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South American Dispatch: Liga De Quito Run Riot In Copa Sudamericana

Goal.com’s Tim Sturtridge reports from Buenos Aires as deja-vu strikes in cup competition, derby day approaches and a former player sticks the boot in…

Nov 20, 2009 8:25:00 AM

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San Lorenzo’s head coach Diego Simone has sprung a surprise ahead of his team’s clasico with Huracan this weekend.

The under fire manager has recalled goalkeeper Agustín Orión to the bench, despite the fact that the custodian has not featured in a competitive match in over half a year. Orión was a pivotal member of the San Lorenzo squad that won the 2007 Clausura and even won a call up to the Argentine national team during this time.

This year, however, Orión suffered a nasty injury whilst playing for San Lorenzo in the Copa Libertadores and has not played since that fateful night back in March. The goalkeeper suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee but now, according to Simone, he has recovered sufficiently to warrant a place on the bench.

A recent run of poor results have seen San Lorenzo drop out of the Copa Sudamericana, the Apertura title race and the Copa Libertadores qualifying spots in a few short weeks. Simone knows that his team need a result against lowly Huracan in what is regarded as the biggest derby of the season for the Buenos Aires club.

The eleven to represent San Lorenzo against Huracan on Saturday look like being: Migliore, Pintos, Aguirre, Civelli, Bottinelli; Rivero, Juan Manuel Torres, Cristian Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez, Menseguez and Rovira.

David uses Twitter to tick off Palmeiras

Just as things go from bad to worse for Palmeiras and their attempt to challenge for the title, an ex-player has decided that it's a good time to put the boot into his former employers.

Promising centre-back David spent four years with the Palmeiras academy, before breaking through to the São Paulo club’s first team. After 15 senior appearances, David was picked up by the Greek outfit Panathinaikos but is currently playing in Brazil for Flamengo on loan.

David used the social networking tool Twitter to show his disgust at his former team’s treatment of Obina and Mauritius. The two players were sent off in Palmeiras’ 2-0 away defeat to Grêmio and shortly after the match the duo were told there services were no longer required at the club.

Both players were guilty of fighting with each on the pitch and after the incident, their resignations were accepted. Obina returns to Flamengo, who had loaned him to Palmeiras, while Mauritius becomes a free agent.

Both players actions have been roundly criticised in Brazil but David feels the fault lies with Palmeiras and used Twitter to make his feelings known on the subject.

“How can the club treat two players so badly who have helped Palmeiras so much?” Asked the 22-year-old.

David will be out to stretch his new team’s advantage over Palmeiras when Flamengo host Goiás this weekend.

Liga de Quito and Fluminense all set for round two

This year’s Copa Sudamericana final will be a repeat of last year’s Copa Libertadores final, after Liga de Quito butchered River Plate of Montevideo in the second leg of their semi-final to book their place in the last two of the competition alongside Fluminense.

The neutrals will hope that the team from Ecuador and their Brazilian counterparts can serve up a similar final to the Copa Libertadores encounter they played out last year, which eventually ended tied at 5-5 on aggregate. Back then, it was the Ecuadorans who got their hands on the silverware after overcoming Fluminense 3-1 in the penalty shoot out.

Liga de Quito will go into this year’s Copa Sudamericana final full of confidence after they comprehensively battered River Plate of Uruguay in the second leg. The tie appeared to be nicely balanced when River Plate picked up a 2-1 win in Montevideo last week, but up in the altitude of Quito it was a different story altogether.

A converted penalty from Bieler levelled up the tie early on, before Liga de Quito got their noses in front through a Espinola strike. Finding themselves 3-2 down on aggregate, the Urugauyans had no answers and further goals from Bolanos, Méndez and De la Cruz put Liga de Quito 5-0 up on the night.

In the last ten minutes, Bieler got back in the act and a quick fire brace towards the end of the game completed his hat-trick. A 7-0 defeat on the night means it will seem like a very long way back to Montevideo for the River Plate players.

Tim Sturtridge, Goal.com

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