The biggest trend so far has seen "smaller" clubs defeat some of the continent's heavyweight clubs, indicating that there could soon be a shift of power in South America's most prestigious club competition.

It all started off with defeats to three Argentine giants, San Lorenzo, River Plate, and Estudiantes de La Plata, against rather unfashionable clubs from Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador, three countries who have never had one of their team's crowned as the South American champions.

But on Thursday night, Argentine Apertura Champions Lanus demonstrated that they are still the club who play the best football in Argentina, after defeating tough opposition in Danubio of Uruguay 3-1, in the South of Buenos Aires.

Brazilian clubs, on the other hand, have been in very good form so far, Cruzeiro, a team that are much fancied to win the whole thing, thrashed Real Potoso of Bolivia 3-0 in Belo Horizonte, proving their superiority.

While Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro picked up a vital point from their visit to Coronel Bolognesi of Peru, as did Santos, who drew 0-0 with last year's revelation team Cucuta Deportivo, in Colombia.

Uruguayan clubs Club Nacional de Football and Danubio, faced tricky tests against Cienciano and Lanus, and not surprisingly they both fell to defeats.

Nacional, who are three-time Libertadores winners, did relatively well against Cienciano in the altitude of Cusco, but ended up losing 2-1, while Danubio deserved much better in their 3-1 loss against Argentine champions Lanus.

South American heavyweights Boca Juniors and Sao Paulo have yet to debut in the competition, as haven't Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro, a team that are expected to turn some heads this season.

From all the teams that have seen some action so far in the competition, the teams who have been the most impressive are Cruzeiro, Lanus, and San Martin of Peru, who really put on a good show as they eased past a lacklustre River Plate outfit.

But in the next couple of weeks we will find out which teams are really here for the long run, expect these to be the likes of Boca Juniors, Sao Paulo, Cruzeiro, Lanus, and maybe River Plate and Flamengo.

Players who have impressed in the first week of matches include, Cruzeiro's Bolivian striker Marcelo Moreno, Deportivo Cuenca goalkeeper Javier Klimowicz, Cienciano's tricky Japanese striker Masakatsu Sawa, and San Martin's Jose Luis Diaz, who scored one of the best goals of the competition so far, with a sensational last minute solo effort against River Plate.

The first week of the '08 Copa Libertadores has shown that clubs from the less traditional South American nations are catching up very quickly, but we will get a better idea of their progress in the next few weeks, especially when these clubs play their away matches.

Another interesting trend from the first week is that not a single team has lost at home so far, after eight matches.

Time will tell if one of them can replicate the achievements of the likes of Once Caldas, a seemingly unworthy Colombian club that won their first-ever Copa Libertadores title in 2004.

Copa Libertadores First Week Results

Group 1:

Caracas FC 2-0 San Lorenzo

Cruzeiro 3-0 Real Potosi

Group 2:

Deportivo Cuenca 1-0 Estudiantes

Lanus 3-1 Danubio

Group 4:

Coronel Bolognesi 0-0 Flamengo

Cienciano 2-1 Nacional

Group 5:

San Martin 2-0 River Plate

Group 6:

Cucuta Deportivo 0-0 Santos