2002 Copa Sudamericana

The 2002 Copa Sudamericana was the inaugural Copa Sudamericana, a club association football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. It took place between August 28 and December 11. After the failure in creating a Pan-American Cup to be played among teams from the entire American continent, CONMEBOL decided to create another tournament bearing the continent's name. Nine association's clubs entered the first competition, with one not sending a representative; Brazilian clubs did not participate due to the late organization of the tournament and schedule conflicts.

The first match of the competition took place between Venezuelan sides Nacional Táchira and Monagas in San Cristóbal, Venezuela. During the match, Carlos Bravo became the first player to score a goal in the competition. Pierre Webó, a player from Cameroon playing for Nacional, became the first non-South American topscorer of any South American tournament. San Lorenzo, invited for being the winners of the 2001 Copa Mercosur, won the competition after thrashing Atlético Nacional 4-0 on aggregate and became the first winners of the Copa Sudamericana.

Qualified teams

Tie-breaking criteria

At each stage of the tournament teams receive 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and no points for a loss. Based on Article 15 in the CONMEBOL regulations, if two or more teams are equal on points, the following criteria will be applied to determine the ranking in the group stage:

1. superior goal......

Read More