Histora.org newsletter May 5, 2001 The 2001 Copa Libertadores is headed into the knockout phase, with defending champions Boca Juniors looking good. Joining them in the round-of-16 will be fellow Argentine power River Plate and Rosario Central, 2000 runners up and 1999 champions Palmeiras of Brazil, as well as 1997 champions Cruzeiro and current Brazilian Championship holders Vasco da Gama. Sao Caetano, in an effort to repeat their amazing success in Brazil, will also be in the last 16 as they did to Defensor of Uruguay what they did to so many in Brazil last season, on the last match day of the group, no less. Uruguay will only have Nacional proceed to the last 16, while the great Penarol failed to get past Vasco da Gama and America de Cali of Colombia. Atletico Junior will also represent Colombia in the last 16, while Paraguay will have Cerro Porteno there, but Olimpia will not make its usual appearance, as they were beat out by Cruzeiro and Emelec of Ecuador. Chileans Cobreola and Deportivo Concepcion, as well as Mexican club Cruz Azul, will round out the last 16. Here are the final standings for the group phase: ================================================================== Preliminary round ================================================================== R Club Pts GD W D L GF GA CA DT DI Atl - ---- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Mex) Cruz Azul 12 +7 4 0 2 15 8 ___ 4-1 4-1 1-3 2 (Ven) Deportivo Tachira 12 -1 4 0 2 7 8 1-0 ___ 0-2 1-0 3 (Ven) Deportivo Italia 9 -1 3 0 3 9 10 0-2 1-2 ___ 2-0 4 (Mex) Atlante 3 -5 1 0 5 8 13 2-4 1-2 2-3 ___ ================================================================== =================================================================== First Phase =================================================================== R Group 1 Pts GD W D L GF GA RC AJ VS Uni - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Arg) Rosario Central 13 +9 4 1 1 13 4 ___ 1-0 2-0 6-0 2 (Col) Atletico Junior 10 +4 3 1 2 10 6 3-1 ___ 4-0 1-1 3 (Arg) Velez Sarsfield 9 -3 3 0 3 5 8 0-2 2-0 ___ 1-0 4 (Per) Universitario 2 -10 0 2 4 3 13 1-1 1-2 0-2 ___ R Group 2 Pts GD W D L GF GA Pal CP UC SB - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Bra) Palmeiras 16 +11 5 1 0 16 5 ___ 5-2 2-1 3-0 2 (Par) Cerro Porteno 13 +11 4 1 1 17 6 0-0 ___ 6-0 3-1 3 (Chi) Universidad Chile 4 -8 1 1 4 5 13 1-2 0-2 ___ 1-1 4 (Per) Sport Boys 1 -14 0 1 5 3 17 1-4 0-4 0-2 ___ R Group 3 Pts GD W D L GF GA Nac DC SL JW - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Uru) Nacional 14 +7 4 2 0 9 2 ___ 2-0 1-0 3-0 2 (Chi) Dep. Concepcion 7 0 2 1 3 8 8 0-0 ___ 3-2 3-0 3 (Arg) San Lorenzo 7 -1 2 1 3 9 10 1-1 2-1 ___ 2-0 4 (Bol) Jorge Wilsterman 6 -6 2 0 4 7 13 1-2 2-1 4-2 ___ R Group 4 Pts GD W D L GF GA Cru Eme Oli SC - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Bra) Cruzeiro 16 +11 5 1 0 15 4 ___ 2-0 3-1 5-0 2 (Ecu) Emelec 9 +1 2 3 1 7 6 0-0 ___ 1-1 3-1 3 (Par) Olimpia 5 -3 1 2 3 10 13 3-4 2-2 ___ 1-0 4 (Per) Sporting Cristal 3 -9 1 0 5 4 13 0-1 0-1 3-2 ___ R Group 5 Pts GD W D L GF GA RP NQ GA TS - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Arg) River Plate 12 +7 4 0 2 13 6 ___ 2-0 4-0 5-1 2 (Ecu) Nacional Quito 9 -1 3 0 3 8 9 1-0 ___ 3-1 2-1 3 (Par) Guarani Asuncion 7 -2 2 1 3 9 11 0-1 3-1 ___ 4-1 4 (Bol) The Strongest 7 -4 2 1 3 10 14 4-1 2-1 1-1 ___ R Group 6 Pts GD W D L GF GA VdG AC Pen DT - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Bra) Vasco da Gama 18 +11 6 0 0 16 5 ___ 4-1 2-1 3-2 2 (Col) America de Cali 12 +1 4 0 2 10 9 0-3 ___ 2-1 3-0 3 (Uru) Penarol 4 -3 1 1 4 7 10 1-3 1-2 ___ 3-1 4 (Ven) Deportivo Tachira 1 -9 0 1 5 3 12 0-1 0-2 0-0 ___ R Group 7 Pts GD W D L GF GA CA SC Def OR - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Mex) Cruz Azul 13 +5 4 1 1 12 7 ___ 1-0 2-0 3-1 2 (Bra) Sao Caetano 8 +2 2 2 2 6 4 1-1 ___ 0-0 3-0 3 (Uru) Defensor 7 -3 2 1 3 8 11 3-2 0-1 ___ 3-2 4 (Ecu) Olmedo Riobamba 6 -4 2 0 4 11 15 2-3 2-1 4-2 ___ R Group 8 Pts GD W D L GF GA BJ Cob DC OP - ------- --- -- - - - -- -- --- --- --- --- 1 (Arg) Boca Juniors 15 +2 5 0 1 7 5 ___ 1-0 2-1 2-1 2 (Chi) Cobreola 10 +1 3 1 2 8 7 0-1 ___ 2-1 2-1 3 (Col) Deportivo Cali 9 +5 3 0 3 13 8 3-0 1-2 ___ 4-1 4 (Bol) Oriente Petrolero 1 -8 0 1 5 6 14 0-1 2-2 1-3 ___ =================================================================== ================================= Statistical Summary ================================= Number of participants : 34 Number of matches played : 108 12% of matches were draws Number of goals scored : 327 Goals scored per match : 3.0278 ================================= The knockout phase promises to be good, it will be interesting to see how Sao Caetano progresses from this point. Here are the past champions for this competition, since its inception in 1960: ===================================================================== Year Winner Scores Runner-Up ---- ------ ------ --------- 1960 (Uru) Penarol 1-0, 1-1 (Par) Olimpia 1961 (Uru) Penarol 1-0, 1-1 (Bra) Palmeiras 1962 (Bra) Santos 3-3, 3-0 (Uru) Penarol 1963 (Bra) Santos 3-2, 2-1 (Arg) Boca Juniors 1964 (Arg) Independiente 0-0, 1-0 (Uru) Nacional 1965 (Arg) Independiente 2-3, 4-1 (Uru) Penarol 1966 (Uru) Penarol 4-3, 4-2 (Arg) River Plate 1967 (Arg) Racing Club 0-0, 2-1 (Uru) Nacional 1968 (Arg) Estudiantes La Plata 3-4, 2-0 (Bra) Palmeiras 1969 (Arg) Estudiantes La Plata 1-0, 2-0 (Uru) Nacional 1970 (Arg) Estudiantes La Plata 1-0, 0-0 (Uru) Penarol 1971 (Uru) Nacional 1-1, 2-0 (Arg) Estudiantes La Plata 1972 (Arg) Independiente 2-1, 0-0 (Per) Universitario 1973 (Arg) Independiente 2-1, 0-0 (Chi) Colo Colo 1974 (Arg) Independiente 3-2, 1-0 (Bra) Sao Paulo 1975 (Arg) Independiente 3-2, 2-0 (Chi) Union Espanola 1976 (Bra) Cruzeiro 5-3, 3-2 (Arg) River Plate 1977 (Arg) Boca Juniors 1-1, 0-0 (Bra) Cruzeiro 1978 (Arg) Boca Juniors 4-0, 0-0 (Col) Deportivo Cali 1979 (Par) Olimpia 2-0, 0-0 (Arg) Boca Juniors 1980 (Uru) Nacional 1-0, 0-0 (Bra) Inter Porto Alegre 1981 (Bra) Flamengo 2-2, 2-0 (Chi) Cobreola 1982 (Uru) Penarol 0-0, 1-0 (Chi) Cobreola 1983 (Bra) Gremio Porto Alegre 2-1, 1-1 (Uru) Penarol 1984 (Arg) Independiente 0-0, 1-0 (Bra) Gremio Porto Alegre 1985 (Arg) Argentinos Juniors 1-1, 1-1 (Col) America de Cali 1986 (Arg) River Plate 1-0, 2-1 (Col) America de Cali 1987 (Uru) Penarol 2-1, 1-0 (Col) America de Cali 1988 (Uru) Nacional 3-0, 0-1 (Arg) Newell's Old Boys 1989 (Col) Atletico Nacional 2-0, 0-2 (Par) Olimpia 1990 (Par) Olimpia 2-0, 1-1 (Ecu) Barcelona Guayaquil 1991 (Chi) Colo Colo 0-0, 3-0 (Par) Olimpia 1992 (Bra) Sao Paulo 1-0, 0-1 (Arg) Newell's Old Boys 1993 (Bra) Sao Paulo 5-1, 0-2 (Chi) Universidad Catolica 1994 (Arg) Velez Sarsfield 1-0, 0-1 (Bra) Sao Paulo 1995 (Bra) Gremio Porto Alegre 3-1, 1-1 (Col) Atletico Nacional 1996 (Arg) River Plate 2-0, 0-1 (Col) America de Cali 1997 (Bra) Cruzeiro 1-0, 0-0 (Per) Sporting Cristal 1998 (Bra) Vasco da Gama 2-0, 2-1 (Ecu) Barcelona Guayaquil 1999 (Bra) Palmeiras 0-1, 2-1 (Col) Deportivo Cali 2000 (Arg) Boca Juniors 2-2, 0-0 (Bra) Palmeiras ====================================================================== Clubs from Brazil and Argentina have won the last 9 editions, and the favourites this year are again from those two nations. Brazil was once not so strong in international club play, but they have now caught up to their national squad in that area. Argentina has been steady from the start, while Uruguay is no longer the great power that it was, a reflection if their national side as well. If we assign 32 points to a nation for winning an edition of the Copa Libertadores, 16 for having a club be runner-up, 8 for losing in the semi-finals, 4 for losing in the quarter-finals, etc, and add these points up every year, we come to the following ranking: ===================================================================== R Nation TPts App 1 2 SF QF TP/Ap W D L GFor GAgs W% GDif - ------ ---- --- -- -- -- -- ----- --- --- --- ---- ---- -- ---- 1 Argentina 985 98 18 7 21 17 10.05 393 210 206 1239 822 48 +417 2 Brazil 708 85 11 8 13 15 8.33 337 166 183 1183 767 49 +416 3 Uruguay 577 85 8 7 10 13 6.79 281 175 217 994 788 41 +206 4 Colombia 358 76 1 7 12 11 4.71 241 160 208 818 739 39 +79 5 Paraguay 330 82 2 3 10 14 4.02 213 180 215 816 823 35 -7 6 Chile 315 81 1 5 8 12 3.89 231 171 238 899 884 36 +15 7 Ecuador 213 79 _ 2 5 11 2.70 189 120 267 670 872 32 -202 8 Peru 186 79 _ 2 2 10 2.35 154 144 256 632 863 27 -231 9 Bolivia 150 79 _ _ _ 11 1.90 164 107 257 685 971 31 -286 10 Venezuela 113 70 _ _ _ 5 1.61 98 117 262 423 869 20 -446 11 Mexico 18 8 _ _ 1 1 2.25 41 18 33 166 127 44 +39 ===================================================================== Abrev Statistic ----- --------- TPts Tournament Points (32 for winner, 16 for runner-up, etc.) App Appearances 1 Titles / 1st in league 2 Final / 2nd in league SF Semi-final exits QF Quarter-final exits TP/Ap Tournament Points per appearance W Victories D Draws L Losses GFor Goals for GAgs Goals against W% Winning percentage GDif Goal difference =================================== So as we can see, Argentina easily leads with 18 Copa Libertadores titles, while Brazil has indeed caught up and surpassed Uruguay and now has 11 to Uruguay's 8. That same ranking applied to individual clubs shows us that Penarol is still the greatest club of all time in South America, on paper at least. In Europe, it is indisputable that Real Madrid are the greatest, but in South America there are a handful of clubs that can make a reasonable claim: ===================================================================== R Club Nat TPs Ap 1 2 3 4 TP/Ap W D L GF GA - ---- --- --- -- - - - - ----- - - - -- -- 1 Penarol Uru 310 33 5 4 4 9 9.39 129 65 81 440 313 2 Independiente Arg 276 17 7 _ 4 4 16.24 61 30 29 182 117 3 Nacional Uru 220 28 3 3 5 3 7.86 108 60 67 370 258 4 Olimpia Par 194 32 2 3 5 3 6.06 87 70 73 325 289 5 River Plate Arg 178 22 2 2 7 3 8.09 101 53 52 346 215 6 Boca Juniors Arg 163 15 3 2 2 2 10.87 65 31 31 186 123 7 Estudiantes La Plata Arg 123 7 3 1 1 _ 17.57 28 11 12 73 43 8 America de Cali Col 112 15 _ 4 4 2 7.47 71 46 37 231 165 9 Sao Paulo Bra 109 8 2 2 1 _ 13.62 31 21 18 105 67 10 Palmeiras Bra 102 11 1 3 1 1 9.27 60 12 28 201 118 11 Gremio Porto Alegre Bra 99 8 2 1 1 2 12.38 35 17 17 111 64 12 Cruzeiro Bra 98 8 2 1 1 1 12.25 42 11 17 134 74 13 Colo Colo Chi 98 20 1 1 2 2 4.90 68 39 55 236 213 14 Cerro Porteno Par 86 26 _ _ 5 5 3.31 77 60 67 281 269 15 Barcelona Guayaquil Ecu 86 19 _ 2 2 6 4.53 56 40 65 184 207 16 Santos Bra 81 5 2 _ 2 _ 16.20 14 4 9 64 45 17 Atletico Nacional Col 79 12 1 1 2 1 6.58 39 28 33 125 116 18 Universitario Per 74 23 _ 1 2 3 3.22 60 50 65 219 237 19 Deportivo Cali Col 69 15 _ 2 2 1 4.60 50 25 41 174 146 20 Universidad Catolica Chi 68 17 _ 1 3 3 4.00 57 41 53 242 205 21 Flamengo Bra 58 6 1 _ 2 2 9.67 30 13 9 118 62 22 Racing Club Arg 54 5 1 _ 2 1 10.80 23 10 12 81 53 23 Sporting Cristal Per 53 21 _ 1 _ 3 2.52 46 42 62 194 219 24 Cobreola Chi 50 8 _ 2 1 1 6.25 30 25 15 99 71 25 Bolivar Bol 47 19 _ _ _ 5 2.47 62 35 53 240 210 26 Velez Sarsfield Arg 47 6 1 _ _ 3 7.83 22 18 12 59 41 27 Millonarios Col 46 14 _ _ 2 4 3.29 34 22 33 129 118 28 Vasco da Gama Bra 44 7 1 _ _ 1 6.29 19 19 12 64 47 29 Argentinos Juniors Arg 40 2 1 _ 1 _ 20.00 9 6 1 23 13 30 Universidad de Chile Chi 38 13 _ _ 2 2 2.92 29 17 39 115 133 31 Newell's Old Boys Arg 36 4 _ 2 _ _ 9.00 18 16 8 46 38 32 Inter Porto Alegre Bra 35 5 _ 1 2 _ 7.00 21 12 13 60 42 33 San Lorenzo Arg 34 7 _ _ 3 2 4.86 25 18 18 93 63 34 Emelec Ecu 34 15 _ _ 1 2 2.27 38 24 56 135 185 35 Nacional Quito Ecu 33 16 _ _ 1 _ 2.06 45 15 45 134 141 36 Union Espanola Chi 31 7 _ 1 _ 2 4.43 19 18 19 69 74 37 Alianza Lima Per 30 15 _ _ _ 3 2.00 26 23 53 111 168 38 Jorge Wilsterman Bol 28 14 _ _ _ 3 2.00 24 16 44 98 169 39 LDU Quito Ecu 25 8 _ _ 1 2 3.12 22 16 26 79 94 40 The Strongest Bol 24 13 _ _ _ 1 1.85 27 16 37 108 150 ===================================================================== The majority of Uruguay's success has come from two clubs, Penarol and Nacional, while Argentina and Brazil have much more competitive domestic scenes and thus have a far more diverse distribution. The current Argentine powers are old rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate, as they both try to catch up to Independiente, whose success in this tournament was very impressive, but not a reflection of their domestic stature. As far as match records in the Copa Libertadores are concerned, here are the win-draw-loss records for clubs against clubs of other nations: ================================================================= vs Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia ----------------------------------------------------------------- Argentina 100-116-100 33-10-13 70-40-69 39-12-15 49-24-28 Bolivia 13- 10- 33 50-36-50 6- 7-25 10-10-18 14- 8-26 Brazil 69- 40- 70 25- 7- 6 75-76-75 30-20-16 25-15-18 Chile 15- 12- 39 18-10-10 16-20-30 51-46-51 13-16-21 Colombia 28- 24- 49 26- 8-14 18-15-25 21-16-13 53-46-53 Ecuador 10- 8- 26 27- 8-23 13- 9-28 14-15-31 12- 8-22 Paraguay 17- 17- 28 25- 8-13 20-23-41 38-21-31 18-18-16 Peru 14- 15- 44 19- 6- 9 7- 6-37 14-15-21 7-12-27 Uruguay 30- 35- 48 31-10-13 23-20-45 28-18-22 17- 8-21 Venezuela 1- 5- 30 1- 4-13 5- 5-40 2- 5-21 4-11-23 vs Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela ----------------------------------------------------------------- Argentina 26- 8-10 28-17-17 44-15-14 48-35-30 30- 5- 1 Bolivia 23- 8-27 13- 8-25 9- 6-19 13-10-31 13- 4- 1 Brazil 28- 9-13 41-23-20 37- 6- 7 45-20-23 40- 5- 5 Chile 31-15-14 31-21-38 21-15-14 22-18-28 21- 5- 2 Colombia 22- 8-12 16-18-18 27-12- 7 21- 8-17 23-11- 4 Ecuador 52-36-52 16- 9-17 21-10-16 10- 8-40 14- 8- 9 Paraguay 17- 9-16 43-66-43 21- 5- 8 14-18-28 15- 5- 4 Peru 16-10-21 8- 5-21 43-50-43 9-15-16 17-10-17 Uruguay 40- 8-10 28-18-14 16-15- 9 58-56-58 32- 6- 4 Venezuela 9- 8-14 4- 5-15 17-10-17 4- 6-32 41-50-41 ================================================================= The two legs of the round-of-16 are May 9 and May 16, the final's are June 20 and June 27.