South America Preview: Internacional tries to take over lead in Brazil

With a midweek win over Flamengo, Internacional is level with São Paulo in Brazil’s Série A. Read about this and more action this weekend in South America.

As the calendar shifts into September, the approaching summer in South America takes place at the same time that action is heating up in domestic leagues throughout the continent. For some leagues, they are getting into the Clausura half of their seasons. In other places, the year is just getting started in local play. Some are approaching the stretch run of a longer season.

For fully half of the CONMEBOL leagues this weekend, there will be no action at all. Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina play their next matchdays a fortnight from now. Peru gets their next matchday started on Tuesday, Sep. 11.

Even though half of the leagues are shutting down their action this week, there are still plenty of entertaining places to look in South America for soccer fans looking to get club action rather than a taste of the UEFA Nations League.

Internacional and São Paulo battle for top spot in Brazil

Brazil’s league is perhaps the most convoluted in all of South America. Teams are expected to play not just in the national league but also in regional competitions. The fixtures in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A play are not confined solely to the weekends, either. Over the week, Internacional squared off against Flamengo in a matchup of the second- and third-place teams in the Série A table.

William Pottker put Internacional ahead just six minutes into the match, beating Diego Alves on an unassisted goal. The 1-0 scoreline held up at halftime, but 12 minutes after the intermission Victor Vinícius Coelho dos Santos leveled the score for Flamengo. The deadlock didn’t last long, however, as Rodrigo Dourado found the back of the net to give Internacional a lead they would not relinquish.

Combined with São Paulo’s 1-0 loss away to Atlético Mineiro, Internacional vaulted up to take over the top spot in the table while Flamengo fell to fourth behind Palmeiras. Internacional and São Paulo are now level with 46 points apiece, but the club from Porto Alegre is ahead with a higher goal differential. The lead is tenuous, though, as both clubs look to consolidate position this weekend.

Internacional faces fifth-place Grêmio on Sunday, a far tougher test than that confronting São Paulo. The Tricolor get to take on 11th-place Bahia, who is currently 18 points off the pace in the Série A table.

Two unbeaten sides remain in Colombia’s tight Clausura race

In Colombia, eight matches have passed in the Clausura. Apertura winners Deportes Tolima currently sit in third place, only three points adrift of leaders La Equidad and one point behind Once Caldas. The thing separating Deportes Tolima from the other two clubs is a single loss they suffered a month and a half ago against Alianza Petrolera in Barrancabermeja.

At this juncture of the Colombian season, La Equidad and Once Caldas are the only two clubs who have yet to sustain a loss in the second half of the season. All three of the teams at the top head on the road this week for the ninth matchday of the Clausura.

Deportes Tolima is up first, playing Boyacá Chicó in Tunja on Saturday. Tolima gets the easiest of the matches among the trio at the top of the standings, with an opponent that has lost half of its matches to date. Boyacá Chicó scores an average of a goal per match while giving up 1.5 per outing and finished 19th out of 20 teams in the Apertura earlier this year.

La Equidad and Caldas have slightly tougher tests on their road swings over the weekend. La Equidad heads to Deportivo Cali on Sunday, while Caldas concludes the weekend of fixtures when they take on Rionegro Águilas on Monday.

Deportes Tolima should have little trouble with Boyacá Chicó. As long as Tolima wins on Saturday, it will really be worth following the two matches on Sunday and Monday to see whether either or both of the two clubs ahead of Tolima open the door for the Apertura champions to make a move up closer to the top of the Clausura table.