Successful minnows, dust-biting reigning champions and record-setting streaks. This year's Copa Libertadores has it all. The 32-team South American version of the Champions League saw half of the group action end this week as eight teams qualified from four groups to the second round. Eight more will qualify next week.
Compared to the perennial four-country dominance in the Champions League, the scope of teams who win games and qualify to the knock-out stages in South America is fascinating. Hopefully, the trend of all-Brazilian finals of the last two editions will be reversed this year (International beat São Paulo in 2006 and São Paulo defeated Atlético Paranaense in 2005). With tiny Libertad (Paraguay) winning their group and, even more surprisingly, Caracas poised to do likewise and Paraná having come in second in another group, underdogs are setting the theme of the Copa. Their good performances are underlined by reigning champions International's failure on Thursday to even get through the group stage.
However, no matter how successful the little ones may be are all eyes have turned to Santos, as the two-time Libertadores champions won all six group games and equalled the 100% efficiency record set by fellow Brazilians Vasco da Gama in 2001, a year after the Libertadores expanded from 20 to 32 teams.
Santos, who are from a small city about 70 kilometres from São Paulo, have not won a Libertadores 1963, when Pelé played for them. On Thursday, having already clinched the pass to the second stage, coach Vanderlai Luxemburgo - who many will remember for his failure to keep Real Madrid's galácticos in form - fielded mostly substitutes at home against Colombia's Deportivo Pasto. The Brazilians still won 3-0.
While Santos are on a mission to recapture past glory, fellow Brazilians Paraná have no past whatsoever to look back at, let alone recapture. The team from Curibita, in Brazil's southlands, was only created in 1989 by the merger of two local sides, and it has been participating in the Brasileirao - the top Brazilian division - since 1992. This is Paraná's first Libertadores foray, and it deserves nothing but praise considering they have qualified for the second round after coming in second to gigantic Flamengo in their group.
Flamengo, Libertadores champions in 1981, consider themselves to have the world's biggest homegrown fanbase (which means they don't count fans won over by marketing in places like the Far East) and claim to have 80 million supporters in Brazil. If Flamengo have their numbers right it means they have roughly 12 or 13 times as many supporters as Paraguay has people, and still the two tiny Paraguayan teams in the Copa are doing fine. One of the Paraguayan powerhouses, Cerro Porteño, are top of their group with one game to go while Libertad, the third most popular team in the country, topped Group One with four wins and only one loss.
Libertad's group may have not been the strongest in the Copa, but Banfield - a small team from Buenos Aires's southern suburbs - and El Nacional - one of the most popular Ecuadorian sides - were considered to be at the same level as Libertad, who are now even named as a title candidate. The team bookies thought would win the group was México's wealthy América, who finally came in second.
Mexican teams in the Libertadores deserve a separate mention. All three are doing well: América has made it to the next round and Necaxa and Toluca have solid chances of doing likewise next week. However, Mexico does not even belong in South American tournaments, since the country is part of the Concacaf, not the South American confederation (the CSF). The size of the country and the deep pockets of Mexican television companies led the CSF to invite Mexican teams to play along in the late 90s, and they have been around ever since. One Mexican team, Cruz Azul, were even runners-up in 2001 (they lost to Boca).
Unlike Mexicans, Argentines are having a nightmarish tournament. Like Brazil, Argentina sent five teams to the 2007 Libertadores (actually Brazil had a sixth representative because International were defending champions). But while three Brazilians are already in the second round, only one Argentine side (Vélez) has managed to do so, while three others (River, Banfield and Gimnasia y Esgrima) have been knocked out and Boca have yet to clinch a spot.
River's was arguably the most embarrassing defeat in the tournament as it included two losses to Caracas, at home and away, in what was the first Venezuelan victory ever on Argentine soil. To put Caracas's victory slightly into perspective, you could say it is like a team from Finland defeating Barcelona in the Camp Nou.
But then again Caracas (who have already clinched a berth in the next stage with a game to go) are, so far, the biggest surprise in a tournament full of interesting stories and stunning moments. Hopefully more await and the Libertadores can escape the Champions League's predictability syndrome.
