Católica MUST Win Tonight to Advance.

By: Mauro | August 7th, 2008

Club Deportivo Universidad Católica vs. Club Atlético River Plate (Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, Santiago, Chile)

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

Showing a very nice brand of football in last Wednesday’s match, River Plate hammered out a nice 2-0 win over Universidad Católica on their ground in Montevideo. This week, they face off in Santiago, Chile to see who will advance to the First Round of the Sudamericana. With a 0-0 result, River advances.

If Católica have any hope of being in the next round than they should start by focusing on not allowing a single goal tonight. With a 2-0 deficit to turn over from the away match, Católica needs to play smart defense, try to keep possession of the ball and create some chances on the other end for their strikers. Easier said than done.

Despite only playing slightly better than they did last week, which was no surprise since they could only go up from there, they did manage to beat Colo Colo 1-0 at the weekend. Colo Colo did end the match with only 10 men. So, maybe they didn’t play all that much better after all.

Still, Católica has a history of fielding some very inspired sides that are tough to beat for most South American teams and just based on the names, Católica should run away with this match up. But that’s not the reality.

The edge, in my book, goes to River since the Uruguayan Apertura begins on the 23rd of August which means that they are well rested and completely focused on tonight’s match. Striker and scorer of their first goal in the first leg, Sergio Souza, is recovered from muscular cramps that had been hampering him since last week’s match.

River had impressed by coming out early and playing an attractive attacking style but deflated in the second half under their own fatigue. The young talent they field is fantastic but they fail to know how to play a full 90 minute match, as they showed last week. It’ll be tough to guess which River team will show up but one thing’s for sure, they’ll need to take the ball away from their opponent in order to create the way they did in Uruguay last week.

Bottom Line: Católica is dragging some bad football around like ugly luggage. If they are lucky, they’ll be able to break out of it and tonight’s match could be the beginning of the upturn. But in all honesty, it’s not likely. River have had more rest and still have their team’s core from last season’s great run intact, not to mention the better run of form they are riding.

My Pick: 1-1 and River advances. Católica is suffering from something that is not clearly evident. I think they’ll need a major overhaul to the coaching staff or the players to turn things around for them. Focusing on one competition this season might just be the answer for them.

Tonight’s winner will face the winner of the fourth match of the Preliminary stage between Olimpia of Paraguay and Club Blooming of Bolivia, scheduled to start on Tuesday, August 12.

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.