Exotic Leagues: Bolivia
Following on from my earlier post about League Format. Today we’ll look at how the National championship works in Bolivia. Like many of the other countries in Latin America, Bolivia use an Apertura-Clausura style system and their top level league has 12 clubs.
Apertura
The Apertura, which kicks off in February, operates a 2 stage format. The first stage involves splitting the 12 clubs into two groups of 6, they play a double round-robin within their groups as well as home and away matches from a rival from the other group. Once these 12 fixtures have been played the top 3 from each group progress into a ‘winners’ group or hexagonal, and the bottom 3 go into a losers hexagonal.
Both groups again play a set of round-robin fixtures, home and away, the team that finishes top of the winner’s hexagonal is declared the Apertura champion. The winners also earn a berth into the Copa Libertadores group stage, the runner up gets a place in the 2nd round of the Copa Sudamericana. Bizarrely the winner of the losers hexagonal receive a place in the Copa Sudamericana, this is analogous to a mid-table Premier League side receiving a place in the Uefa cup for finishing as the best team in the bottom half.
Torneo de Invierno (Winter tournament)
In between the Apertura and Clausura, the Bolivian FA hold the ‘Torneo de Invierno’ literally translates as the winter tournament. This used to be a play off tournament for the Apertura but after the format change it has remained as cup competition, something that is unusual to see in a Latin American league. All 12 sides enter, 6 ties are played in the group round with the 6 winners going through as well as the best two runners up. The rest of the tournament is a 2 legged knockout tournament with the winner receiving a place in the Copa Sudamericana.
Clausura
The Clausura is a much simpler affair, the 12 teams play a double round robin league with the winner being crowned as champion. Winner and runner-up get a Libertadores place while the 3rd place side receives a place in the Sudamericana the following season.
Relegation
Relegation is decided over the past two years performances, the team with the worst average is relegated immediately. The second worst team has to play off against the runner-up of the Copa Simon Bolivar, Bolivia has a 9 league 2nd tier, similar to 3/4th tiers in countries such as Italy. The runner-up of the play off competition gets a second chance to get into the top division.
Brazil: Round 2
Just a quick round up of the action in the Campeonato Brasileiro round 2 this week. Corinthians continue their 100% record with a 2-1 away win at Gremio Porto Alegre. Gremio were resting a few key names in lieu of a Copa do Brasil semi final 2nd leg in midweek against Santos. Corinthians appear to be extremely hungry for success following their eliminatioon from the Libertadores last month.
Avai missed the chance to join Corinthians at the top when they relinquished a 2-0 first half lead against a 10 man Cruizero. The game ended 2-2 and with both teams with 10 men after the Avai goalkeeper, Ze Carlos, was sent off for giving away the equalising penalty. Wellington Paulista scored both goals for Cruizero who will be the happier side with this result especially after they had also rested players in preparation for the second leg of their all Brazil Libertadores quarter final with Sao Paolo.
Vasco da Gama took on Palmeiras on Sunday night and should have all but buried them. The game was almost entirely a case of attack vs defence with Palmeiras having to create the few chances they did have on the counter attack. The Sao Paolo side didn’t manage to get a shot on target until 10 minutes into the second half. For all their pressure and possession Vasco were unable to effectively penatrate a very organised back four, never stretching them or getting in behind the defenders.
Santos took on north eastern club Ceara, still no sign of Robinho in the National Championships however. Newspaper reports suggest he is being rested, perhaps for the midweek cup semi. His young prodigy, Neymar, was both hero and villain for Santos. He had the balls to score the equalising penalty in an absolutely audacious manner, though touching on the illegal, he dummies twice before chipping the ball into the side opposite the keeper. He had the chance later on in the game to put Santos ahead but this time the keeper didn’t buy it and he dragged the spot kick wide. My only hope is that he isn’t tempted to leave Santos at such a young age. Despite this level of courage/arrogance I think he needs a little more time to give himself the platform to become a true great.
In other leagues…
This goal was scored in Paraguay and deserves special mention for an amazing trajectory. It is scored by a Sol de America player nicknamed Inca. Enjoy…
Kick off in Brazil
On Sunday afternoon the Campeonato Brasileiro, Brazilian National championship, kicked off in earnest following the conclusion of the circus show that is the regional championships. While it is a national championship most of the hype circulates around the sides from Brazil’s two biggest cities. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, the league is still quite young only being established in 1971, before this the regional championships of the Carioca (Rio) and Paulista (Sao Paolo) were considered far more prestigious competitions. Also this year Santos are making all of the pre-season noise with the short term acquisition of Robinho together with wonder kid Neymar.
In Rio we have Botafogo, Fluminense, current champions Flamengo and Vasco da Gama, who have been newly re-instated with their top flight status following the chaos and collapse of the last few seasons. Sao Paolo offers us Corinthians, Palmeiras and, of course, Sao Paolo. Also promoted from Serie B this season are Ceará, this club based close to the north-eastern tip of Brazil will have to travel the furthest this season and I expect this will contribute to poor away form. They will need to pick up plenty of points at home if they are to have a chance of survival.
As well as Robinho, European followers may be interested in the progress of some other former stars who have returned home after reaching the peaks of European competition. Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos are plying their trade for Corinthians while Flamengo have Adriano and Vagner Love on their books.
Corinthians are in their centenary year but have already been eliminated from the Libertadores, a competition they have never won, and so will have to concentrate on the league in order to crown their birthday with a trophy. They began the campaign in a steady fashion, Ronaldo scored the winner against Atletico Paranaense from the penalty spot. Meanwhile champions Flamengo were held to a 1-1 draw with Sao Paolo and Santos fought out a 3-3 draw with the once great Botafogo.
There are still four Brazilian sides left in the Libertadores at the Quarter final stage. Past form has told us that sides that progress in the continental tournament struggle tremendously to battle on two fronts and therefore we can expect these sides league form to take a hit.