The first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals is in the books. So far, I don’t know, maybe a few surprises but don’t quote me on it.

On Thursday night Palmeiras and Uruguay’s Nacional kissed their sister at one all. Palmeiras scored the opening salvo when Souza banged home the winner in 55^th minute. A beautiful initial against the grain run by Souza created this goal. His teammate Keirrison fired a frozen rope pass to Souza and all Souza had to do was blast the winner home.

Nacional  applied tremendous pressure from that point on. Nacional’s teenage striker Santiago Garcia slipped through the Swiss cheese Palmeiras defense and knocked home the equalizer in the 80^th minute.

That was the old ball game.

The crowd went bananas after the tie in Palmeiras house.

Now it’s on to Montevideo next week.

www.uol.com.br had a cow over this result. Com o resultado, o Palmeiras precisa de uma vitória simples no jogo da volta para avançar. Um empate por 2 a 2 classifica a equipe brasileira, enquanto um 0 a 0 a elimina da competição. O duelo está marcado para o dia 17 de junho, em Montevidéu, após a disputa das Eliminatórias para a Copa do Mundo.

The basic translation goes like this. Palmeiras didn’t play. Palmeiras need to win instead they tied and this will probably eliminate them from The Copa. This tie will cost them dearly.

They played like crap. They deserved to tie. It was bad.

www.uol.com.br further added:   O Palmeiras baseou boa parte da campanha na Copa Libertadores com bons resultados fora de casa. Agora, o time alviverde precisará mostrar sua força como visitante mais uma vez para avançar à semifinal. Nesta quinta-feira, a equipe de Vanderlei Luxemburgo teve uma atuação irregular contra o Nacional (URU) e cedeu o empate por 1 a 1 aos 35min do segundo tempo diante dos quase 25 mil torcedores no Parque Antarctica.

In the other quarterfinal match played on Thursday, Argentina’s Estudiantes defeated Defensor Sporting in Montevideo 1-0. Desabato headed home a easy winner in the 13^th minute for Estudiantes. This was set up teammate Juan Sebastian Veron’s perfectly placed corner kick.

Estudiantes, Nacional, Cruzeiro, and Gremio have the advantage heading into the next round  that will be played on June 17^th and June 18^th.

Hot off the presses. Boca Juniors fired headman Carlos Ischia yesterday. Boca gave him the heave hoe because the team has been on a steady downhill decline for the past few months. Ischia will manager the team for the last three matches of the season. Rumors  have it that former Boca manager Carlos Bianchi will be hired. Under Bianchi Boca was great. However, his contract states that he will not succeed his close friend Ischia. But you know as well as I contracts are made to be broken.  

Check out these sites. They are hot.

www.palau.org

http://www2.hillsong.com/tv/home.asp

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