River, América primed to fight for Sudamericana glory

Scoring machine Radamel Falcao García has helped put River Plate on the verge of ending its international-trophy drought. Alejandro Pagni/AFP/Getty Images

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Few South American clubs can compare to the success of River Plate. The Argentine powerhouse has established itself as an organization of the highest stature.

But even though River constantly produces players of the highest order, it hasn't won a single major international trophy in more than 10 years. And to top it off, River watched as its archrival, Boca Juniors, made off with their sixth Copa Libertadores trophy this past summer.

The drought is about to end. River has a great opportunity to finally put its misery behind it. Los Millonarios reached the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana last week, and are in a very good position to advance to the championship decider of South America's second-biggest club tournament.

The club standing in River's way is Arsenal, whom it meets in Sarandí, Argentina, on Thursday night. Arsenal may be the least-supported club in the Argentine first division, but is a team that has proven it has what it takes to defeat the very best teams in the competition.

Arsenal demonstrated its strength after eliminating both Chivas de Guadalajara and Argentine Clausura champion San Lorenzo on its way to the semis. Particularly eye-catching was that it beat both these teams on the road after being held at home in both first-leg matches. Unfortunately, Arsenal's luck is likely to run out against a River Plate side that has finally found its identity this season.

River struggled under the direction of Daniel Passarella earlier in the year, but after a number of major setbacks, it was finally able to demonstrate its fighting spirit in the Sudamericana.

Los Millonarios scraped into the semis of the competition after a hard-earned scoreless draw against Defensor Sporting at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires. River only overcame the difficult Uruguayans on the away-goals rule, but that was after fighting for a vital 2-2 draw in Montevideo.

Before that, an amazing late rally saw River edge Brazil's Botafogo 4-3 on aggregate in the last 16. River scored three times in the final 16 minutes of the second leg, including Radamel Falcao García's injury-time winner that sent them through. But even though River seems to have found its form at this decisive stage of the season, it must be aware of the competition it faces en route to the title.

The other interesting semifinal matchup, which kicks off Wednesday night, is between former Colombian great Millonarios and Mexican power Club América.

Millonarios, whose only international title was the 2001 Copa Merconorte, have experienced an outstanding campaign, and are likely to be an extremely difficult opponent for the Mexicans. They reached this stage of the competition after eliminating two South American giants, the always dangerous Colo-Colo and São Paulo.

Its 3-0 aggregate victory over São Paulo was particularly impressive. In the first leg at the Morumbí, the Colombians absorbed heavy pressure from the Brazilians, and after lots of patience, picked up a vital 1-0 victory with a late, but incredibly easy winner from Luis Zapata. Then, in the second leg in Bogotá, Millonarios cruised to a comfortable 2-0 victory over the Brazilians with two goals from experienced midfielder Ricardo Ciciliano.

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