South America preview: Superliga Argentina kicks off new season

The Superliga Argentina starts its 2018-2019 season this weekend, highlighting a full slate of action around South America.

With the round of 16 of the 2018 Copa Libertadores taking place in midweek, it will be interesting to see how things shake out in domestic action throughout South America this weekend. Let’s look at all the action taking place around the continent, beginning with the start of the domestic season in Argentina.

Superliga Argentina

After a three-month offseason, the top 26 clubs in Argentina get back to domestic action with 13 Superliga matches this weekend. Two matches kick off the season on Friday night, and a Monday night match between Racing Club and Atletico Tucuman completes the first matchday.

Six clubs got back to action a little early, as they played the first leg of the round of 16 in the Copa LIbertadores. Boca Juniors took a 2-0 lead over Paraguay’s Libertad in South America’s equivalent to the Champions League. Estudiantes enter the second leg of the quarters up 2-1 on Brazil’s Gremio.

On Thursday evening, Racing Club and River Plate play one another in all-Argentine affair, Atletico Tucuman face Colombian side Atletico Nacional in another first-leg encounter, and Independiente face Brazilian club Santos.

How much time each of these clubs get between their round of 16 match and the season opener in Superliga action could have an impact on how each club starts the year in league play. It will be impossible to give each of them the same amount of down time.

Estudiantes really lucked out by getting the Tuesday slot in Copa Libertadores action. They have 14 more hours to recover for their opening Superliga match than Racing Club and more than 16 hours more than Atletico Tucuman. The two Libertadores clubs play one another in the Monday match. Defending champion Boca Juniors get three and a half days to recover from their two-goal win. Their rivals, River Plate, get 15 fewer hours to rebound from Libertadores play to start of the season.

We don’t yet know where Independiente will slot in at the time of writing, but their opening match against newly-promoted San Martin Tucuman will likely fall on either Sunday night or as a second Monday match. Originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, the Avellaneda side was slated to get fewer than 70 hours of recovery time. But Independiente were given a reprieve with the postponement and rescheduling of the opener.

Last season, Boca Juniors finished just two points ahead of Godoy Cruz. While the defending champions are locked into continental competition, Godoy Cruz are able to focus solely on domestic play this year.

San Lorenzo, last year’s third-place team, have to prepare for their second leg of the second-round Copa Sudamericana clash against Deportes Temuco of Chile. Coming five days after the season opener against Tigre, San Lorenzo are already three goals up in the Copa Sudamericana and shouldn’t need to put too much effort into getting a result in Chile.

Unlike European leagues, whose knockout stages come later in the domestic cycle, the design of the Superliga Argentina season means that it’s the South American league most awkwardly aligned with the rest of the continental calendar. Thus it’s always interesting to see which contenders in the Superliga can most effectively manage participation in domestic and continental competition.

Since the Copa Libertadores expanded from a tournament that ended in July to one that goes all the way into November, the decision to shift the soccer calendar in Argentina is having weird ramifications. Last year, the start of the Superliga season fell a few weeks after the end of round of 16 matches. This awkward fall of the calendar could have an interesting impact on the early-season table in Argentina.

Primera Division de Peru

In Peru, it’s time for El Clasico Peruano, as Universitario de Deportes takes on Alianza Lima on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET in the first of their two derbies in 2018-2019. La U failed to reach the group stage of the Copa Libertadores this year, falling in the first qualifying round to Oriente Petrolero on away goals. Alianza Lima qualified for the group stage automatically as Peruvian champions, but only mustered a single point in six matches.

Right now, Universitario are hovering dangerously close to the bottom of the Apertura table. Given the three-part setup of the Peruvian season, La U wouldn’t automatically be relegated. But finishing high in the table does mean something in terms of qualifying for South American competition, and Alianza sit five points behind Sporting Cristal with a game in hand.

A win over their rivals would put Alianza in position to take over the top of the table in the final four matches of the season. Alianza have enjoyed a far better run of form in recent matches. Alejandro Hohberg currently leads the club with nine goals two-thirds of the way through the second stage of the season.

If Universitario pull off the upset, they will pretty much end Alianza’s chances of pulling off the comeback, as they would be five points back with four matches to go.

Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A

The most fascinating matchup of the 18th matchday in the 2018 Brazilian Serie A season has to be the rematch between Cruzeiro and Flamengo on Sunday. The two clubs met Wednesday in the round of 16 of the Libertadores, with Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Thiago Neves scoring to put Cruzeiro up 2-0 heading into the second leg at the end of August.

Cruzeiro currently sit nine points behind Flamengo in the Serie A table. But with the recent victory over their Carioca opponents, they’ll likely be confident of getting three points and tightening the title race on their second straight trip to the Maracana.

Flamengo will need to get victory on their home pitch this time against the visitors from Belo Horizonte to keep pace with Sao Paulo at the top of the table. Given that the current leaders playing Sport Recife this week, Sao Paulo are likely to collect all three points. So Flamengo can’t play just for a draw when they host Cruzeiro for a second straight match.