Tiny Atlético Tucumán steal the show with shock Copa Libertadores run
From Argentina’s second division to Copa Libertadores champions in three years? That is the dream of tiny Atlético Tucumán aft erre mar kably reach ingt her eg ion alcom pe ti ti on’ s quarter-finals.
Known ironically as “The Giants of the North,” the Deca
no are the only team left in the com pe ti ti onwhichh as y et tolift the trophy.
The blue-and-white stripes advanced after a 2-1 aggregate triumph over two-time winner Atlético Nacional of Colombia last Tuesday, leading fans to tak et ot he street sof San Miguel de Tucumán, an isolated city of 550,000 inhabitants in the north of the country.
Club star and forward Luis Miguel Rodríguez said the his- toric result should not make Tucumán believe it can repeat the feat of River Plate in 2016; winning the Copa Libertadores shortly after relegation.
He believes keeping modest goals will help the team thrive.
“We hope togo as farasp ossible intheC opa Libertadores, but we need to think about the Argentine championship because we need to keep Tucumán in the first division,” Rodríguez said.
However, at present, they’re not doing too bad. After four games of the new Superliga season, the team sit in third, with two wins and two draws. Last weekend the club defeated Newell’s Old Boys, 2-1, away from home.
Until this season, Tucumán was better known in the Copa Libertadores for its 2017 odyssey to play in Ecuador in a pregroup stage tie against El Nacional.
Problems with a chartered flight struck Tucumán in Guayaquil, on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. The players were forced to travel to Quito in two different jets, but one was delayed. That was precisely the one that carried kits for the match.
El Nacional wanted the referee to abandon the match, but Argentina’s then- ambassador in Ecuador, Luis Juez, intervened. “Wait for us,” he told match broadcaster Fox Sports as the team bus went at full speed.
Upon arrival, the players wore the shirts of Argentina’s Under-20 team, which was playing a tournament in Ecuador at the same time.
Tucumán won 1-0 and qualified for the group stage. Striker Fernando Sampedri, the scorer of the winning goal, had the name of Under-20 player Leandro Martínez on his shirt.
This time, Tucumán will not face such an endurance test, but a much tougher one over two legs against defending champions Gremio of Brazil. DOMINATION
In a sign of their dominance in the region, Argentina and Brazil have seven teams in the quarter-finals.
There are four local teams for the first time, with Tucumán alongside giants Boca Juniors, River Plate and Independiente.
Racing were eliminated by River Plate and failed to line up the Avellaneda derby against local rivals Independiente, the record seven-time winner of the Copa. Brazil will push forward with Gremio, Cruzeiro and Palmeiras, all previous winners of the Copa.
Chile’s Colo Colo is the other si de. T he 1991 championsma de it to the quarter-finals for the first time in 21 years after beating a recently dismantled team of Brazilian champions Corinthians. Former Chile forward Jorge Valdivia leads Colo Colo.
The quarter-finals of Copa Libertadores will be played in September and October.