Vasco Look to Finish Off Palmeiras.

By: Mauro | September 17th, 2008

Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras vs. Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama (Estadio Palestra Itália “Parque Antartica”, Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Tape Delay @ 10:30pm PST on Fox Sports Español. Match starts LIVE at 6pm PST. Gamecast here. Online TV here.

In the last match, both these clubs fielded teams with a large majority of alternate players and youngsters. Vasco’s boys created some distance between the two squads as they proceeded to manhandle the Paulista side.

The 3-1 win over Palmeiras breathed new life into Vasco to contrast to their current league form which has been nothing short of dismal. Vasco sit in the relegation zone and are coming off a 1-3 loss to Nautica, a side they were in direct competition with for avoiding the drop zone.

Add to that the fact that Vasco coach, Tita, has only 19 players to choose from for this match. I believe I spoke of Vasco’s awful financial state and just plain bad luck in a previous post.

Of the 25 players on their good faith list for the Sudamericana, three have left the team, three more are injured and three are goal keepers. On top of that, four players on contract with the club are not signed up for the competition, one having signed this past Monday, Chilean Mauricio Pinilla.

The possibility of Edmundo making an appearance against his former club is out there but at 37 years old, he has refused to play away matches to avoid too much fatigue.

Palmeiras are in quite the opposite position. The Paulistas are coming off a 1-0 win over Cruzeiro. They have the luxury of possibly resting starters for this match so that they could focus on the Brasileirao where they find themselves gaining on league leaders Gremio, trailing them by only three points.

Palmeiras coach, Vanderlei Luxemburgo (former Real Madrid coach), is expected to rest players but it is not known how important continuing in the Sudamericana is to the club and given Vasco’s current state, a little leaning and Vasco could fall over like a pile of laundry allowing the Paulistas to advance to the Round of 16.

Palmeiras need a 2-0 win or a 3 goal differential to advance (away goal!). The winner of this one will face the only remaining Peruvian representative left in the competition, Sport Ancash, in the Round of 16.

Bottom Line: Palmeiras are tearing it up in the Brasileirao but if Luxemburgo decides to field a mixed team of starters and substitutes he could be opening the door to the Round of 16 for Vasco. Vasco is a side that has been having all kinds of trouble but they came out of nowhere to win the first leg convincingly.

My Pick: 2-1 to Palmeiras. Vasco advance as they hold on for dear life to qualify for the Round of 16. 4-3 on aggregate.

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.