Libertadores Cup - latest update

This week most of the second round matches of the group stage of the 2007 Copa Libertadores (the South American Champion's League equivalent) were completed - here is how the Brazilian clubs have performed:

27/02/07

Grêmio 0x0 Cucuta (Colombia) - Group 3
The Porto Alegre side disappointed against the Colombian team's defensive strategy in front of 39,710 fans. The team struggled to break down a stubborn Cucuta side, and Grêmio seem to have felt the loss of their center-forward Tuta upfront due to an injury recently, as they found difficult to create many opportunities. A poor result at home, however the team remains in top position in its group with 4 points and still to lose a match this season.

28/02/07

Sao Paulo 4x0 Alianza Lima (Peru) - Group 2
Sao Paulo stretched their unbeaten run to 25 matches after this game - the last time they lost was on 24th September 2006 (Palmeiras 3x1 Sao Paulo). The 19,694 fans who witnessed the match, saw Sao Paulo dominate the game against a weak Alianza side. Good result, expected to win and now second in the group (4pts x Necaxa-Mex 6 pts).

Internacional 3x0 Emelec (Ecuador) - Group 4
The defending champions were backed by 34,327 fans and there was only one name in their lips: Alexandre Pato. The Brazilian Under-21 star was the name of the game, scoring a superb goal and creating another - Pato's record for the first team now reads 5 games played, 5 wins for Internacional and 4 goals scored. Good result for Inter, now recovered from the loss in their 1st game away from home.

01/03/07

Santos 1x0 Defensor Sporting (Uruguay) - Group 8
Santos won yet another game to lead their group with 6 points. This was a difficult match, with few players playing to their potential, in the end Ze Roberto scored the winning goal. The public must have expected a poor game as only 9,409 fans showed up to witness it. Good result for Santos and keeps them in line to qualify to the next round.

Other results: Banfield-Arg 4x1 El Nacional-Ecu; America-Mex 1x4 Libertad-Par; Necaxa-Mex 2x0 Audax Italiano-Chi; Velez Sarsfield-Arg 1x1 Nacional-Uru; Toluca-Mex 1x2 Bolivar-Bol; Boca Jrs-Arg 1x0 Cienciano-Per

Top Team of ex-Grêmio players - do you agree?

Grêmio's best known former player around the world is without a doubt, Ronaldinho Gaucho. But of the current active ex-Grêmio players around the world (playing outside of Brazil) who would be in your top 11??

Here are just some of them:

Goalkeepers
Fernando (Uniao Leiria/ Portugal); Darnlei (Beira Mar/ Portugal - until recently)

Defenders
George Lucas (Celta Vigo/ Spain); Anderson Polga (Sporting Lisbon/ Portugal)
Gilberto (Hertha Berlin/ Germany); Michel Bastos (Lille/ France)
Matheus Vivian (Grenoble Foot 38/ France); Fabio Bilica (Istres/ France)
Bolivar (Monaco/ France); Maicon (Inter Milan/ Italy); Adriano (Atalanta/ Italy)
Hernani (Kielce/ Poland); Gabriel (Rubin Kazan/ Russia); Rodrigo Costa (Cerro Porteno/ Paraguay)

Midfielders
Felipe Melo (Racing Santander/ Spain); Zinho (Miami fusion/USA); Anderson (Porto/ Portugal)
Amaral (MKS Pogon/ Poland); Yan (Penafiel/ Portugal); Sandro (Belenenses/ Portugal)
Rodrigo Alvim (Belenenses/ Portugal); Beto (Sanfreece Hiroshima/ Japan)
Eduardo Costa (Espanyol/ Spain); Emerson (Real Madrid/ Spain)
Ronaldinho Gaucho (Barcelona/ Spain); Fernando (Bordeaux/ France)
Tinga (Borussia Dortmund/ Germany)

Forwards
Adriano Chuva (Daejon Citizen/South Korea); Eduardo Marques (Daegu FC/ South Korea)
Grafite (Le Mans/ France); Washington (Urawa Red Diamonds/ Japan)
Basilio (Tokyo Verdy/ Japan); Rodrigo Gral (Omiya Ardija/ Japan)
Marcelinho Paraiba (Wolfsburg/ Germany); Magrao (Gamba Osaka/ Japan)
Adriano (MyPa/ Finland); Manduca (AEK Athens/ Greece); Adriano Padilha (Saturn/ Russia)
Leandro Machado (Ulsan Hyundai/ South Korea)

My 11-a-side team of ex-Grêmio players (currently active & outside of Brazil) in a 4-5-1 formation would be:
Goalkeeper: Darnlei (Beira Mar)Defenders:
George Lucas (Celta Vigo) Maicon (Inter Milan)Anderson Polga (Sporting Lisbon) Gilberto (Hertha Berlin)

Midfielders:
Anderson (Porto) Ronaldinho Gaucho (Barcelona) Emerson (Real Madrid)


Eduardo Costa (Espanyol) Tinga (Borussia Dortmund)


Forwards:
Marcelinho Paraiba (Wolfsburg)

Grêmio finds the "map to the goldmine"

Grêmio, according to Érika Romão (erikar@lancenet.com.br), has found the map to the goldmine recently.
Note that the following post is an extract from Érika's original article in Portuguese, provided to me by Fabio Almeida.

The Porto Alegre club has made R$5.5 million (exchange rate 1 British Pound = 1.95 US Dollars = 4.12 Brazilian Reais) or c. £1.3 million in british pounds in 2006 from players developed by the club's youth set-up.

Grêmio managed in 2006 what most Brazilians clubs would like to do: to increase their source of revenue through new revenue streams. The club found out that it could benefit financially from the transfers of 200 former players, out of the 600 players which have left the club in the last 10 years. This new action on Grêmio's part is based on two of Fifa's laws which defines that clubs which have developed players through their youth set-up have the right to receive a compensation on future transfers relating to those players.

The agency responsible for this project on Grêmio's behalf, Indago Football Intelligence, was created at the beginning of 2006 to operate in Brazil. In 1 year working with Grêmio, the agency identified that Grêmio should benefit from 34 transfers of former youth team players - a total of R$ 5.5 million/ £1.3 million.
However, clubs affected, according to FIFA's laws have only 18 months post-transfers to claim their compensation. Otherwise the compensation is deemed void. Grêmio identified a loss of R$11 million/ £2.7 million in potential earnings over the last few years due to lack of awareness of the transfers of former youth team players from the club.

According to the partner and director of marketing for the Indago agency, Rodrigo Levenzon, between 2002 and 2006, 4,006 players transferred abroad from Brazil. An average of 801 per year! If these players are involved in further transfers to other clubs, the Brazilian clubs which develop them have the right to claim compensation as part of FIFA's laws - albeit having to claim it within the 18 months period.
Apparently there are a number of clubs in Brazil, even in areas such as Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo, missing out on these potentially critical revenue stream from abroad due to lack of awareness of transfers involving former youth team players.

There are two FIFA laws invoking potential compensation to clubs:

Compensations - Solidarity

* a player which has played at the club from 12 to 23 years of age is considered as being developed by the club
* From 12 to 15 years of age the compensation is 0.25% per year. From 16 to 23 years of age the compensation is 0.5% per year.
* it is valid in international transfers until the end of the player's career.


Compensations - Formation of Player

* Valid for players at the club from 12 to 21 years of age which are then transferred abroad at the end of their contract. Up to 23 years of age, the club must be compensated by the club purchasing the player.
* FIFA defines the financial values to the confederations from where the clubs involved are from (both the buying and selling clubs). The value varies from R$43k to R$250k per year of development at the club (£10k to £61k per year).

In Grêmio's case, the transfer of Emerson from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2006 generated the largest compensation so far for the clubs' coffers - almost R$950k/ £231k. The club was entitled to 3.5% of the value of the transfer (R$32million/ £7.8 million) due to the development of the player at the club from 1992 to 1997.

Libertadores Cup - how did the Brazilian clubs perform?

This is the 1st week of the group stage of the 2007 Copa Libertadores (the South American Champion's League equivalent) and some of the Brazilian clubs have began their campaigns over the last 2 days.

Brazil has 6 representatives in this year's edition of the Libertadores: Sao Paulo, Internacional, Gremio, Parana, Santos & Flamengo. Inter takes part as last year's winner. Sao Paulo, Gremio qualify straight to the group stage due to their performance in the Brazilian League in 2006 (1st and 3rd respectively, Inter was 2nd). Santos and Parana also qualify due to their league standing last year (4th & 5th respectively), but these clubs have already played this season in order to qualify for the group stage. Finally, Flamengo won their place due to winning last year's Brazilian Cup.

Wednesday 14/02/07
Real Potosi (Bolivia) 2x2 Flamengo - Group 5
Real Potosi play their home games at 4,000 metres above sea level and this is clearly used as an advantage by their team and so it proved against the Rio de Janeiro side. Real Potosi scored both their goals in the 1st half to lead 2x0, and despite the immense difficulty due to the high altitude (the Flamengo bench had canisters of oxygen on the side for the players!!) Flamengo used up all their strength to draw level at 2x2 and secure a draw away from home in difficult conditions. Good result for Flamengo.
Group 5 also includes Parana (Brazil) and Maracaibo (Venezuela).

Audax Italiano (Chile) 0x0 Sao Paulo - Group 2
The Chilean played for this result and achieved their goal in an uninspiring match. The plus side for Sao Paulo was the fact that they have now not lost in their last 22 games - some achievement! One of the best (?) players on the night was the chilean keeper Audax Peric, who even managed to save a couple of free-kicks by Sao Paulo's expert free-kick taker, the goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni. This result was OK for Sao Paulo, as it was away from home, but disappointing as not much is expected from the Chilean side.
Group 2 also includes Alianza Lima (Peru) and Necaxa (Mexico).

Other results: Bolivar 0x0 Boca Juniors and from previous evening: Emelec 0x1 Velez, Defensor Sporting 3x0 Gimnasia y Esgrima, Cucuta 0x0 Tolima.

Thursday 15/02/07
Maracaibo (Venezuela) 2x4 Parana - Group 5
Coach Zetti's last minute decision to change from the preferred 3-6-1 to a 4-4-2 formation had the desired effects with Parana obtaining a result no one had expected! A fantastic result away from home.

Cerro Porteno (Paraguay) 0x1 Gremio - Group 3
This was a typical Libertadores Cup match - there was plenty of hostility from the Paraguayan crowd with objects being thrown onto the pitch (a bottle hit Gremio's Lucas), heated arguments, bad fouls and the like. Unfortunately for Cerro Porteno, Gremio is an experienced Libertadores Cup side and managed to control the game to win 1x0 with the goal scored by Lucas. This was the 7th game this season that Gremio won without conceding a goal in a row (18 scored!). Gremio's goalkeeper, the Argentinian Sebastian Saja (ex-San Lorenzo) had an inspired night when needed, even saving a penalty on the 44th minute of the 2nd half. Great start for Gremio away from home.
Group 3 also includes Cucuta and Tolima (both from Colombia).

The first games for the two Brazilian clubs still to play in the group stage are:
Nacional (Uruguay) x Inter - Wednesday 21/02/07
Deportivo Pastos x Santos - Thursday 22/02/07

Lucas x Pato

The city of Porto Alegre have two football teams, both about to embark on the Libertadores Cup this week with their respective young prodigies: Lucas from Gremio of Porto Alegre ...

... and Alexandre 'Pato' from Internacional of Porto Alegre.


2006 was a superb year for both of these players - Lucas came into the Gremio team in 2005 from the youth system and helped the team to win promotion and the serie B title. Soon afterwards he became a vital cog in the Gremio team which reached 3rd place in the Serie A and was selected as the 'Bola de Ouro' (Golden Ball) player by Revista Placar - the best and most consistent player in the Brazilian league. Lucas picked up a full Brazilian cap and finished off the year by winning the South American Under-20 as the captain of the team (being voted as the best player of the tournament) and gaining qualification to the Olympics in China.

Alexandre 'Pato' is (or was?) a Gremio supporter from a young age who never got a chance to show his skills at Gremio's Olimpico stadium at the age of 11 and instead opted for a chance at Inter. He has come into the Inter main side in 2006 with a tremendous debut versus Palmeiras. He has already been recognised as a major talent of huge potential - Inter's first priority was to get Pato to sign a new contract before taking him off to Japan, where Inter won the World Club Championship versus Barcelona. Pato also showed his talents off for the Brazil U-20's side alongside Lucas, scoring a number of goals along the way.

Both of these players have already had bids rejected by their respective clubs, but the question remains - Lucas x Pato, who will be the winner in 2007??