The Will to Win Without the Finishing to Prove It.

By: Mauro | September 25th, 2008

Sport Ancash had a great opportunity to create a nice lead for themselves as they played host to Palmeiras, who brought a large majority of substitutes, to a stadium that was not their usual ground. With only a few starting players, Palmeiras was looking to just show up as their coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo isn’t very interested in this tournament but wants his side to do well in the Brasileirao where they trail league leaders Gremio by one single point.

Things are getting hot in Brazil. And not because the worst of winter is behind them but because tonight’s visiting team have come within one point of making the fight for their local league interesting. The downside? The Sudamericana suffers because Palmeiras’ best resources are focused on that part of their campaign this year. Which is fine, because if you take hungry players like Boca did, you can still have a very adequate and sometimes downright exciting spectacle.

With that said, Palmeiras and Ancash were pretty evenly matched last night and the scoreline is indicative of that. The first half started off well enough, Ancash taking the reigns of the match but then it became a bit of a defensive duel. Which is not exciting for anyone to watch.

But the Peruvian side had a few clear chances to score but just couldn’t get it done. Period. That sentence characterized the entire match really encapsulates the match. Ysmael Regalado had a chance on goal then Victor Cartagena had a clear chance with Brazilian defenders beaten and lastly German Carty failed to put away another shot that went wide and stood a good chance of going in.

The Peruvians started the second half dominating play and standing much further forward on the pitch than in the first half and Cartagena showed he was not on today after another failed attempt. With more heart than ability, Ancash took over possession and launched attack after attack at the Brazilian defense but Carlos Flores added one more failed attempt.

Johnny Vegas ended up stepping up near the end to keep his boys in it but stymying a late surge on Palmeiras’ part and he became the man of the match off a few key saves.

Final Score: 0-0.

I had this one ending in a 1-1 draw. I assumed there would have been some scoring in this one. I guess I was wrong. Next week, these two meet in São Paulo to see who wants the Quarter-finals more. Hopefully, Palmeiras will wear a different jersey then because the dayglo green was awful.

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.