League Leading Mexican Side Host Floundering Argentine Side.

By: Mauro | September 24th, 2008

San Luis F.C. vs Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors (Estadio Alfonso Lastras, San Luis Potosi, Mexico)

Match starts @ 3:45pm PST. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

Continuing with the tradition of Mexican squads performing very well in CONMEBOL competitions, San Luis F.C. have qualified over Deportivo Quito, squeezing through in the second leg riding a nice lead from the first leg. Meanwhile Argentinos Juniors qualified on the back of a great performance in the second leg with a win in away fashion over San Lorenzo after a scoreless draw in the first leg in La Paternal.

San Luis are coming off a 1-0 win over Pumas of UNAM in the Mexican league to give them the most points in the league, with 19, after 9 matches. San Luis has also performed well at home in the Sudamericana beating Deportivo Quito convincingly, 3-1 and then barely qualifying in the second leg, while resting their starters, on aggregate after losing 2-3.

With players like Colombian midfielder Jairo Patiño, midfielder Eduardo Coudet on the right, Braulio Luna also in the midfield, and up front, Colombian Tressor Moreno with Uruguayan Marcelo Guerrero and countryman Victor Piriz, coming off the bench, San Luis have a nice little solid core of experienced players in their squad.

Argentinos, in the meantime, are coming off a draw with Gimnasia de Jujuy, 1-1, in Jujuy. Argentinos are currently riding their great performance in last season’s Clausura where they had Alejandro Delorte as their center forward and centerpiece of their offense.

Today they are counting on the services of Gabriel Hauche, Gonzalo Abán, Nicolás Pavlovich, Leandro Fleitas, Nestór Ortigoza, Rodrigo “El Rengo” Diaz and Uruguayan Andrés Scotti, all players that could start on quite a few squads in the Argentine Primera. Still, they are probably riding higher off eliminating now league leading San Lorenzo de Almagro in the first round of the Sudamericana.

Bottom Line: Argentinos aren’t the best team in Argentina but like the opposite of a coin, San Luis are league leaders and are easily the favorites coming into this one. While San Luis had a great first leg, their second leg was far from impressive. Again, the opposite side of the coin, Argentinos are coming off a better performance in away fashion and a poorer showing in the first leg at home.

My pick: 3-1 to San Luis. While I would personally love to see Argentinos get a win here, but they are far from their best form and would be hard pressed to win an away match in Mexico. San Luis should cruise and get at least three if their strikers are conscious.

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.