08/19/2021 7:00
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/19/2021 7:00 AM
There will be some who attribute a mystical quota to the triumph of the Argentine National Team at Maracana, which ended the 28-year drought without titles in the perfect setting to lift the Copa América.
And that such an achievement brought about a series of sporting setbacks, even more so when the rival is the popular neighboring country.
Others will choose the path of victimization, with greater or lesser reason, due to the arbitration decisions of the main judge and his assistants in the VAR, which especially harmed Boca and Rosario Central for the benefit of the Brazilian teams.
But beyond sports arguments or extra-
football
excuses, there is a scenario that defines realities:
Brazilian football stands ahead of Argentina in every way
and, beyond the resilience that always appears in the representatives of our country, the evidence was clear both in the Copa Libertadores and in the Copa Sudamericana.
Palmeiras champion of the 2020 Libertadores, which was defined in January of this year.
Photo: REUTERS / Silvia Izquierdo.
The final result was recorded this Tuesday night: with the elimination of River against Atlético Mineiro,
there is no longer a single national representative
in the South American tournaments.
It is worth going back to the month of July and looking at the tables of the round of 16 to understand the diagnosis: 9 Argentine teams started the race, 6 of them in the Libertadores and 3 in the South American.
All were eliminated.
While Brazil had 10 representatives (6 in Libertadores and 4 in Sudamericana), with 7 still in the running for a cup.
Central made a good series against Bragantino but lost in Arroyito and in Brazil.
Photo: Alexandre Schneider / POOL / AFP.
This week, Bragantino left out Central, the last of the Argentines who remained in the second tournament in continental importance.
And there may be three Brazilian teams in the semis if Santos (against Libertad) and Athletico Paranaense (against Liga de Quito) advance this Thursday.
In the Libertadores it is no coincidence that three of the last four champions are from the Verdeamarela land: Gremio 2017, Flamengo 2019 and Palmeiras 2020. In the same way, it is not random that the remaining winner is River (in 2018), which in this edition was the national team that went the furthest.
It is not by chance that Marcelo Gallardo's team is left out of the semifinals after four consecutive seasons in which at least it was among the top four.
Gabriel Barbosa, the Flamengo star who remains current in the Rio team.
Photo: Evaristo Sa / Pool via AP.
The economic factor is also decisive
.
The distances are abysmal between the greats of Brazil and those of Argentina.
Palmeiras, the champion of the last Libertadores and semifinalist in the current contest after eliminating San Pablo in the quarterfinals, has Crefisa as the main sponsor and receives 21 million dollars per year for that.
With royalties, the figure can climb to 32.
But the question does not end there: the credit company has contributed extra money to close incorporations and do business with the players.
For example, they were the ones who bought the Colombian Miguel Borja.
In addition, in 2020 Palmeiras pocketed $ 6 million from Puma.
If the magnifying glass is put on Flamengo, another that has already been installed among the four best in the continent after dispatching Olympia, the numbers are just as impressive. The Fla receives around 28 million dollars between all the sponsors; Adidas also pays him $ 7,500,000. The main sponsor of the Rio de Janeiro cast is the Bank of Brasilia, the city where those led by Renato faced Defense and Justice with 18 thousand spectators. The club and the entity formed the BRB FLA society, which already has one million clients. And the market value is $ 960 million.
These differences descend to the court in the form of a waterfall.
Some notable examples are worth noting, such as that of
Nacho Fernández
, the fetish footballer of the Gallardo era, figure in the conquest against Boca in Madrid and emblem of the team,
was bought by Atlético Mineiro
and made a key difference with his goal in the first leg in the Monumental.
Nacho Fernández scored 1-0 for Mineiro at the Monumental.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll.
River could never find a replacement of Nacho's level.
And much less have the resources to go out and buy it.
What's more, he lost his top scorer, Rafael Santos Borré in the middle of the competition.
In Boca, which has just fired Miguel Angel Russo, the coach with whom he reached continental glory for the last time in 2007, each passing market that opens seems like the latent opportunity to get the long-awaited center-forward, a position in which no Wanchope Ábila achieved stability, Carlos Tevez and Mauro Zárate rotated with disparate performances, Franco Soldano never fit in and now Norberto Briasco suffers.
In parallel, Flamengo continues to enjoy Gabigol, Mineiro enjoys an area animal like Hulk and Palmeiras has Rony.
In the last days.
El Galo also ensured the arrival of World Cup winner Diego Costa, who will play for the first time in his country (he is a Spanish national) after 15 years in European football.
To say it in Creole, there they return and from here they leave.
Diego Costa, a new hire for Mineiro, who had the luxury of hiring him before playing with River.
Photo: REUTERS / Yuri Edmundo.
"This is not normal ...", Riquelme warned before Boca faced Mineiro, aware that his team gave advantages over their rival.
The today leader xeneize expressed his concern about the lack of filming that his team had compared to the Brazilians, who had been competing for months, without cutting during the Copa América.
Román's analysis, very much noted these days but giving account of its clarity, also reaches the rest of the Argentine teams, which started the semester playing the most important game of the year, without the performance that is gained with the running of the games .
In that case, the responsibility lay with the Argentine soccer leaders who drew up a calendar that did not take into account the international competition of their own clubs.
It will be enough to learn from mistakes not to repeat them, a maxim that will be difficult to accept in the internal constant that exists between the AFA and the Professional Football League.
Once again, Brazil will have a guaranteed presence in the final of the Libertadores at the Centenario stadium in Montevideo.
There will be at least one representative, the one who passes the Palmeiras-Mineiro key.
But it could be a complete duel if Fluminense advances on the other side of the table (he will play with Barcelona from Guayaquil or Flamengo, another Brazilian).
And so repeat the definition with a Portuguese accent that was given in January of this year, when Palmeiras beat Santos.
Soccer has a higher rate of unpredictability than any other sport.
And in a match that imprint of the Argentine teams of recovering from any adversity and giving the size in hostile scenarios can appear.
The point is that in the long run, when you put the photo aside and watch the movie,
history repeats itself and the differences widen
.
Of consolation, the smile of Lionel Messi remains fresh, raising the Copa América to the sky of Maracana for a postponed celebration of all Argentina.
Messi touched the sky in the Maracana.
But at the club level the joy is only Brazilian.
Photo: AP Photo / Bruna Prado.
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