The South American Football Show 4.0

Fourth installment of your show, my show, everybody's South American Football Show.

Brazil
Inter de Porto Alegre's recipe for success.
Deco Returns
Invite Ronaldo to your Barbeques
Serie A
Copa Sudamericana from Brazillian eyes.1

Ale & Tim surf Copa Sudamericana action.

Ecuador
Reinaldo Rueda divides opinions
Youngsters to watch out for in Ecuador
Valle de Chota, hunger, needs and incredible football!


SAFS4 - by SAFS

Copa Libertadores Stat Attack

A record breaking 40 clubs entered this year’s Copa Libertadores, now we are left with just two. Realistically though there’s just one and a half teams still in it with Chivas de Guadalajara already 2-1 down to Internacional before tonight’s trip to Brazil.

Ahead of tonight’s second leg of the final let’s have a look at the vital statistics of the 2010 Copa Libertadores. Each of the 137 games leading up to this point has had its fair share of talking points. On the first day of the competition Chile’s Universidad Católica were beaten 3-2 in Colón de Santa Fe’s “Cementerio de los Elefantes”. Colón’s Brigadier General Estanislao López stadium has earned it’s “Elephant Cemetery” tag as a result of previous giant killings.

One stadium yet to grow its own history is Chivas’ newly opened Estadio Omnilife. The first competitive match in the freshly built stadium saw the Mexican outfit lose their home leg of the Copa Libertadores final to Internacional. Tonight Chivas are in Porto Alegre hoping to overturn the 2-1 deficit and become the first Mexican side to win the prestigious tournament.

Crunching the numbers

Matches played: 137
Home wins: 73
Away wins: 27
Draws: 37
Goals: 324
Goal average per match: 2.36
Biggest win: Cruzeiro 7 - Real Potosi 0 (3rd February, Qualifying round)
Red cards: 73
Penalties awarded: 31 (23 scored)

Top Goalscorers
Thiago Ribeiro (Cruzeiro) 8
Kléber (Cruzeiro) 7
José Fernández (Alianza) 7
Luis Tejada (Juan Aurich) 6
Giuliano (Internacional) 5
Washington (Sao Paulo) 5
Rodolfo Gamarra (Libertad) 5
James Rodríguez (Banfield) 5
Mauro Boselli (Estudiantes) 4
Santiago Silva (Vélez) 4
Hernán López (Vélez) 4
Juan Morales (U. Católica) 4
Omar Bravo (Guadalajara) 4
Alecsandro (Internacional) 4

Brazil replace Dunga with Muricy

Muricy Ramalho is on the verge of becoming the new head coach of the Brazilian national football team. The CBF are in the process of negotiating a compensation package with Ramalho’s current employers Fluminense.

Ramalho, 54, led São Paulo to three Brazilian league titles on the bounce between 2006 and 2008 and recently took Fluminense to the final of the Copa Sudamericana.

Rodrigo Paiva, spokesperson for the CBF, said “Ramalho has been invited to lead the national team and now he must make up his mind. We expect to hold a meeting soon with the officials at Fluminense.”

Hola y bienvenidos amigos futboleros,

The South American Football Show brings you expert analysis of the Beautiful Game, from Cape Horn all the way up to the Panama Canal. The weekly show is hosted by football writers Alejandro Pérez and Tim Sturtridge. They speak to players, coaches, presidents, fans, journos and you the listener to get the definitive word on what is kicking off on the continent.

Alejandro has lived in Buenos Aires for a year now, sucked in by the passion for football that exudes from every corner of the city. He has a masters degree in journalism from Universidad de San Andrés and after not missing a kick of South Africa’s feast of football as part of the team at Argentinian television station Todo Noticias (TN) he is ready to hit the airwaves. Twenty plus years of suffering at the hands of his beloved Millonarios of Bogotá have only served to strengthen his love of the game. Who better to cover football in South American, warts and all?

Tim is back in Buenos Aires after covering the recent World Cup in South Africa for The Sun and The Independent plus contributing to the BBC World Service. Tim pitched up in Argentina two years ago and wasted no time in picking out Huracán as the club to share his existing allegiance to Exeter City. A journalism graduate from UCLAN, he now covers politics and sport in South America for The Independent as well as writing the English language website of Conmebol.com among other projects.

Without you the audience the show is nothing more than these two lads talking football over a couple of fernets and coke. Please get in touch through facebook, email, blogger, twitter and skype to help us out with the topics you want to hear discussed.

Un abrazo del Show de Fútbol Suramericano
thesouthamericanfootballshow@gmail.com