Been watching some Liga MX as well. Can make it like the South American football thread feat. Libertadores w special guest LOL Mexico or something

Thread for Latin American soccer, leagues and cups including Libertadores and Sudamerica

But really we are all here for American Champions League (aka Libertadores)!

Copa Libertadores is quite the big deal. And due to the increased turnover at the club level due to the best players always being sold off, it's got some pretty awesome parity. I've followed it the last three years, when traditional powers Boca Juniors (ARG) and Atletico Nacional (COL) won in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and last year Grêmio (BRA) in an surprise.

Here's the schedule, all times local. Working on a better less big one but this'll do for now.

UEFA GÖAT ÖAT!

It was a preety elite experience to open up the Sporting events section on 2+2 and see that the last post from this thread was made by Sugarnut

Betting tip that I already made back in the days but you guys seem to forgot about.

DONT BET AGAINST CHILEAN TEAMS IN BOLIVIA

yessss GOAT thread! ty clark

Love that the title is in Portuguese, despite one relevant football country in the entire Americas speaking Portuguese

Even though it lost yesterday betting against teams in Bolivia is usually a pretty bad idea. Their teams are horrendous, especially their NT, but have an elite home field advantage playing a million miles above sea level against legit good teams so usually solid value in backing lol Bolivian teams

Tonight's Libertadores plays:

The Strongest -1.5 +115
Independiente v. Millionarios u2.5 -120
Santos -125

But not against chilean teams. Chileans are not as affected by the altitude as the Mercosur teams ( Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay & Uruguay) but the betting lines dont recognize this.

Im not saying that altitude doesnt matter to our teams, Unión Española folded in the peruvian altitude just last week, but in general you wont find the same edge.

The reasons behind this are debated, argentinians footballers based on Chile think its mostly psychological, I mean we have a slight edge because Santiago is slightly higher than Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro but Sao Paolo has our same altitude.

WCQ Bolivia 1 - 0 Two time defending Copa America Champs Chile

Location: La Paz

sample size!

Since Conmebol has all vs all format in WC qualifiers.
vs Bolivia at La Paz

Chile 3 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses
Argentina 1 win, 2 draws, 3 losses
Uruguay 1 win, 4 draws, 1 loss
Brazil 2 draws, 2 losses ( Brazil didnt play the WCQ of 2014 nor 1998)
Paraguay 2 draws, 4 losses

Ok, not huge sample but we have basically more wins at La Paz than all the other teams combined, those numbers simply point out to Chile not being so affected by altitude as more than just casual fan narrative.

Plus see the scorelines, both times we lost it was just 1-0, when we won its was 2-0 the three times. All the other teams bar Brazil have conceded 4 or more in a game.

EDIT: Quito however is another story, its lower altitude( only 2500metres) but they play a much more phsyical football and destroy us every time we go there, I think we have lost the last 5 there.

O título é em português pq o Brasil é o país mais importante. ;-)

I did put “The Americas” in deference to the Spanish speaking countries that all seem to get quite passionate about that topic.

So. My teams in the Americas:

Mexico: Pumas
Colombia: Atlético Nacional and América de Cali
Argentina: Boca Juniors
Brazil: Bahia, then a mix of Botofogo/Vasco/Cruzeiro/Flamengo. Lol São Paulo teams now and forever ;-)

No teams yet in the other leagues. Love Montevideo so would likely support a team from there. Santiago is dope and love the Chilean national team but no idea about the league. Val, I can’t support your team because #13 is the worst.

Good post

Mexico: lol Mexico. More than a team I like I can't stand Club America and the majority of Mexican teams but they're definitely the worst. From paying attention to Liga MX I've found myself enjoying watching Monterrey and of course a soft spot for Leon because of Lando even though they seem terrible

Brazil: Small time -- Botafogo-SP
(will do a mini-write up on my awesome experience at my first Botafogo game last week at some point). Just read the Socrates biography too. Awesome book, awesome player, Ribeirao is a cool small city, and Botafogo was a great experience

Brazil: Big time-- Palmeiras

Peru: Alianza Lima
went to two games when I lived in Peru (worked like an ******* and had minimal free time). Both were 0-0. One was La U v. some random Peruvian team in Estadio Monumental. **** was so boring, zero atmosphere etc.. My doorman and good friend is a diehard Alianza fan from La Vittoria and took me with him to the clasico with La U at Matute (Alianza ground). **** was also 0-0 but atmosphere was awesome. Obv clasicos are always gonna have atmosphere but Alianza's homeground was legit in the hood and if I wasn't with my buddy I would have been legit terrified. Saw a dude completely bloodied unconscious outside the ground before I went in. Pretty sure it was the police who beat the **** out of him. Plus GOAT Peruvian Jefferson Farfan has an elite cevicheria right across the street from the stadium (which I frequented many times on non-match days).

Got nothing on the other leagues but as I watch more Libertadores hope to pick up on some trends. River Plate seems extremely unlikeable but then Boca has Tevez which is both awesome and terrible. He legit looked like he was going to murder both the ref and his teammates in the Supercopa loss last night

Those are the drug money teams

In that case let me also list my favorite Samba schools in Rio!

Chilean football is just awful. I dont watch the games because I refuse to play the extra money they charge for them. I ocasionally may watch a very important game in a bar, I listened to the Vasco game in the radio.

U.de Chile has nothing special about it, it had mystique in the 90s but it all went to **** in the 00s. Last time I went to a stadium was back in 09.

The team that I can have sympathy with in Argentina is Atlético Tucuman. Is quite an achievement to have a competitive soccer team in the northwest of Argentina which is a really poor area and I still recall watching on TV the humanitarian tragedy there( in Tucumán) back in 2001. So glad they have a soccer team that makes the city proud.

2 Brazilian teams in 1 group seems kinda lol. Why not just move 1 of them to group 2 or 3.

This thread should help me expand my Portuguese beyond "nossa nossa assim voce me mata"

Hahaha great song

The reason is because there are a number of play-in spots and it just happened to fall that way.

fyp

IIIIIIIIIIISSO

Another winning night in Libertadores

Millionarios cannot score. Unfortunately this just puts a dent in my NCAA hoops losses for the day

Happy to root for all Brazilian teams unless given a reason not to (Love Boca for example). Tho hard not to root for the Bolivian team named The Strongest (!!!!)