Simon to referee Corinthians vs. Atlético-MG in the Libertadores Cup
The South American Football Federation has given Carlos Eugenio Simon,from Rio Grande do Sul, the task of refereeing the game between Atletico-MG and the Corinthians. The Federation released the names of all the referees for the home and away legs in the last 16 of the Libertadores Cup
The game will be played on Tuesday, probably in the Pacaembu stadium. As the first leg ended in a 1 - 1 draw in Mineirao, whoever wins will go through o face the winner of Palmeiras vs. Atlas.
The Palmeiras game will be refereed by Gustavo Mendez from Uruguay and will be played on Thursday. Palmeiras have the advantage of being able to lose by one goal, as they won the first leg 2 - 0 in Mexico on Thursday 18/05.
The River Plate vs. Boca Juniors classic will be refereed by Angel Sanchez (Argentina), and Guido Aros will take charge of the game between Bolivar vs. America from Mexico.
Copa do Brasil first leg matches for the last 16 announced
After the draw for the order of home and away legs to be played in some matches, the CBF vice-president of technical affairs announced the table of first leg games to be played in the last 16 of the Copa do Brasil-2000, with 5 games on Wednesday, 24 May, and two on Thursday, 25 May.
The date for the game between ABC and Palmeiras will have to be decided at a later date due to the fact that that the Sao Paulo club has so many commitments next week, what with the state championship and the Libertadores Cup.
The games announced last Thursday are as follows:
24/05 – Wednesday
20h30 – Cruzeiro vs. Atletico PR, in Mineirao
21h40 – Bahia vs. Flamengo, in Fonte Nova
20h30 – Juventude vs. Santos, in Alfredo Jaconi
21h40 – América RN vs. Santos, in Machadao
20h30 – Fluminense vs. Vasco, in Maracana
25/05 – Thursday
21h40 – Botafogo vs. Corinthians, in Maracana
20h30 – Portuguesa de Desportos vs. Atletico MG, in Caninde
Who is afraid of big bad Brazil?
The motto of the Peruvian team is “change in attitude”. The respect and almost awe regarding Brazil has been replaced by bounding confidence that they will get the result they are looking for on 04 June in Lima. The phase that Peru is going through at the moment supports their growth in self-esteem.
One of the most confident is defender Jose Soto, who currently plays for Celaya in Mexico and is on holiday in Lima. He has said that facing Brazil does not perturb him and that he is expecting a good result.
“Brazil is a great team, but we are playing at home and have the advantage of our supporters and thus have no reason to be concerned. I myself have already played against Brazil twice in Americas Cups, the first was a scoreless draw and the second we lost 2-nil. We would be foolish not to respect Brazil but Peru is going through a purple patch and we have this on our side”.
Brazil does not appear to have the same effect on its opponents as in the past, when knocking knees were not uncommon! The Peruvian trainer, Columbian Francisco Maturana, is already thinking ahead to the game against Equador on 27 June.
“We cannot afford to concentrate solely on Brazil. In a competition like the World Cup qualifiers one has to think ahead and positively.” said the coach.
The confidence being shown is contagious. Assistant team coach for Peru, Jose Velasquez, added that he believes that the Brazilian team has more individual talents but that Peru has played together more as a team.
