South America Review: Domestic play resumes for the new year

South America began the new soccer year as the Superliga resumed in Argentina, regional leagues commenced in Brazil, and the new season opened in Bolivia.

For most of South America, the start of the new soccer season is still at least a week off. The Liga Aguila begins in Colombia next weekend, as does the Primera in Venezuela. Paraguay has a few midweek matches to start their new campaign beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Looking further into the calendar, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru and Chile commence their new domestic campaigns of top-flight league play in the first few weeks of February.

While Serie A play does not begin in Brazil until late April, the start of the new calendar year offers an opportunity to follow regional play in the state leagues that comprise the multitiered competition structure that is woven across the massive soccer-mad country.

The Carioca and Paulista championships, encompassing a slew of historic clubs that call the two largest cities in the country home, opened up play over the weekend. So too did other key regional championships including the Mineiro, Gaucho and Baiano championships that are among the oldest in the country.

Let’s look at the storylines to follow in Brazil before Serie A play begins in a few months along with the return of action in Argentina and Bolivia in the first South America soccer review of 2019.

Shifting focus onto regional play in Brazil to kick off 2019 action

For much of Brazil’s soccer history, there was no cohesive national league structure. Different cup competitions offered some semblance of national competition, and Serie A in Brazil officially marks its champions back to 1959. But it was really only after Pele and company won the country’s third World Cup in 1970 that Brazil finally put together a cohesive national pyramid to run alongside the state competitions.

That is the key thing to note about Brazilian soccer. Unique to their soccer among countries in South America is the heightened relevance of state competitions vis-à-vis the national leagues. The Campeonato Paulista in the state of Sao Paulo is the oldest league in the country, dating back to 1902. The Campeonato Baiano followed in Bahia three years later, and the Campeonato Carioca started play in 1906 in Rio de Janeiro.

Over the next few months, we will check in on the action around the 27 state leagues (including the Federal District around Brasilia) that encompass soccer across the vast geography of Brazil. This week, let’s look at a couple of the bigger competitions.

The Paulistao features our first chance to see perennial Serie A contenders like defending champion Palmeiras, Corinthians, Sao Paulo, and a Santos club that gave the world both Pele and Neymar. Sao Paulo and Santos took an early lead in the state tournament, earning wins against Mirassol and Ferroviaria respectively. Corinthians, Botafogo and Palmeiras could only manage draws in their openers to fall behind by a couple of points early.

In the Carioca championship up the coast in Rio de Janeiro, the format is a little more convoluted. The first stage, known as the Taca Guanabara, breaks out the teams into two groups and pits them in a single round robin tournament. In Group A, Vasco da Gama and Americano took the lead with a pair of 1-0 victories on the first matchday. Cabofriense has the lead ahead of Boavista and Flamengo in Group B after a surprise 3-1 win over Botafogo on Sunday.

In the Mineiro championship, Atletico Mineiro routed Boa Esporte 5-0 on Sunday to take the lead on goal differential ahead of a Tupynambas that took down Villa Nova 5-1 earlier in the day on the road. Cruzeiro were relegated to third in the Mineiro table after their 3-1 win over Guarani Esporte on Saturday.

Looking quickly at a couple of other state championships, the Gremio side that finished fourth in last year’s Serie A table jumped out to an early Gaucho championship lead in Rio Grando do Sul after a 4-0 takedown of Novo Hamburgo. The Baiano championship started with Bahia de Feria getting an early jump on Jequie. Those two clubs were the only two in the state of Bahia to claim three points over the opening weekend, but Bahia de Feria jumped ahead on total goals.

Superliga action returns from holiday break with three matches

Though there were just a few matches played over the past two Saturdays in Argentina after the summer holiday break, there was plenty of significant action that took place in that trio of games that is worth reviewing.

Defensa y Justicia pulled within three points of Superliga leaders Racing Club after a 1-0 win over Copa Libertadores champions River Plate on Saturday. Though River Plate had 67 percent of the possession and attempted twice as many passes and shots as Defensa y Justicia at El Monumental, the visitors from Florencio Varela held on for three points. That put River Plate down to 11th in the standings. Though they still have three games in hand, they are also eight points off the pace set by Racing.

They took a lead on the road thanks to a 24th-minute goal from midfielder Matias Rojas. The 23-year-old Paraguayan on loan from Cerro Porteno is a player to watch over the next few years. Rojas notched his seventh goal of the Superliga season against River Plate, breaking a tie with Uruguayan forward Facundo Barcelo for the goal scoring lead among foreign players in the Argentine league.

Meanwhile, Huracan entered the new year in fourth place in the league table, sitting 11 points behind Racing Club with two games in hand. After making up those two matches, Huracan still sit in fourth place, a point behind Atletico Tucuman, after a pair of scoreless draws over the past two Sundays.

In their first match of 2019 in Superliga play, Huracan were unable to score on an aggressive Argentinos Juniors side on Jan. 13 that matched their hosts shot for shot and possession for possession. It was a sobering performance that gave Los Quemeros a point.

A week later, Huracan had an opening at El Nuevo Gasometro against San Lorenzo but once again failed to capitalize. San Lorenzo went down to 10 men when Fabricio Coloccini received a red card in the 33rd minute, but the visitors were unable to find the back of the net despite the man advantage. Ending in another nil-nil draw, Huracan were unable to gain any ground after leaving four points on the table.

Bolivia first country in South America to start new top-division campaign

All 14 teams in the Primera in Bolivia kicked off their 2019 campaigns over the weekend, becoming the first national league to get its fresh start in the new year. (The Superliga Argentina, remember, shifted its calendar to fall more in line with the European calendar and is midway through its current 2018-2019 season.)

Real Potosi and Bolivar both earned two-goal leads to claim the top two spots in the Apertura table after one match. A 3-1 over Guabira on Saturday put Real Potosi ahead on total goals.

In Potosi on Saturday the visitors scored the first two goals, one in each net, as Dairyn Gonzalez gave Real an early lead on a Guabira own goal and Marcelo Aguirre converted a penalty to level the match before halftime. In the second half, Real Potosi pulled away with a pair of goals to comfortably win their opener at home.

On Sunday, Marcos Riquelme was the late hero for Bolivar as they took down last year’s Apertura champion Jorge Wilstermann 2-0 in Cochabamba. It looked like the visitors from La Paz were going to spilt points with their hosts, but Riquelme scored a second-half brace with goals in the 78th minute and 82nd minute to leave the home fans disappointed at Estadio Félix Capriles.

The Strongest and Club Destroyers took third and fourth respectively after their opening matches ended in their favor with one-goal victories. The Strongest took down Aurora 2-1 on Saturday at home, as the visitors were forced to play with 10 men for the entirety of the second half after Ivan Huayhuata was sent off in the 42nd minute. Club Destroyers took down Blooming 1-0 on Sunday, getting a goal right before halftime and holding on for the win.

Things will continue to get more exciting in the coming weeks as more leagues across South America wake up from the summer break and begin their 2019 action. Stay tuned every Monday morning as we recap the action from across the continent.