of this magnitude and have yet to find their legs since being slapped around in Group 8 by finalists Fluminense and LDU Quito.

My Pick: 1-0 to Arsenal. I’m putting the positive energy out there for these guys. They really need a good result and could get it here now that they are playing in the comfortable bosom of their own stadium. Sorry Motagua fans.

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.