Paraguay

In the hopes of luring some Paraguayan readers, I will wax poetic about Paraguayan football.

America of Mexico will play Libertad of Paraguay in Copa Libertadores this week and anyone who takes Libertad lightly will suffer. Libertad reached the semifinals of last year's tournament and technically finished ahead of Chivas, the other beaten semifinalist, as Libertad lost 2-0 on aggregate while Chivas fell 4-0. Plus, Libertad lost to eventual champions Internacional.

Anyway, the coach of the Paraguayan Under-17 team that I covered back in 2001 played club footy with Libertad. Eduardo Villalba was a star back in the 1970s with this club.

Libertad is joined by fellow Paraguayan club Cerro Porteno, the class of Paraguayan football (unless you are an Olimpia fan, in which case Olimpia is the class of Paraguayan football) in Copa Libertadores. Cerro Porteno is, along with Olimpia of course, one of the two biggest clubs in Paraguay. Cerro Porteno is where Edgar Barreto got his start and if you trace back the lineage of many Paraguayan national team players, you will find that they started with Cerro Porteno.

As far as advancing out of the group phase of Copa Libertadores, I actually think Paraguay will go 2-for-2. Libertad and America will finish in the first two spots of Group 1 while Cerro Porteno and Gremio of Brazil will nab the top two Group 3 spots. Cerro Porteno, though, put itself in a bad situation, though. Gremio beat Cerro Porteno 1-0 in Asuncion, in La Olla as the club's home stadium is lovingly referred to (Estadio De Cerro is its real name). But Cucuta and Deportes Tolima finished 0-0 in the other Group 3 match. However, losing a home game is not a good way to start the tournament.