Defensor’s Season Starts Tonight Against Libertad.

By: Mauro | August 19th, 2008

Defensor Sporting vs. Club Libertad (Estadio Centenario de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay)

LIVE @ 3pm PST on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

This week’s matches begins with what could be a great match between two of the better teams from their respective countries. Defensor Sporting has come out on top very recently in Uruguay and Club Libertad has shown to be the best Paraguayan team over the last three consecutive years.

Defensor Sporting was the last Apertura champion, won the Uruguayan league, they were the points leader over the year (two seasons, the Apertura and Clausura combined) and came in second in the playoffs. Defensor had a close call in the semifinals of the Uruguaya playoffs against River Plate. I wrote an article about it on the Libertadores site.

Defensor had a particularly tough transfer window period where they lost three of their top players. Midfielder Tabaré Viudez was picked up by A.C. Milan and forwards Sebastián Fernández and Jairo Castillo were picked up by Banfield and Godoy Cruz respectively. In an attempt to counter balance the loss of these players, Defensor brought in Brazilian Ederson Fofonka, who had a successful spell with the club and has a few years experience playing in Greece, at least one season with Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C.

Defensor’s season officially begins with this match, and should help them bump the rust off. The Uruguayan Apertura begins on the 23rd of August. One thing in their favor is that one year ago in this very competition, Defensor eliminated Libertad in this very round in two very close legs.

The Paraguayan squad are coming off a dismal performance in the 2008 Copa Libertadores and a 0-0 draw against Cerro Porteño this last Saturday. They sit in 4th place in the Paraguayan Clausura with 8 points, 4 point off of sole leader, Sol de América after only 4 matches.

Now while the great Libertad side of the 2006 Copa Libertadores has been picked apart by South American and European teams, this one is a combination of youngsters from the lower divisions and some seasoned veterans like Pedro Sarabia, Roberto Gamarra, Edgar Balbuena Juan Samudio, Nelson Romero and Argentine Sergio Aquino who are the only ones left from that great run to the semifinals of the Libertadores in 06.

Bottom Line: These two are pretty evenly matched for different reasons. Defensor might have a slightly better and more offensive formation but their lack of time on the pitch together could be a major setback. Still, they’ll have the most talented player on the park in Julio Marchant.

Libertad, on the other hand, is looking for revenge for last year’s elimination and have about 4 matches in the books for their new mix of young and veteran players. In this type of competition, any advantage is a good advantage.

My Pick: 3-1. The scoring in this competition has been very extreme. Either no goals or a more than two per match. Defensor should be able to take this one pretty easily at home. Libertad’s poor international run will continue.

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.