Católica Take Their Last Swing at Their Only Chance at Silverware This Season in Porto Alegre.

By: Mauro | October 1st, 2008

Sport Clube Internacional de Porto Alegre vs. Club Deportivo Universidad Católica (Estádio Beira-Rio, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

LIVE @ 1pm on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

Unable to win at home last week, Universidad Católica lost a golden opportunity to get a lead on their opponents. But the other side of the coin is that Internacional of Porto Alegre has earned a fantastic away goal without losing, something that in this competition comes in handy when the aggregate score line gets close.

Engaged in quite a bit of internal turmoil, Católica arrive at this match in their worst possible moment. While they only managed a 1-1 draw at home in the first leg, the Chilean press considers them already eliminated. Coach Fernando Carvallo is on the short leash after his team failed to beat an Inter side that only fielded four of their regular starters.

Despite having a fantastic debut, young 19-year old Sebastián Barrientos’ was not able to quell the anger the fans had towards the coach after Adriano equalized for Inter. Seems that if Carvallo fails to secure a spot in the Quarters tonight, he could be sacked immediately.

Católica are coming off another loss at the weekend, 1-2 against Palestino and is now in 17th place, 12 points off the league leaders, Universidad de Chile. This leaves Católica in the relegation zone, a place where they are not accustomed to being.

Católica will be without Luis Núñez and Marcos Gonzalez, both due to slight injuries but look for coach Carvallo to try to save his skin by fielding young Barrientos as a starter tonight.

Católica are obligated to score at least one goal in Porto Alegre otherwise they could be eliminated. Another 1-1 draw forces penalties and a draw of 2-2 or greater qualifies Católica to the next round. And of course a Católica win sees them through.

Since the 1-1 draw, Inter had the chance to take their cross town rivals off the top of the table and they didn’t hesitate. The 4-1 win over Gremio allows Inter to nice ride atop a 4-game win streak in the Brasileirao and puts them 4 points from the Copa Libertadores qualifying spots.

With the Brasileirao still the priority, Inter coach Tité will be alternating players – as he did in Santiago a week ago – so that his starters will be well rested for the local league matches. So, you won’t see players like goalkeeper Clemer, defender Gustavo nery and Índio, midifelders Magrao and Guiñazu or strikers Alex and Nilmar. Even Andrés D’Alessandro will not be on the pitch as he was sent off near the end of the match last week, so he’ll be serving a suspension. Basically every reason that the casual observer had to want to watch this match will not be playing tonight. Nice, Tité.

A 0-0 draw or a win of any sort will qualify Inter for the right to meet either Boca Juniors or LDU Quito in the next round.

Bottom Line: Católica are hurting and need a win desperately. This is their big chance really, since every match they’ve played has been a must win, they could be exhausted. But seriously, if they want to keep coach Carvallo in a job, they MUST win tonight. Inter can cruise through if they can manage to be one goal better than Católica. But they are fielding a team that had plenty of trouble putting away this badly beaten side last week in Chile and a heavy rotation might take it’s toll on team chemistry. Or not. You never can tell with Brazilian sides.

My Pick: 2-0 to Catolica. I have a really good feeling about this team and they strike me as América of Mexico did in the Copa Libertadores. Everyone thought they were down, Flamengo was going to send their coach Joel Santana off in glory and instead they were fed a nice 3-0 stomping at the hands of the Aguilas. I think the same will happen tonight. Mirosevic will have an inspired night and Barrientos will lift Carvallo’s head off the chopping block. For now.

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.