The Clasico Caleño Goes Red.

By: Mauro | August 15th, 2008

It was a real treat to have two cross town rivals play each other in this First Round of Copa Sudamericana play (The GreNal rivalry on Wednesday was pretty cool too). Since both América de Cali and Deportivo Cali share the Estadio Pascual Guerrero, both legs will be played in the same stadium but I imagine the stadium will be full on both occasions.

This match was played with lots of intensity and technique. Lots of back and forth action from area to area with both teams exhibiting their willingness to look for the win. América made more of a team effort while Deprotivo relied heavily on their individual players talents. Freddy Montero made the biggest impression on América goal keeper Adrián Berbia.

But as the match wore on, Deportivo seemed to find their opponents penalty area with more ease but keeper Berbia was not distracted and showed HIS talents under the three posts. Argentine Pablo Batalla, Montero and Sergio Herrera all had their chance at trying to stymy Berbia. But they couldn’t.

But the first half ended with Adrián Ramos finding more space up front and keeping his team in the contest.

The second half started with América continuing their possession of the ball and defending their ground, since they were the home side last night. Because of América’s insistence with the ball, Deportivo was forced to pressure them, mark them and even take them down. That’s why in the 53rd minute, Bréiner Belalcázar was sent off for a hard foul and given his second yellow.

And with that sending off, the match changed significantly in favor of América. With John Valencia and José Otálvaro attacking, Otalvaro was taken down in the area and on the restart, he took the kick and with that América earn themselves the go ahead goal. 1-0 to América.

Seven minutes later, América took advantage of Deportivo’s disorganization as a result of a the red card. Victor Cortés took a rebound, that was a result of a José Moreno shot, and buried it in the net. 2-0 to América.

Deportivo tried to react and their coach made all three substitutions in search of cutting the lead down to give them any advantage for the return leg but it was all for not. On top of all of this, Deportivo had another penalty called against them but Otálvaro drilled it off the keeper’s left post. It could have been 3-0 to América. Will this missed opportunity carry some weight at the end of next weeks return leg? We shall see.

Final score: 2-0 to América.

I had this one ending in a 1-1 draw. Not a good guess but it was close while both teams had all eleven players on the pitch.

Deportivo fans probably think they got a raw deal but all I can say is, this is football folks. Some days it goes your way and others, it just doesn’t.

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.