The Cali Derby, Two Teams Enter, One Team Leaves.

By: Mauro | September 16th, 2008

Deportivo Cali vs. América de Cali (Estadio Olimpico Pascual Guerrero, Santiago de Cali, Colombia)

LIVE @ 6:00pm PST on Fox Sports Español. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

With Deportivo Cali going down 0-2 to their cross town rivals, América de Cali, a few weeks ago, look for the green side of Cali to come into this one with blood in their eye. No one likes losing to their cross town rivals, much less to have it happen on an international stage.

Unfortunately for us, neither team has been doing well in the local Colombian league. América has only nine points and is floundering in 14th place and Deportivo, not doing all that much better, with ten points in ninth place. There is clearly no home field advantage since both sides call the Pascual Guerrero home but Deportivo clearly need to overcome the 2-goal lead América have on them.

Recent results have helped neither team as they both have not impressed. Deportivo lost against Deportivo Pasto at the weekend by a, 2-0 scoreline. Meanwhile, América did very little for themselves as well since they drew, 1-1, to La Equidad.

Deportivo will be without Breiner Balalcazar, who was sent off in the first leg and has a suspension to serve but they can look to defender Edgar Zapata to start, since he is fully recovered from an ankle injury.

Back in América’s line up are defenders Pablo Armero and Iván Vélez who served a suspension in the local league against La Equidad.

A 2-0 result for Deportivo only get them penalties. 3-0 qualify them directly. Any goals for América and this one is over unless Deportivo really open them up and score more than 3.

But the owness is on Deportivo. They are down and need the result whereas América have the luxury of being able to sit back and wait to see what Deportivo bring to this fight.

Bottom Line: On the same pitch, under the same conditions, América showed to be the better team over the first 90 minutes of this tie and beat Deprotivo without question. The red card to Balalcazar was crucial to the result, let’s hope both squads can keep all 11 of their men on the pitch for the full 90.

My Pick: After last week, team football won. I expect to see that again here. 1-1 and América advance on the 2 goals they scored in the first leg and the big one they’ll score here tonight.

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.