South America is gearing up for the Copa America, which gets underway at the start of July, but not quite everything's resolved in the club game just yet. Host nation Argentina still has one round of league matches to go, but of more pressing concern for fans elsewhere on the continent is the two-legged final of the Copa Libertadores, which starts on Wednesday. The fixture features not one, but two formerly iconic clubs from the tournament's formative years in the early 1960s.
Given the economic rise of Brazil and the prominence the country's clubs have had in recent years, Santos are (although a supposedly 'smaller' club than many of their domestic competitors) perhaps not a surprising name to have in the final. Their opponents, though, are their country's first Libertadores finalists since 1988. They're also the club who won the first two Copas, in 1960 and '61, before Santos took over by winning the next two. It's a genuine retro final, this one: Santos vs Uruguayan giants Penarol.
Santos were expected finalists; in fact they were many pundits' favourites for the trophy at the start of the campaign. Penarol, though, were less so. Uruguayan club sides have enjoyed a renaissance in the competition in recent years, with the country's other giants Nacional reaching the semi-finals in 2009. Combined with last year's World Cup semi-final appearance by the national team, this final for Penarol will ensure the nation will be more optimistic than ever going into next month's Copa America. Uruguayan football is on the up.
Penarol have got this far whilst seeming to do the bare minimum, it must be said. They qualified from their group in second place with a goal difference of minus five, won both their round of sixteen and quarter-final ties by a single goal, and put Argentina's Velez Sarsfield (the other favourites along with Santos) out on away goals in the semi-finals. All the same, their return to the final of a competition they once dominated is noteworthy. It certainly feels as if it's more than mere coincidence that it comes so soon after Uruguay's own return to the latter stages of the World Cup.
Penarol's campaign might have been minimal in terms of victory margins, but they've impressed all the same during the knockout phase. Defending champions Internacional were dumped out in the first knockout round with a 2-1 away win after a 1-1 draw in Montevideo; Chileans Universidad Católica came from an impressive double-header against Inter's city rivals Grêmio, but couldn't do enough, and in the semis, Velez's Uruguayan forward - and former Nacional player - Santiago Silva missed a late penalty which would have put the Argentines through, but that didn't change the fact that a team who'd cruised through the competition beating sides by two or three goals suddenly came up against a brick wall.
The defence has been the foundation of Penarol's Libertadores run, with Alejandro González, a 23-year-old centre back-cum-right back, looking a real talent among more established players. A few of the more experienced players have been in Europe - Luis Aguiar has played in Portugal and Russia, whilst the wonderfully named Fabián Estoyanoff (middle name - I'm not making this up - Larry) has turned out for several Spanish clubs - and Matías Mier, scorer of the crucial away goal in the semi-final, is a 19-year-old left-sided midfielder who's always looked comfortable since joining the club at the start of this year. It really has been a team effort, though.
Lest this final seem set up as a game of Penarol's defence against Santos' attack, it should be mentioned that for the most part Santos haven't exactly been free-scoring either, even with the presence of Neymar, perhaps the continent's most hotly-tipped young forward at present. Indeed, throughout the knockout stages, unlike Penarol, Santos have yet to win a game by more than a single goal. The second leg of their semi-final was a brilliant game - a 3-3 draw with Cerro Porteno of Paraguay - albeit dampened a little by the fact that after Santos' opener just two minutes in (which put them 2-0 up on aggregate) it never really looked like Cerro would get through, having already missed their own chance for an away goal.
Both sides, then, have come this far in large part due to defences that have held firm when it really mattered, although that 3-3 draw demonstrates that when Santos' attack have to dig deep, they can do. Against the might of a side from the financially strong Brazilian league, a Uruguayan side must surely start as second favourites. But then, no-one this time last year thought Uruguay would be the last Latin Americans left standing at the World Cup. And Penarol have, after all, come this far by springing a few surprises of their own.
My first visit to Montevideo was in January 2007, and whilst I'll never forget catching Penarol against Nacional in a pre-season friendly in the legendary Estadio Centenario, the main impressions I took of Uruguayan football were twofold: an enormous respect and pride for the achievements of the past - Montevideo almost feels like a trip back in time to the football historian, with the plaque commemorating victory in the 1924 Olympic Football Tournament still on a wall by the docks - and a realism about the present. The local newspaper on the day I left the city claimed that, Diego Forlan aside, the nation didn't have enough players in the world's top leagues, nor clubs going far in the Libertadores.
Three-and-a-half years on, I returned to Montevideo to cover the Uruguayan reaction to the nation's first World Cup semi-final since 1970. It felt like football in the nation of only 3 million people was on the up again. Penarol's place in the final of the Copa Libertadores, whether or not they win the trophy, feels like confirmation of that fact. A truly classic fixture of 1960s football is back.
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