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February 1, 2016

2016 Copa Libertadores, map of the 38 clubs in the competition; featuring 2015 Copa Libertadores champions River Plate.

Filed under: Copa Libertadores — admin @ 10:19 pm

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2016 Copa Libertadores, map of the 38 clubs in the competition





Links…
-Video-with-goals of the 2nd leg, 2015 Copa Libertadores Finals…River Plate 3×0 Tigres – Copa Libertadores 2015 – Final (1:36 video uploaded by FootballMania at youtube.com).
-Fixtures…COPA LIBERTADORES [2016/1st Stage].
-Fixtures…COPA LIBERTADORES [2016/2nd Stage/aka Group Stage] (soccerway.com).
-Competition…Copa Libertadores
-Teams…2016 Copa Libertadores/Teams (en.wikipedia.org).

    2016 Copa Libertadores, map of the 38 clubs in the competition; featuring 2015 Copa Libertadores champions River Plate

By Bill Turianski on 1 February 2016; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.
Map…
The map shows the locations of the 38 clubs who have qualified for the 2016 Copa Libertadores. In the profile boxes flanking the map are the clubs, sorted by home-country. The profile boxes show: the club’s name, plus…
1). Their city-location,
2). Their stadia and capacities,
3). Their means of qualifying,
4). Their pro national titles,
5). Their total Copa Libertadores appearances (with their last appearance noted),
6). Their Copa Libertadores titles (with their last title noted).
7). Club crests and current home kits are also included in the profile boxes.

Format of the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores (it is very similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League)…
2016 will be the 57th edition of the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores de América, known in the English-speaking football world as the Copa Libertadores. The competition begins in early February, when the preliminaries [official name: the "First Stage"] whittle down the 12 lowest-seeded teams into 6. {Here are the First Stage match-ups (en.wikipedia.org).}

Those 6 teams which win their Preliminaries/First Stage ties advance to the Group Stage [official name: the "Second Stage"]. Just like the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, the Copa Libertadores “Second Stage” has 32 teams seeded into 8 groups of 4. {Here are the Second Stage groups (en.wikipedia.org).}

The Group Stage/Second Stage begins in mid-February and is a 6-game round-robin format, which runs through to late April. The top 2 in each group (16 teams total) advance to the Knockout Rounds [official name: the "Final Stages"]. The Knockout Rounds/Final Stages begin in early May, and are also seeded, and all are two-legged ties with away-goals rule. The Finals, unlike the UEFA Champions League Final, is also a two-legged match-up, but with no away-goals rule.

River Plate are Cup Holders…
Reigning Copa Libertadores champions are the Argentinian giants River Plate, of Buenos Aires, who, on 5 August 2015, won their third Copa Libertadores title (and their first Copa Libertadores title in 18 years), by beating Tigres de la UANL (of Monterrey, Mexico), by the score of 3-0 aggregate. Note: There is an illustration further below on the 2016 Copa Libertadores 2nd-Leg of the Finals (River Plate 3-0 UANL de Tigres, at Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, before a full-capacity crowd of 71,000 on 5 Aug.2015).

Qualification…
As to who qualifies for the Copa Libertadores each season (from the 10 South American countries within CONMEBOL), the simple explanations are…
A). The Copa Libertadores winner, aka the Cup Holder [again, currently, River Plate of Buenos Aires], automatically qualifies for the Copa Libertadores the following season.
B). Brazil and Argentina get 5 Copa Libertadores spots each season, while the other 8 South American countries in CONMEBOL get 3 Copa Libertadores spots each.
C). The higher-seeded Copa Libertadores spots are generally awarded thus…a spot or 2 spots goes to the title-winner or title-winners from the previous season…from each of the 10 countries.
D). Plus, usually, a Copa Libertadores spot goes to the country’s second-place-finisher the previous season (and spots go to the 3rd-and-4th-place finishers from the previous season in Brazil).
E). Finally, the third-or-final Copa Libertadores spot in each country usually goes to the national Cup winner there in each country.
F). Argentina has the most complicated qualifying format, featuring one Copa Libetadores spot going to the winner of a post-season-mini-league tournament for 3rd-through-6th-place-league-finishers (that mini-tournament is called the Liguilla Pre-Libertadores). And Argentina, alone of the 10 South American countries in CONMEBOL, rewards their best-finisher-in-the-Copa-Sudamericana with a Copa Libertadores spot the following season (this is brilliant, and it helps keep the Copa Sudamericana relevant in Argentina). [The Copa Sudamericana is South America's less-prestigious/also-rans-competition, it being analogous to UEFA's Europa League.]
G). The Copa Sudamericana winner automatically qualifies for the Copa Libertadores the next season. (Copa Sudamericana.) When that club has not qualified via other means, one of the spots for that club’s country gets bumped over to the Copa Sudamerica winner (usually that spot is the the 3rd-spot/best-non-champions-not-yet-qualified).
Since 2011, none of Mexico’s 3 Copa Libertadores spots go to the league champions, and are awarded in a bat-shit-crazy way…
H). Since 2011, Mexico bizarrely places their champions (from the previous Clausura & Apertura seasons) into the way-less prestigious CONCACAF Champions League, and Mexico places the next-best finishers in the way-more prestigious Copa Libertadores. {See this, Liga MX/CONCACAF Champions League qualification/Copa Libertadores qualification.} I am pretty sure they (the Mexican football authorities) do this so that they have a better chance of having a Mexican team win that tin-pot tournament (which USA-&-Canada-based teams from MLS never win/14 years running), and thus have a Mexican team qualify for another tin-pot tournament, the FIFA Club World Cup. You see, if a Mexican team ever wins a Copa Libertadores title, that club – because it is not part of CONMEBOL – would not be allowed to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup (a tournament which is vastly ignored by European football fans). Mexican football authorities would rather their best clubs qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup – which a Mexican team has never actually won. It is beyond me why anyone, given the option, would want their best teams to play in the lame CONCACAF Champions League, as opposed to the mighty Copa Libertadores. I mean come on – try to find a top-shelf-caliber player who would rather play in the CONCACAF Champions League as opposed to the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores. You will not find one, because the CONCACAF Champions League is bush-league. It would be like trying to find someone who would rather play in the Canadian Football League instead of the NFL. Actually what the Mexican football authorities have done by sending non-champions to fill their Copa Libertadores spots is this…they have tweaked it so that their best teams go play in a tin-pot-tournament (CONCACAF Champions League) in order to then have their best teams then get a better chance of qualifying foranother tin-pot-tournament (the FIFA Club World Cup). Hey Mexico, why are you so driven to win a FIFA Club World Cup title? Because it ain’t much of a title. Elite European football clubs give a rat’s ass about that stupid tournament, and so do most fans of European club football. You (Mexico) should be trying to get your best clubs on track to finally win your first-ever Copa Libertadores title. Because Mexican clubs are getting closer to winning a first Copa Libertadores title, but meanwhile, by not sending their top three clubs, the Mexican football authorities are undermining their competitiveness in the competition. Mexican clubs have made it to the Copa Libertadores Finals three times…in 2001, with Cruz Azul losing to Boca Juniors 1-1 aggregate on penalties; in 2010, with Guadalajara losing to Internacional 5-3 aggregate; and last year in 2015, with Tigres de UANL losing to River Plate 3-0 aggregate. It stands to reason that the top Mexican teams would have fared better than the also-rans. Sheesh. Talk about misplaced priorities. Mexican pro futbol is cheapening their brand by sending their also-rans to the Copa Libertadores. Because the Copa Libertadores is, hands down, not only the pinnacle of professional football competitions in South America, it is the greatest football competition in all of the Western Hemisphere.

    2015 Copa Libertadores champions: CA River Plate.

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Photo credits above – Lucas Alario celebrates his goal, photo by Amilcar Orfali/STR at gettyimages.com. Carlos Sanchez penalty kick goal, photo by Gabriel Rossi/STF at gettyimages.com. Funes Mori celebrating goal, photo by AFP/Getty Images via dailymail.co.uk/sport/football. River Plate coach Marcelo Gallardo celebrates with players, photo by Gabriel Rossi/STF at gettyimages.de. Screenshot of video, River Plate Champions of the Copa Libertadores 2015 River plate vs Tigres 3-0 (05/08/2015) (uploaded by ChrisRon 7 at youtube.com). Photo of River players celebrating with trophy, photo by Reuters via telesurtv.net.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
2016 Copa Libertadores/Teams (en.wikipedia.org).
-Copa Libertadores (1960-2015) Club Histories…Copa Libertadores 1960-2015 Club Histories (rsssf.com).

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