Arsenal Look to Defend Their Ground and Hold Off Estudiantes.

By: Mauro | October 2nd, 2008

Arsenal Fútbol Club de Sarandi vs. Club Estudiantes de La Plata (Estadio Julio H. Grondona, “El Viaducto”, Sarandi, Avellaneda, Argentina)

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

With Juan Verón back in the line up for Estudiantes, they make the short trip to Arsenal’s ground in Sarandi looking for the final place in the next round. Arsenal – like a deer caught in headlights – is hoping that tonight will be their night as they try to manage their exhausted players.

With the busiest schedule of any Argentine club, Arsenal have been managing to field a team with a relatively small group of players. But since the end of last year’s Sudamericana, which they won, Arsenal has been complaining about the amount of matches this small club has had to travel, play and organize.

The nice thing about Arsenal is that different players have stepped up in different matches which speaks to the capacity of the players and their resolve in tough matches. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep them selves organized at the back in the first leg and lost 1-2 in La Plata, last week.

Estudiantes are in much better shape. With a healthy battle on the forward line, it seems Mauro Boselli and Gastón Fernández have been able to keep José Luis Calderón on the bench for the most part. But Boselli has been fantastic for Estudiantes since coming over form Boca Juniors where he was way low on the totem pole for starting chances.

New coach Leonardo Astrada will be happy to be able to count on his captain and heart and soul of his team, Juan Sebastián Verón, who is back with his squad after overcoming some minor muscular fatigue.

Bottom Line: Estudiantes is in far better shape to continue advancing in this tournament and have a deeper bench than Arsenal. Arsenal may advance today but will continue to stumble through this competition as the opponents get tougher and as the fatigue sets in even more with their players. Still nothing is guaranteed and this one is pretty evenly match at the end of the day. Estudiantes have better collective play and Arsenal attack better on the counter with fewer players.

My Pick: 1-1. The home side scores but can’t keep Fernández or goal-scoring machine Boselli under wraps long enough to get the win. Estudiantes advance and face either Botafogo or América de Cali.

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.