While on the Ropes, Chivas Find a Way to the Next Round.

By: Mauro | November 7th, 2008

With River nursing various wounds they come into this match with nothing to lose. And sometimes wounded teams are the most dangerous. And while it seemed the impossible was possible there for a while, Chivas took the stance they should have on their pitch and returned all the River faithful to reality.

Out of the gates, the unthinkable happened. River scored a goal. Off a wonderful training pitch corner, Buonanotte came out of the 6-yard box, brought down the cross and got off another cross to Cabral who was on the other side of the box. Cabral knocks it in on the volley through the legs of a Chivas defender and past the keeper.

With Augusto on the right and Buonanotte on the left, River forced the ball forward and rained in crosses into the penalty area for Abreu to bring it down to Falcao or vice versa. Man for man, River’s players were beating the Chivas players off the ball causing Chivas to give up many free kicks inside their territory. But if it wasn’t for the pressure ball River were playing Chivas would have had more possession and maybe advanced with some danger into the penalty area. But, they didn’t advance or cause much work for River keeper Ojeda. 1-0 to River and I was sitting there waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In the 20th minute, Falcao created something from nothing when he fought off two defenders and avoided two others. He thundered into the area unmarked and nothing between him and Hernández and he had his pick of corners of the goal to bury the ball. He chose the bottom right, the keeper’s left, Hernández had no chance and River extended their lead. 2-0 to River and I could not believe my fucking eyes. Where have these assholes been all season?

After the 2nd goal, Chivas moved up their lines allowing River the chance to play back to protect the lead, operating solely on a strictly counter attacking formation with Buonanotte as the engine of the team with his darting runs. But Chivas fouled and fouled again. In my opinion, Chivas defender Patricio Araujo should have earned himself a second yellow on a handful of hard fouls but the referee Roberto Silvera forgave him time and again.

But Chivas was not completely silent. They had a few close ones, their first coming in the 19th minute and then had a near penalty call. Forward Sergio Santana beat Ojeda to the ball and Ojeda wrapped his arms around his head when reaching for the ball and happened to keep him from scoring by simultaneously bringing him down.

Chivas had another chance near the end of the first half but the free kick went way wide and River went into the dressing room having played the best football in all of 2008, including the run to the 2008 Clausura.

These two are like the two sides of a coin and it was only fitting that the second half be the opposite of the first. Like it or not, River’s posture changed on the pitch and so did Chivas’. Chivas coach Efrain Flores made a couple of substitutions at the half that proved to be decisive in this match. Fabián de la Mora came on for Edgar Solis and Alberto Medina came on for Gonzalo Pineda.

But like I said, a tale of two halves. River backed off on the pressuring the Chivas defense on their half of the pitch and Chivas took the space and the ball and went with it. Omar Arellano was the most dangerous of the Chivas players. With his vision and precise passing, he was able to really take the space given by River and he ran with it, literally.

And within 5 minutes, Chivas tied up the match. The first goal came on a play on the right where Orellana tried to loop the ball over his and the defenders head to meet up with it inside the penalty area and de la Mora was storming in and met it in the middle of the penalty area. 2-1 to River and we were looking at penalties if River could hold on.

But four minutes later, Arellano again got the ball on a counter and this time passed the ball deep into the penalty area for Medina to slot past Ojeda. And it was 2-2. I wanted to stop watching but I couldn’t. I thought about all the reasons why I watched this match at all and secretly hoped River would awaken only that this time they would forget to hit the snooze button.

The rest of the match belonged to Chivas keeper Hernández. He saved a handful of sure goals from the likes of recently subbed on Rodrigo Archubi and Gustavo Bou, Radamel Falcao (man of the match for River) and Sebastián Abreu.

I’ve resolved that if Simeone must stay, than Abreu must stay as well. He seems to be the only player who actually gets what Simeone wants to have happen on the pitch. The minutes tick-tocked away and River could do nothing but rush forward, take a shot and send it wide.

Again, I differ with the announcers that Omar Arellano was the man of the match. For me, it was Victor Hernández. Without him, River could have knocked in one of those goals and would be looking at their next match with Inter. But instead Chivas will.

Final Score: 2-2. Chivas face Inter in the Semi-finals of the Copa Sudamericana.

I had this match going 2-0 to Chivas and it wasn’t easy to think that RIver would lose but their current form was so poor they gave me no choice.

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 an updated one here.