Copa Libertadores preview: América v. Santos (Brasil)

By: Chris | May 16th, 2007

Wednesday, May 16
América vs. Santos FC at México DF
8:45 PM ET / 7:45 PM CT / 5:45 PM PT live
Fox Sports en Español

Only one Mexican team remains in the Final 8 of the Copa Libertadores, as they hope to keep a streak alive of having at least one Mexican team in the semifinals for the third straight year.

A formidable task awaits the Águilas, however, as the top seed Santos FC from Brasil awaits. The Peixe comes in after barely surviving a hard-fought battle with the 16th seeded Caracas FC of Venezuela.

Santos found themselves down 4-2 early in the second leg before three goals in the Vila Belmiro saw them through on a 5-4 aggregate. The Brasilians were easily the best team in the group stage, winning all 6 of their matches while allowing just one goal.

América, on the other hand, breezed through their Round of 16 tie against Colo Colo of Chile, winning the first leg in the Azteca 3-0 to effectively put away the tie. The Águilas were able to send a reserve team to Santiago for the return leg, which they lost 2-1, giving them a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Both teams also have domestic competition to deal with, as Santos rested most of their first-team regulars on Sunday in the opening round of the Brasilerao, where they lost 4-1 at newly-promoted Sport Recife.

A much tougher task awaits América, as they have advanced to the semifinals of the Clausura playoffs. For the second straight season, they will play their archrivals Chivas Guadalajara, which gives us two Superclasicos in the frame of four days. It’s always a tricky situation for Mexican teams who reach these stages in both tournaments, as it’s difficult to choose which takes precedence.

It’ll be an interesting week to see if América can take an advantage tonight and whether they can advance in the Clausura playoffs, to be held on Thursday and Sunday. If they do advance, look for the first leg of the Clausura finals to be played next Thursday, a day after the return leg of the Santos tie.

As always, with the lineups up in the air for both matches for América, it will be difficult to make a prediction for the Libertadores tie. Although I’d love to see the Águilas go through, especially in Cuauhtémoc Blanco’s last season before heading to Chicago, I really think that the distraction of the Clausura and having to play the Libertadores favorites Santos will be too much for América to overcome.