[Gabemar]

River Plate 2nd Group 7
Gremio 1st Group 2

How they stack up against each other?

Keepers
River Plate: Comizzo is a very experince keeper, can be somewhat inconsistent. The weakest spot on the team.
Gremio: If Darnlei has not been suspended this would have been a clear advantage for the brazilians. Eduardo Martini does not inspire the same confidence.
ADVANTAGE EVEN

Defense
River Plate: Ariel Garce, Celso Ayala and Ricardo Rojas are right now the best defense in South America IMO. Impreganble in the air and rough in the tacle while experinced not to make the silly mistake. They only gave up 2 goals in the first round
Gremio; Roger, Anderson Polga, Mauro Galvao and Anderson lima. This is a tough defense led by the superb Polga. Execellent passing skills a very well organized. 7 goals were scored against them in the first round.
ADVANTAGE RIVER

Midfield
River Plate: Eduardo Coudet, Claudio Husain, Esteban Cambiasso, Ariel Ortega and Andres D'Alessandro. IMO the best midfield this side of the pond. Played esporadically together during the 1st round but you will see all their potential now in the second round.
Gremio: Tinga, Fernando, Fabio Baiano and Gilberto. A very good midfield with the sentional Tinga causing havoc, the other are very good passers and excellent in the tackle.
ADVANTAGE RIVER

Forwards
River Plate: Esnaider is experinced center forward who have played well but have not been able to score as many goals as expected of him. Carvenaghi is the new sensation of the team young and incredibly accurate with his shots. Unfortunately their attack have been pretty anemic in the Libertadores so far.
Gremio: Rodrigo Mendez is the leading scorer in the Libertadores, simply a scoring machine. Zinho offers great support. Rodrigo Fabri and Claudio Pitball are excelent options off the bench
ADVANTAGE GREMIO

Prediction
The best match up of the second round. It will be close but River will bring it's A game unlike the first round. Gremio which IMO might have the best attack alngside Morelia and Sao Caetano will face the best defense in the tournament. I can't wait for these games.

WINNER River Plate

 

[colocolo]

Im a River Plate fan from way BEFORE El Matador Salas .. So even If I had a doubt about River chances I'd still vote for them..
But the way they're playing in their Championship..I see them advancing past Gremio.

 

[colocolo]

Round One Wednesday April 14th in Bs As

 

[batigold]

you put rivers formation wrong. its,

---------------cavenaghi
------------------------------------ortega
--------------------dallessandro
zapata-----------------------------------coudet
--------------cambiasso--ledesma
-------rojas-----------ayala---------garce

well, river s midfield its awesome. just zapata its an average player. but the resy are pure talent. coudet is a fantastic player, he deserve to be ´laying in europe.

i d like river to advance since i d love to meet them in the semifinal. it would be great to leave them out again.

 

[colocolo]

FSWE is announcing this game LIVE on Wedn 4-24 @ 8PM Eastern/USA Time.

 

[Bordon is gone!]

River Plate 2nd Group 7
Gremio 1st Group 2

How they stack up against each other?

Keepers
River Plate: Comizzo is a very experince keeper, can be somewhat inconsistent. The weakest spot on the team.
Gremio: If Darnlei has not been suspended this would have been a clear advantage for the brazilians. Eduardo Martini does not inspire the same confidence.
ADVANTAGE EVEN

No way. DARNLEI is a joke of a goalie.
Either way GREMIO's advantage would not be in goalkeeping.
Later on my next postings...

 

[Bordon is gone!]

River Plate 2nd Group 7
Gremio 1st Group 2

How they stack up against each other?

Defense
River Plate: Ariel Garce, Celso Ayala and Ricardo Rojas are right now the best defense in South America IMO. Impreganble in the air and rough in the tacle while experinced not to make the silly mistake. They only gave up 2 goals in the first round
Gremio; Roger, Anderson Polga, Mauro Galvao and Anderson lima. This is a tough defense led by the superb Polga. Execellent passing skills a very well organized. 7 goals were scored against them in the first round.
ADVANTAGE RIVER

Midfield
River Plate: Eduardo Coudet, Claudio Husain, Esteban Cambiasso, Ariel Ortega and Andres D'Alessandro. IMO the best midfield this side of the pond. Played esporadically together during the 1st round but you will see all their potential now in the second round.
Gremio: Tinga, Fernando, Fabio Baiano and Gilberto. A very good midfield with the sentional Tinga causing havoc, the other are very good passers and excellent in the tackle.
ADVANTAGE RIVER

GREMIO usually plays with a 5-3-2 approach with 3 midfielders
pressing all the time and some reliance on the attacking roles of their laterais ANDERSON LIMA and GILBERTO.

I believe that RIVER PLATE's lightweigth midfield will have serious problems against GREMIO.

GREMIO's main player is experienced (geriatric?) midfielder ZINHO. He will likely form the midfield with 2 wrestlers probably TINGA and FERNANDO. TINGA is a massive ball stealer, FERNANDO is a bulldog. TINGA is likely to man-mark ORTEGA and he may be able to cut his air supply in a good day. ZINHO floats behind the forwards and orchestrates every play.

Perhaps GREMIO's main problem is a slow defense, so they will do their best efforts to avoid being exposed to counter-attacks.

 

[Bordon is gone!]

Forwards
River Plate: Esnaider is experinced center forward who have played well but have not been able to score as many goals as expected of him. Carvenaghi is the new sensation of the team young and incredibly accurate with his shots. Unfortunately their attack have been pretty anemic in the Libertadores so far.
Gremio: Rodrigo Mendez is the leading scorer in the Libertadores, simply a scoring machine. Zinho offers great support. Rodrigo Fabri and Claudio Pitball are excelent options off the bench
ADVANTAGE GREMIO
[/B]

I also disagree on the force of GREMIO's attack.
Last year, they played 3-6-1 or sometimes close to 3-7-0 exactly because their midfield players were superior to their forwards. With the goal of winning the Libertadores, GREMIO signed a massive number of forwards, such as Corinthians' LUISAO, Real Madrid's RODRIGO FABBRI, Santa Cruz's GRAFITE but so far they have not found a convincing formation.

RODRIGO MENDES himself is a very average #10, he went into a scoring spree against very weak opposition in the first round, but in all likelihood he will return to his mediocre game sooner or later.

 

[Bordon is gone!]

Prediction
The best match up of the second round. It will be close but River will bring it's A game unlike the first round. Gremio which IMO might have the best attack alngside Morelia and Sao Caetano will face the best defense in the tournament. I can't wait for these games.
WINNER River Plate

If this game had happened one month ago, GREMIO would be my favorite by a long distance. However, they have had some problems recently, particularly now after their humiliating 1-5 home defeat to ATLETICO PARANAENSE, after their defense was exposed in a sequence of deadly counter-attacks.

My prediction is that GREMIO will overpopulate the midfield, with the goal of denying ball possession to RIVER at all costs. They have been successful against similarly technical light-weight midfields like RIVER in the recent past. After denying any creative activity by RIVER, then GREMIO will try to use LUIS MARIO's pace to capitalize in some stolen ball, but I do not think they will care a lot about a 0-0 tie.

 

[Gabemar]

Bourdon you were so right that midfield of Gremio was all over the place, especially Tinga. Still River created enough good scoring chances to have won handily but their inconsistent attack failed them this time. BTW Coudet scored a great goal.

 

[colocolo]

River 1x2 goinn' to Brazil ??? Not impossible...Highly improbable that they could advance now ..

:cap:

 

[Ze da Fiel]

I think Gremio will win the whole tounrament. There team ie very compact and is a team of "warriors", the ingredient one needs to succeed in any Libertadores!

 

[colocolo]

I think Gremio will win the whole tounrament. There team ie very compact and is a team of "warriors", the ingredient one needs to succeed in any Libertadores!

Good assesment....they should make it all the way as probably one of the 2 Mexican Teams will do too..

 

[Bordon is gone!]

I would not write SAO CAETANO off.

 

[Ze da Fiel]

Bordon,
FUnny how things change. NOrmally i defend Sao Caetano and you attack. But i doubt Sao Caetano will have that edge in the end (if they reach the final) to win the whole thing. They are a good side , but they always seem to lose it at the very end.

But Gremio with those "jogadores operarios" plus Zinho and Tite commanding the whole thing are my favourites to win the whole thing.....plus their tradition in the LIbertadores should take them all the way. I doubt River can revert this result in Olimpico. Those GRemio fans will do everything to taunt the River players!

 

[colocolo]

Next Up

Thursday May 2nd in Brazil

Gremio Vs River Plate

 

[Fernando Andres]

Andres D'Alessandro is out of this world. Incrediable talent. Riquelme, Aimar and Saviola are very good midfileders but this kid has Maradona like talent. I just hope that when he tranfers to europe that he does not pick the English Premiership like Juan Sebastian Veron and Juan Pablo Angel did. Veron and Angel are wasting their time in England DAlessandro would fit perfect in Italy.

 

[colocolo]

Veron and Angel are wasting their time in England DAlessandro would fit perfect in Italy.

Maybe truth..maybe fable...but their English Bank Accounts Im sure are very Healthy !!!!!! And thats ultimately how acccomplishments are measured in these days .. With the $$$$$$ you make .. :lala:

 

[Bordon is gone!]

Veron and Angel are wasting their time in England DAlessandro would fit perfect in Italy.

Angel is a very ordinary center-forward IMO.

 

[colocolo]

Gremio destroys River and moves on to the Quarters

05/03/2002.

In this tale, there were two different matches in two different cities involving the same team. In the first leg of this Round of 16 series that was played in Buenos Aires, Gremio received a goal in the 90th minute from midfielder, Gilberto. The second leg was a totally different ballgame, as Gremio pasted River Plate by the score of 4-0 in the Estádio Olímpico Monumental of Porto Alegre, Brazil.

In the first half, the match was pretty much even until the 30th minute when Celso Ayala would pick his second yellow card for the evening. With the man advantage, Gremio went ahead and destroyed the Argentine giant. 10 minutes later, Rodrigo Mendes would beat River keeper Angel Comizzo, for Gremio's first goal of the evening. Then during injury time of the first half, Luizao would double the Brazilians lead. The onslaught would continue in the second half, after River would be reduced to 9 men, due to Claudio Husain receiving his second yellow of the evening in the 67th minute. Zinho would then register Gremio's third tally of the night in the 69th minute. Subsitute Luis Mario finished the scoring of the night in the 76th minute. The final aggregate count for the series would be 6-1 in favor of the Brazilian side. Gremio will now face Nacional of Uruguay in the Quarterfinal round of the Copa Libertadores. River will now try to hang onto their precarious lead in the Argentine Clausura, in an effort to secure at least one trophy on the year.

Lineups:
Gremio: Eduardo; Claudomiro, Anderson Polga, Roger; Anderson Lima, Emerson (Fernando, 47), Tinga, Gilberto (Galvao, 75), Zinho; Rodrigo Mendes, Luizao (Luis Mario, 75)

River Plate: Angel Comizzo; Ariel Garcé, Celso Ayala, Martin Demichelis, Ricardo Rojas; Eduardo Coudet, Cristian Ledesma (Emanuel Lequi, 47), Esteban Cambiasso, Andrés D'Alessandro (Víctor Zapata, 47); Alejandro Domínguez, Ariel Ortega (Claudio Husain, 47)

:cap: