Greetings.

Indeed a kick off, for me, being my first post here in OleOle(please, don't be too harsh on my butt :P) and a kick off for Venezuela's Primera Division Apertura Tournament.

This Saturday the First Division started with new teams in an attempt to put football as close as possible to baseball in popularity. We have jumped from 10 teams to 18 teams, the new 8 ones being mostly from the second division and a few new ones, hoping it will increase the local football league competitiveness, its "jogo bonito"(for a lack of a better word that could replace "Vistosidad" in spanish)thus increasing its popularity among locas and TV stations alike. And will make the perfect excuse to use all the stadiums inherited from the Copa America and not letting them rot.

We have the "classic"(some of them have been renamed, though) teams: Union Atletico Maracaibo, Caracas FC, Mineros de Guayana, Zamora FC, Carabobo FC, Deportivo Tachira, Portuguesa FC, Aragua FC, Monagas Sport Club and Trujillanos FC. And the new comers: Atletico Vigia, Guaros de Lara FC(Guaros being the term of those that come from Lara state), Estudiantes de Merida, Union Lara, Deportivo Anzoategui, Llaneros FC, Deportivo Italia(formerly known as Deportivo Italchacao) and Estrella Roja FC(a curious one since its backed by the Armed Forces).

The first games look promising, actually. This Sunday's match had a nice attendance with a average of 16,000 people per game, the lowest one being Caracas FC game against Aragua FC which only gathered 6,000 people. The rest of the matches were around 14,000 to 19,000. Not too shabby for a country where baseball tends to be more popular than anything else, if you ask me.

Also, the rise in teams' number allowed to revive the long defunct Copa Venezuela, in which the winner might clasify to the Copa Sudamericana(that's "we'll see" still).

So, I hope this blog sheds some light on this obscure league(for most of the people here, anyway) which couldn't care less about it, either way.

Mind you, there won't be many posts about the matches, but I'll try. Nor there will be fancy AP, EFE, AFP or Reuters shots as seen in the Copa America, we are not that popular...yet.

Until next time.