Twelve places have so far been filled, with some high drama along the way.

For a few sweet seconds, for example, Flamengo of Rio thought they had saved themselves from elimination.

Fielding the likes of Ronaldinho and Vagner Love, they should have strolled through, but a disappointing campaign left them needing a combination of results to go their way in last Thursday's final round.

They had to win at home to Lanus of Argentina - the relatively easy part, since their opponents had already made sure of qualification. The hard part came in the other game, which kicked off at the same time. Olimpia of Paraguay and Emelec of Ecuador had to draw.

The winner in Asuncion would go through with Lanus.

"Emelec, Emelec," sang Flamengo fans.

They should have been more careful what they wished for because, by the time the final whistle blew in Rio, the Ecuadorians had turned things round - they led 2-1, with five minutes of stoppage time to play.

Ronaldinho's Flamengo crashed out of the Copa Libertadores. Photo: Getty

The Flamengo crowd applauded their team - Ronaldinho had finally produced a performance worthy of his name - but they were resigned to elimination.

And then Olimpia equalised. Suddenly Rio was about to party. The crowd sung in jubilation, the Flamengo players hugged each other, jumped up and down and gave interviews celebrating their miraculous escape - all cut short and turned to tears by the news that Emelec had gone straight up the other end and scored a 94th minute winner.

And so it is the Ecuadorians who go through, after winning both of their last two games in stoppage time.

But they might not be the biggest surprise team in the last 16. Both Bolivian representatives still have a chance, despite no side from the country making it out of the group phase since 2000.

The Strongest, though, will need to perform a super-human show of strength to progress. They need a win away to reigning champions Santos of Brazil, and it is entirely possible that only a five-goal victory margin will be good enough.

Bolivar, meanwhile, have a much better chance. They only need a draw against Universidad Catolica of Chile, and they are playing at home, where the extreme altitude of La Paz makes life so difficult for the visitors.

But there is a striking detail in Bolivar's campaign because they have picked up more points away than at home. Even more striking is the way they have done it.

Typically, Bolivian sides on their travels will attempt to be ultra-cautious, hanging off their own crossbar like a collection of bats, hiding the ball and praying for the final whistle.

The Bolivar of 2012 are very different. In all three of their away games, they have looked to take the initiative, playing at a high tempo, throwing their full-backs forward, fielding strikers in wide spaces and seeking to set up triangles and create two-against-one situations down the flanks.

Part of the explanation for this bold new approach can be traced back to Barcelona. Angel Hoyos, Bolivar's Argentine coach, was in charge of Barcelona B from 2001-6, during which time he helped a certain Lionel Messi on his way.

After leaving Catalonia he spent five years in Greece and Cyprus, before moving back across the Atlantic to join Bolivar at the start of last year.

Perhaps his finest hour so far in his current job was the 1-0 win away to Junior of Barranquilla in this year's Libertadores. The massive stadium of the Colombian club can be an intimidating arena for visitors, and the heat can be awkward for altitude-based Bolivians.

However, Hoyos' team deserved their win.

"I told the players," he said afterwards, "that they were allowed to lose the game, but they were not allowed to lose the idea, the philosophy and the valiant mentality."

Such a bold approach has its risks. Bolivar can lack the penalty area presence to take advantage of all the width they create, and the attacking approach, especially the high positioning of the full-backs, can leave them alarmingly open.

Last week, away to Union Espanola of Chile, they conceded a type of goal rarely seen in top-class professional football.

The opposing keeper's punt forward left Jaime free down the left channel, one-on-one with Marcos Arguello in the Bolivar goal. Sebastián Jaime nodded past the keeper and the ball seemed to be going in until centre-forward Emanuel Herrera provided the killer touch almost on the line - end-to-end in three touches, one of which may have been superfluous.

But the opposing counter-attack will always be a risk for a team which seeks to take the initiative, and it is surely best for Bolivar to stick to their guns on Tuesday night rather than rely on the fact that a draw is good enough to get them over the line.

Universidad Catolica are dangerous opponents. They have been a huge disappointment in this year's Libertadores, coach Mario Lepe struggling in vain for the right blend, but they are packed with attacking talent and, with Chilean sides more comfortable than most at altitude, they will fancy their chances of saving themselves.

Going all out to exploit Catolica's defensive deficiencies is the home side's best bet as they seek to become the first Bolivian club in more than a decade to reach the knockout stage.

It is the way Bolivar have played it so far, and the way coach Hoyos is making a name for himself.

Comments on the piece in the space provided. Questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I'll pick out a couple for next week.

From last week's postbag:

Q) I have heard a few good things about Paraguayan striker Mauro Caballero, but I have never seen him play myself. I have heard there is interest in him from within Europe, despite him only being 17. Is he actually something special, or is he another that at present is only potential and needs time? I often feel players who cut their teeth in Europe, particularly in Portugal, often do better as professionals. Do you think this path would suit him as well?
Thomas Wright

A) I do hope Caballero could be something special. His dad was a good player, but the son looks better. He has a good left foot, jack-in-the-box penalty area pace and awareness. He is a very exciting talent. With him at Libertad and the strikingly mature Alexis Henriquez at Universidad de Chile, this is proving to be a good Libertadores for 17-year-old strikers!
Of course they need time, and I'd hate either to be rushed into a premature move. The most important thing at this stage is to get first-team opportunities.
I take your point about Portugal - it works well for some, but not nearly as well for others who are deemed surplus to requirements. The Portuguese giants buy up so many South Americans that there simply isn't space for many of them.

Q) I was wondering if you could shed any light on the fortunes of Kerlon? I seem to remember him being the star of an Under-17 tournament, but since he signed for Inter I haven't heard, or seen, anything of him.
Andy Ingram

A) He's trying to get fit enough to play for Nacional of Nova Serrana, a relatively small club who play in the State Championship of Minas Gerais (Brazil).
He did come to prominence in the South American Under-17 tournament seven years ago, where he won instant fame with his 'seal dribble' - running with the ball bouncing off his nose.
He was much more than a trickshow artist, though. He really stood out for the versatility of his attacking midfield talent.
However, two things have stalled his career. First, he became a victim of his party piece, under pressure to produce the 'seal dribble' every time he played. Much worse, though, was a succession of injuries.
They first struck in 2005 - he missed that year's World Under-17 Cup and, ever since, it's been one injury after another. He's been at Nacional for months, and is only now ready to play for a few minutes.
He's now 24, and you fear for him ever launching a senior career - a real shame, because with his quality and imagination he was shaping to be a very interesting player.

On 14 April, 1912 - the very day the Titanic hit an iceberg which caused it to sink - Santos were founded, beginning their rise to become one of the most remarkable clubs in football history.

Santos represent a relatively small city, with a population of a little more than 400,000, which grew to prominence as the port through which much of Brazil's coffee was exported. An hour's climb away is the metropolis of Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city, with more than 11 million inhabitants.

Santos are the reigning champions of South America - a title that Corinthians, Sao Paulo's biggest club, are still waiting to win.

Corinthians are the current domestic champions and are a major force. Sao Paulo FC have been Brazil's most consistent club over recent times and another local giant, Palmeiras, have a glorious history of their own.

The man most responsible for this state of affairs is Pele, who played for the club between 1956 and 1974.

One of football's happy accidents is that the 15-year-old Pele was introduced into a side that already was sensational, with top-class experienced players around him to guide the way.

Neymar is part of Santos' new batch of youngsters coming through the club. Photo: Getty

With such solid foundations, it was not long before the team was built around him.
Santos, Pele and a wonderful supporting cast deserve a mention in any debate about the greatest club side of all time.

Their claims would be greater still had they not opted against playing in the Copa Libertadores, South America's Champions League, after 1965.

They won the tournament in 1962 and 1963, and both times went on to win what was then considered the world title, beating the European champions over two legs.In the first of those duels, they thrashed Benfica 5-1 in Lisbon - a performance Pele considers the finest of his career.

There could have been more occasions like that, but financial considerations weighed heavily. Pele and company had to be paid.

At the time there was no money in the Libertadores - this was before the TV age, and travelling costs were excessive. The solution was to travel the world playing lucrative friendlies.

Pele was happy enough with this arrangement because, at the time, Brazil did not select players who were based abroad. He could tour the globe with Santos and still star in the World Cup.

Incredibly, the tournament rarely saw him at his very best. He was still developing in 1958 and past his athletic prime in 1970.

In 1966 he was kicked out of it, and in 1962, which could have been his finest hour (check out his goal against Mexico) he was injured in the second game.

Even so, the World Cup is the source of much of Pele's prestige. At the time it was the biggest stage in the game, where the connoisseur expected to see the highest level of play and the most interesting tactical advances.

Times have changed, but Santos are still punching way above their weight.
Post-Pele there was an inevitable hangover, but in the last decade the club have come roaring back.

Santos have become known for their youth development work, winning the Brazilian title in 2002 with a team spearheaded by the teenage duo of Diego and Robinho. The outstanding Neymar is the star of the current side, supported by playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso.

And now, in Luis Alvaro Ribeiro, they also have an interesting and ambitious club president. Ribeiro likes to think big.

Many thought that Neymar would already have been sold by now. Instead Ribeiro has brought enough sponsors on board to ensure that the player is already earning European-style wages, and is under contract until 2014.

"But," says Ribeiro, "as a dreamer, I like to imagine that in 2014 Neymar will be Olympic champion and will have won a World Cup in Brazil, so he will be fully satisfied and will stay longer."

The problem is this - even if Ribeiro's predictions come true they will not be enough for Neymar to feel entirely satisfied from a professional point of view.

This is no longer Pele's time. In terms of the level of the game, the World Cup is no longer a reference. It has lost out to Europe's Champions League.

The more stubborn nationalistic South Americans complain that the Champions League is only good because of the foreigners who play in it.

The Champions League is where Lionel Messi confronts Didier Drogba, the meeting point of the best from the four corners of the globe. It is where the best players win each others' respect.

Ribeiro, to his credit, argues extensively that Brazilian clubs need to take on European opposition, and wants a break in the calendar for Santos and others to take part in international pre-season tournaments.

This is a step forward - but more in terms of marketing than in football.

There is a world of difference between a pre-season friendly and a competitive match. Ribeiro should know the difference.

He admits that Santos learned "an extraordinary lesson" when they were hammered by Barcelona in the final of the World Club Cup last December. The change in style of the team owes much to what happened that day.

This, perhaps, is the real long-term task of Luis Alvaro Ribeiro and those who follow him - to push for a calendar that gives the top South American sides more chances to take on their European counterparts on a competitive basis, to have more occasions like Pele's masterclass against Benfica in 1962, the undoubted highlight in the first 100 years of Santos FC.

Peter Fleming was part of an eccentric expedition into the Brazilian jungle in the early 1930s, which he wrote about in a book best remembered for its stand out line.

"Sao Paulo," he mused, "is like Reading, only much further away" - an observation which does, of course, depend on one's starting point, but which contains an excellent piece of insight.

Fleming was kicking against the perception some had in England at the time of Sao Paulo being some Wild West outpost, "the sort of town where tanned and wary men, riding in from great distances, scatter the poultry in the rutted streets and leave their ponies outside the saloon".

The structure of domestic football in Brazil means clubs are not tapping into the potential of a passionate supporter base

Even 20 years ago, Brazilian friends in London were still being asked whether they had electricity at home, or if they saw snakes in the street.

"The truth," continues Fleming, "is very different. As you watch the straw hats bustling in and out of Woolworths you feel - with satisfaction or regret, according to your nature - that here is the South America that matters, the South America of the future. One day the whole sub-continent will be like this."

It is an excellent observation, and one extremely pertinent to the development of football in the region. Because football is the game of the city.

One of the main reasons that football caught on so quickly in this part of the world is precisely because its arrival coincided with an age of huge urban expansion.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in Uruguay grew enormously in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Immigrants flooded in, both from rural areas and from abroad, sailing in from Europe and the Middle East. New connections were made, new ways of life adopted. Football was one of the novelties.

Introduced by the British, the game was originally restricted to the elite. It was the growth of the cities that made it possible for football to slide down the social scale so quickly, to be picked up and reinterpreted by the poor, and for this reinterpretation to lead to international triumphs and recognition for what had been seen as a remote part of the world.

But 80 years after Fleming put pen to paper, the essential truth of his observation has yet to be grasped by those running Brazilian football.

Brazil has huge clubs - based, of course, in the big cities - who can count their supporters in the tens of millions. But in the structure of the way the game is run, the clubs are not so important.

They take second place to the federations - one for each of the 27 states that comprise this giant country. And inside the federations, sheer force of numbers means that the power is with the little clubs - or those who control them.

The outcome is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, a calendar built around the needs of the minnows.

Between mid-January and mid-May, the big clubs are forced to waste their time playing in their respective state championship. They are up against clubs so small they barely deserve to be described as professional.

One game in Rio's first division drew 10 paying supporters. Crowds of under 100 are commonplace. And Flamengo are paying Ronaldinho a fortune to take part.

As well as being an exercise in futility, the state championships throw Brazil's calendar out of sync with the rest of the world. There is no time for a proper pre-season, no gap for the clubs to travel to lucrative pre-season tournaments abroad, and, World Cup year apart, no pause in the middle of the year.

So during last year's Copa America and World Youth Cup, and again during this year's Olympics, Brazil's clubs will be deprived of their best players right at the heart of the season.

Having giants play minnows on a league basis makes no sense. In a cup format, though, it is a completely different matter. A huge part of the charm of a cup competition is the possibility it provides for the little team to seize a moment of glory.

And so while I am dead against Brazil's state championships in the format currently used, I am all in favour of the Brazilian Cup, whose 2012 incarnation is just getting under way.

It is a competition whose cup runneth over with wonderful stories, with remote teams from the north having a crack at some of the big stars from the south east.

The Cup is set to be expanded next year, but as currently played it is contested on a knock-out basis by 64 clubs from all over the country.

Here, too, I would make a change. The ties take place over two legs. To my mind, a single game would be far better.

The league exists to crown the best, most consistent club. With a cup, luck of the draw is all part of the drama, and a greater chance of upsets is something to be celebrated.

I proposed this once on Brazilian TV. My colleagues seemed dumfounded, but I was able to point out that it has worked well enough in the FA Cup for over 140 years.

Cutting back to one leg also suits a country the size of Brazil. Halving the number of games creates space to double the number of participants. With 128 clubs competing on a pure knock-out basis, the chance of the occasional upset is greatly increased.

As Peter Fleming's brother might have commented, a domestic cup competition on those lines would come equipped with a licence to thrill.

Comments on the piece in the space provided. Questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I'll pick out a couple for next week.

From last week's postbag;

Q) Do you think that the abdication (I think is the best word) of Ricardo Teixeira as president of Brazil's FA can help the professionalization of their football?
Bartlomiej Rabij

A) It can't do any harm. But it's not just about Teixeira. It's hard to think of a more dim-witted public figure than Teixeira, but if someone that limited can stay in power for so long (23 years) there is clearly a support structure behind him - which in this case is mainly the presidents of the various state federations, who seem to form a useless layer of bureaucracy.

Fundamental change can only come from the clubs. Can they step up? Can they agree on a way forward for themselves and the future of the game? Brazil has reached its 1992 moment - when the English clubs broke away to form the Premier League. Can Brazil's clubs do something similar, maybe even better?