Universidad de Chile take Sudamericana title
Reuters - Thursday 15 December 2011, 03:53
Striker Eduardo Vargas
scored twice as a young Universidad de Chile team beat 10-man
LDU Quito 3-0 on Wednesday to lift the Copa Sudamericana, their
first international trophy.
The Chilean league title holders won the two-legged final
4-0 having upset LDU 1-0 with a goal by Vargas, the
competition's top scorer with 11, in Quito last week.
Vargas opened the scoring in the third minute to put "La U"
two-up on aggregate and set the Ecuadorian team, tournament
winners in 2009, a huge task to get back into the tie.
He added a brilliant third goal three minutes from time
after dribbling past two defenders and chipping over goalkeeper
Alexander Dominguez to ecstatic cheering from a capacity 45,000
crowd at the Estadio Nacional.
LDU defender Jorge Guagua was shown a straight red card in
the 68th for elbowing substitute Gustavo Lorenzetti, who 11
minutes later scored the home side's second goal.
Universidad de Chile had Argentine midfielder Matias
Rodriguez sent off for a second booking six minutes from the
end.
"I never imagined I'd achieve this, to be in a squad that
wins such an important cup is to touch the sky with your hands,"
Universidad de Chile's Argentine-born striker Gustavo Canales
told Fox Sports.
The Chilean team, coached by Jorge Sampaoli who has spent
all his coaching career outside his native Argentina, were
unbeaten through the tournament, winning 10 of their 12 matches
and scoring 21 goals and conceding two.
"We were aware we played a different game (from the other
teams), never renouncing the priority to attack," Canales added
of Sampaoli's penchant for constant possession and attack.
"La U", unbeaten in 35 matches, won the domestic Apertura
title in the first half of the year and have reached the
semi-finals of the Clausura.
The Copa Sudamericana is South America's second most
important club competition after the Copa Libertadores, the
region's champions league which Universidad de Chile's
arch-rivals Colo Colo won in 1991.