Atlético Nacional

Club Atlético Nacional S. A., also known as Atlético Nacional, is a professional Colombian football team based in Medellín, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. Considered to be one of the strongest clubs from Colombia, it is one of the most consistent clubs in the country.

The club was founded on 7 March 1947 by former president of the league of Antioquia, Luis Alberto Villegas López. The club was first placed under the name of Club Atlético Municipal de Medellín. In 1996, the company in which administrated the club, Organización Ardila Lülle, officially acquired Nacional. Many Colombian legends have originated from Nacional such as René Higuita, Juan Camilo Zúñiga, Iván Córdoba, Juan Pablo Ángel, David Ospina and most noticeably, Andrés Escobar and Víctor Aristizábal, among many others.

They play their home games at the Atanasio Girardot stadium, with a capacity of over 40,000. They share the same stadium with local bitter rivals, Independiente Medellín, said rivalry is known as El Clásico Paisa. Infamous for its aggressive background, it is considered to be one of the most important derbies in Colombia, as well as one of the most important in South America. All while being recognized by FIFA as a 'classic' match-up. Nacional is also known to have rivalries with Millonarios by the El Clásico de la rivalidad regional derby, and América de Cali. Although these rivalries are based on rivaling success; with Millonarios originally being the club that had the most domestic trophies before Nacional surpassed their count in 2015, whereas America has met with Nacional on numerous occasions during league/cup finals.

Copa Libertadores

The Copa Libertadores de América (Portuguese: Copa Libertadores da América) is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in Latin American football. The tournament is named in honor of the Libertadores (Spanish and Portuguese for liberators), the main leaders of the South American wars of independence, so a literal translation of its name into English would be "Liberators of America Cup".

It is sponsored by Bridgestone and is known as the Copa Bridgestone Libertadores. The competition has had several different formats over its lifetime. At the beginning, only the champions of the South American leagues participated. In 1966, the runners-up of the South American leagues began to join. In 1998, Mexican teams were invited to compete, and have contested regularly since 2000, when the tournament was expanded from 20 to 32 teams. Today at least three clubs per country compete in the tournament, while Argentina and Brazil each have five clubs participating. Traditionally, a group stage has always been used but the number of teams per group has varied several times.

2016 Copa Sudamericana

The 2016 Copa Sudamericana (Portuguese: 2016 Copa Sul-Americana) will be the 15th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The winner will qualify for the 2017 Copa Libertadores, the 2017 Recopa Sudamericana, and the 2017 Suruga Bank Championship. Santa Fe are the defending champions.

Teams

The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL member associations qualified for the tournament:

Among them, 32 teams (from the eight associations other than Argentina and Brazil, excluding the title holders) are entered in the first stage, 14 teams (from Argentina and Brazil, excluding the title holders) are entered in the second stage, and the title holders are entered in the round of 16.

Copa Sudamericana

The Copa Sudamericana (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa suðameɾiˈkana]; Portuguese: Copa Sul-Americana [ˈkɔpɐ ˈsuw ɐmeɾiˈkɐnɐ]) is an annual international club football competition organized by the CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second most prestigious club competition in South American football. CONCACAF clubs were invited between 2004 and 2008. The Copa Sudamerican began in 2002, replacing the separate competitions Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur (that before replaced Copa Conmebol) by a single competition. Since its introduction, the competition has been a pure elimination tournament with the number of rounds and teams varying from year to year.

The Copa Sudamericana is considered a merger of defunct tournaments such as the Copa CONMEBOL, Copa Mercosur and Copa Merconorte. The winner of the Copa Sudamericana becomes eligible to play in the Recopa Sudamericana. They also gain entry onto the next edition of the Copa Libertadores, South America's premier club competition. They also contest the Suruga Bank Championship.

Cerro Porteño

Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Barrio Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 31 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay. Its main rivals are Club Olimpia and Club Libertad.

They play their home games at the General Pablo Rojas Stadium, also known as La Olla (The Boiler).

History

Cerro Porteño was founded on October 1, 1912 by Susana Núñez and a group of young people looking to create a new football club. At the time of Cerro's foundation the situation in Paraguay was tense with instability in the government caused by the fervent rivalries between the two leading political parties, the Partido Colorado (Colorado Party) and the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party). Because of the tensions, the founders of the club decided to use the colours of both parties, red (Colorados) and blue (Liberales), as the club's colours as a symbol of unity and friendship between Paraguayans. Later, white was used on the shorts to complete the colours of the Paraguayan flag.