Copa Mercosur
The trophy awarded to champions
Organizing bodyCONMEBOL
Founded1998
Abolished2001 (2001)
RegionSouth America
Number of teams20
Related competitionsCopa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)Brazil Palmeiras
Brazil Flamengo
Brazil Vasco
Argentina San Lorenzo
(1 title each)
Television broadcastersPSN

The Copa Mercosur (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkopa meɾkoˈsuɾ], Portuguese: Copa Mercosul [ˈkɔpɐ meʁkoˈsuw], "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV money to the participating teams, but it went beyond and ended up, together with the Copa Merconorte, as natural replacement to the CONMEBOL Cup. These two, Copa Merconorte and Copa Mercosur, were replaced in 2002 by the Copa Sudamericana.

Format

Twenty teams played in the tournament. The teams were divided in five groups of four teams each and the matches were played in two legs. The group winners and the best three runners-up qualified for the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, the semifinals were played in two legs. In 1998 and 2000 the finals were played in three legs. In 1999 and 2001 the finals were played in two legs.

Final venues

Throughout the brief history of the competition a total of five venues were used to host the final series:

Belo Horizonte São Paulo Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Buenos Aires
Mineirão Estádio Palestra Itália Maracanã Stadium Estádio São Januário Estadio Pedro Bidegain
Capacity: 61,800 Capacity: 27,600 Capacity: 78,800 Capacity: 24,500 Capacity: 48,000

Finals

Year Country Champion Runner-up Country 1st leg 1st leg
Venue
2nd leg 2st leg
Venue
Playoff Playoff
Venue
1998 BRAPalmeirasCruzeiro BRA
1–2
Mineirão
3–1
Palestra Itália
1–0
Palestra Itália
1999 BRAFlamengoPalmeiras BRA
4–3
Maracanã
3–3
Palestra Itália
2000 BRAVasco da GamaPalmeiras BRA
2–0
São Januário
0–1
Palestra Itália
4–3
Palestra Itália
2001 ARGSan LorenzoFlamengo BRA
0–0
Maracanã
1–1 (4–3 p)
Pedro Bidegain
Keys
  •   Match decided by a penalty shootout after extra time
  •   Match playoff after the series ended tied on aggregate

Performances

By club

Team Won Runner-up Years won Years runner-up
Brazil Palmeiras1219981999, 2000
Brazil Flamengo1119992001
Argentina San Lorenzo102001
Brazil Vasco da Gama102000
Brazil Cruzeiro01
1998

By country

Country Won Runners-Up Winning Clubs Runners-Up
 Brazil34Flamengo (1); Palmeiras (1); Vasco da Gama (1)Palmeiras (2); Flamengo (1); Cruzeiro (1)
 Argentina10San Lorenzo (1)

Top scorers

Year Player (team) Goals
1998 Brazil Alex (Palmeiras)
Brazil Fábio Júnior (Cruzeiro)
6
1999 Brazil Romário (Flamengo) 8
2000 Brazil Romário (Vasco da Gama) 11
2001 Argentina Bernardo Romeo (San Lorenzo) 10

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.