Copa Sudamericana 2003

The Copa Sudamericana 2003 was the second playout of the second most important South American soccer competition for club teams, which from now on also operated under the name "Copa Nissan Sudamericana" due to the sponsorship of the automobile manufacturer Nissan . In this second season, 35 teams, including defending champion CA San Lorenzo de Almagro , from all 10 member associations of CONMEBOL participated, with Brazilian clubs participating for the first time. These then took part with a record number of 12 teams. As before, the competition was held in the second half of the year. It began on July 30, 2003 with the preliminary round in Brazil and ended on December 19, 2003 with the final second leg in Arequipa Peru. The title went to the Peruvian club Club Sportivo Cienciano .

mode

Compared to the previous year, the mode of competition has changed significantly. The respective winners of the regional elimination rounds qualified for the quarter-finals, with a mixture of group games and a knockout system. From the quarter-finals until the final, the game was played in a pure knockout system with a return game. In the event of a tie for points and goals , the away goal rule applied . If the number of goals scored away from home was the same, a penalty shoot-out followed immediately after the second leg . This rule also applied to the final.

Elimination Argentina

Argentina provided six participants, who determined the two participants in the quarterfinals in two rounds in the knockout system.

1 round

BYE:
Boca Juniors
CA River Plate

The first legs took place on August 12 and 6, and the second legs on August 28 and September 4, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
CA Colón	7: 2	CA Vélez Sarsfield	3: 1	4: 1
CA Independiente	2: 1	Rosario Central	1: 1	1-0

2nd round

The first legs took place on September 17 and 24, the second legs on October 8 and 9, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
CA Independiente	1: 8	CA River Plate	1: 4	0: 4
CA Colón	2: 3	Boca Juniors	1: 1	1: 2

Argentina's representatives for the quarterfinals were CA River Plate and Boca Juniors .

Elimination from Brazil

Group stage

The twelve representatives from Brazil determined the participants in the inner-Brazilian final round, which the respective group winners achieved in four groups of three. The game was played in a simple round of everyone against everyone, so that each team had one home and one away game.

Group 1

	club	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	Points
1.	FC Santos	2	1	1	0	4: 1	4th
2.	SC Internacional	2	1	1	0	4: 2	4th
3.	Flamengo Rio de Janeiro	2	0	0	2	1: 6	0

August 13, 2003
FC Santos	1: 1	SC Internacional
August 27, 2003
SC Internacional	3: 1	Flamengo Rio de Janeiro
September 3, 2003
Flamengo Rio de Janeiro	0: 3	FC Santos

Group 2

	club	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	Points
1.	Fluminense Rio de Janeiro	2	2	0	0	4-0	6th
2.	Atlético Mineiro	2	1	0	1	2: 2	3
3.	Corinthians São Paulo	2	0	0	2	0: 4	0

July 30, 2003
Corinthians São Paulo	0: 2	Atlético Mineiro
August 13, 2003
Fluminense Rio de Janeiro	2-0	Corinthians São Paulo
September 3, 2003
Atlético Mineiro	0: 2	Fluminense Rio de Janeiro

Group 3

	club	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	Points
1.	Sao Paulo FC	2	2	0	0	6: 1	6th
2.	CR Vasco da Gama	2	0	1	1	2: 3	1
3.	Gremio Porto Alegre	2	0	1	1	1: 5	1

July 30, 2003
Gremio Porto Alegre	0: 4	Sao Paulo FC
August 27, 2003
CR Vasco da Gama	1: 1	Gremio Porto Alegre
September 3, 2003
Sao Paulo FC	2: 1	CR Vasco da Gama

Group 4

	club	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	Points
1.	AD Sao Caetano	2	1	1	0	4: 1	4th
2.	Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte	2	1	1	1	2: 1	4th
3.	Palmeiras São Paulo	2	0	0	2	0: 4	0

July 30, 2003
AD Sao Caetano	3-0	Palmeiras São Paulo
August 13, 2003
Palmeiras São Paulo	0: 1	Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte
August 27, 2003
Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte	1: 1	AD Sao Caetano

Final round

The first leg took place on September 17, the second leg on October 1, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
AD Sao Caetano	1: 2	FC Santos	0: 1	1: 1
Sao Paulo FC	2: 1	Fluminense Rio de Janeiro	1-0	1: 1

Brazil's representatives for the quarter-finals were therefore FC Santos and FC São Paulo .

Elimination Bolivia / Venezuela / San Lorenzo

In this round, two representatives each from Bolivia and Venezuela and defending champion San Lorenzo from Argentina identified a participant in the quarter-finals.

1 round

BYE: CA San Lorenzo de Almagro, Club Bolívar, and Club The Strongest

The first leg took place on July 31, 2003, the second leg on August 5, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Monagas SC	1: 3	Deportivo Italia	1: 2	0: 1

2nd round

The first legs took place on August 7th and 14th, the second legs on August 19th and 20th, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Club The Strongest	3: 3 (4: 2 in good condition )	Club Bolívar	2: 2	1: 1
Deportivo Italia	1: 8	CA San Lorenzo de Almagro	1: 2	0: 6

3rd round

The first leg took place on September 16, the second leg on October 7, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Club The Strongest	3: 2	CA San Lorenzo de Almagro	2-0	1: 2

Club The Strongest from Bolivia qualified for the quarter-finals.

Elimination from Chile / Peru

1 round

The first legs took place on August 7 and 5, the second legs on August 26 and September 2, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Club Sportivo Cienciano	2-0	Alianza Lima	1-0	1-0
CD Universidad Católica	2: 2 (5: 3 on account )	Provincial Osorno	0: 1	2: 1

2nd round

The first leg took place on September 25, the second leg on October 2, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Club Sportivo Cienciano	5: 3	CD Universidad Católica	4-0	1: 3

Club Sportivo Cienciano from Peru qualified for the quarter-finals .

Elimination from Ecuador / Colombia

1 round

The first legs took place on July 29 and August 6, the second legs on August 12 and 21, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
LDU Quito	3: 2	Barcelona SC Guayaquil	2-0	1: 2
Deportivo Pasto	1: 2	Atlético Nacional	0-0	1: 2

2nd round

The first leg took place on September 18, the second leg on October 2, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
LDU Quito	1: 2	Atlético Nacional	1: 1	0: 1

Atlético Nacional Medellín from Colombia qualified for the quarter-finals .

Elimination Paraguay / Uruguay

1 round

The first legs took place on August 14th and 26th, the second legs on August 28th and September 18th, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Club Guaraní	1: 1 (2: 4 i.E. )	Club Libertad	0: 1	1-0
Danubio FC	2: 3	Nacional Montevideo	0: 1	2: 2

2nd round

The first leg took place on September 24th, the second leg on September 30th, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Nacional Montevideo	3: 3 (2: 3 in good condition )	Club Libertad	3-0	0: 3

Club Libertad Asunción from Paraguay qualified for the quarter-finals .

Quarter finals

Participants were the eight winners of the regional competitions. The first legs took place on October 16, 22, 23 and 29, the second legs on October 29 and November 5 and 12, 2003.

	total		First leg	Return leg
FC Santos	2: 3	Club Sportivo Cienciano	1: 1	1: 2
Boca Juniors	1: 5	Atlético Nacional	0: 1	1: 4
CA River Plate	2: 1	Club Libertad	2-0	0: 1
Club The Strongest	2: 7	Sao Paulo FC	1: 4	1: 3

Semifinals

The first legs took place on November 13th and 26th, the second legs on December 4th and 3rd.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Atlético Nacional	1: 3	Club Sportivo Cienciano	1: 2	0: 1
CA River Plate	3: 3 (4: 2 in good condition )	Sao Paulo FC	3: 1	0: 2

final

First leg

CA River Plate		Club Sportivo Cienciano
	December 10, 2003 in Buenos Aires ( Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti ) Result: 3: 3 (1: 1) Spectators: 53,000 Referee: Carlos Simon ( Brazil )
	Franco Costanzo - Luis Lobo , Cristian Tula , Ricardo Rojas , Kilian Virviescas - Eduardo Coudet (73rd Alejandro Domínguez ), Oscar Ahumada , Luis González (70th Daniel Ludueña ), Marcelo Gallardo - Daniel Montenegro (61st Marcelo Salas ), Maxi López Coach: Manuel Pellegrini ( Chile )	Oscar Ibáñez - Miguel Llanos (87th Carlos Lobatón ), Carlos Lugo , Santiago Acasiete , Giuliano Portilla - Alessandro Morán , Juan Carlos La Rosa , Juan Carlos Bazalar , Julio César García - Rodrigo Saraz (54th Paolo Maldonado / 91st César Ccahuantico ) , Germán Carty Coach: Freddy Ternero
	1: 1 Maxi López (28th) 2: 1 Maxi López (50th) 3: 3 Marcelo Salas (85th)	0: 1 Giuliano Portilla (26th) 2: 2 Germán Carty (67th) 2-3 Giuliano Portilla (79th)
	Luis Lobo (2nd), Daniel Montenegro (53rd), Marcelo Gallardo (63rd)	Juan Carlos Bazalar (19th), Juan Carlos La Rosa (21st), Alessandro Morán (60th)

Return leg

Club Sportivo Cienciano		CA River Plate
	December 19, 2003 in Arequipa ( Estadio Monumental de la UNSA ) Result: 1: 0 (0: 0) Spectators: 60,000 Referee: Gustavo Méndez ( Uruguay )
	Oscar Ibáñez - Alessandro Morán , Santiago Acasiete , Carlos Lugo , Giuliano Portilla - Juan Carlos La Rosa , Juan Carlos Bazalar (92nd Miguel Llanos ), Julio César García , Paolo Maldonado (58th César Ccahuantico ) - Rodrigo Saraz (83rd Martín García ), Germán Carty Trainer: Freddy Ternero	Franco Costanzo - Oscar Ahumada (85th Daniel Ludueña ), Horacio Ameli , Eduardo Tuzzio , Ricardo Rojas - Eduardo Coudet , Javier Mascherano , Luis González (76th Alejandro Domínguez ), Marcelo Gallardo - Maxi López , Marcelo Salas (16th Daniel Montenegro ) Coach: Manuel Pellegrini ( Chile )
	1-0 Carlos Lugo (78th)
	Alessandro Morán (19th), Oscar Ibáñez (53rd), Germán Carty (84th)	Maxi López (27th), Ricardo Rojas (77th), Eduardo Tuzzio (84th)
	Juan Carlos La Rosa (52nd), Julio César García (84th)

Best goal scorers

rank	player	club	Gates
1	German Carty	Club Sportivo Cienciano	6th
2	Glue	Sao Paulo FC	5
3	Fernando Cavenaghi	CA River Plate	4th
4th	Jefferson Feijao	SC Internacional	3
	Beto Acosta	CA San Lorenzo de Almagro	3

→ Main article : List of Copa Sudamericana top scorers

See also

• Copa Libertadores 2003

Web links

• Game details on rsssf.com (English)