2015 Copa Sudamericana
The 2015 Copa Sudamericana () was the 14th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Colombian team Santa Fe qualified to play in the 2016 Copa Libertadores, the 2016 Recopa Sudamericana, and the 2016 Suruga Bank Championship, after winning the final against Argentinian team Huracán 3–1 on penalties (0–0 on aggregate after extra time). River Plate were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Huracán in the semifinals. Teams. The following 47 teams from the 10 CONMEBOL associations qualified for the tournament: The entry stage is determined as follows: Draw . The draw of the tournament was held on July 16, 2015 at the CONMEBOL Convention Centre in Luque, Paraguay. For the first stage, the 32 teams were divided into two zones: Teams which qualified for berths 1 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 4, and teams which qualified for berths 2 were drawn against teams which qualified for berths 3, with the former hosting the second leg in both cases. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie. For the second stage, the 30 teams, including the 16 winners of the first stage  (eight from South Zone, eight from North Zone), whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, and the 14 teams which entered the second stage, were divided into three sections: Schedule. The schedule of the competition was as follows (all dates listed were Wednesdays, but matches could also be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well). Elimination stages. In the elimination stages (first stage and second stage), each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule was used. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out was  used to determine the winner (no extra time was played). The 15 winners of the second stage (eight from winners of the first stage, four from Brazil, three from Argentina) advanced to the round of 16 to join the defending champions (River Plate). Final stages. In the final stages, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the following rules: The qualified teams were seeded in the final stages according to the draw of the tournament, with each team assigned a "seed" 1–16 by draw. Semifinals. Since there were two semifinalists from Argentina, they had to play each other  instead of their original opponents as determined by the seeding. Finals. The finals were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg. If tied on aggregate, the away goals rule would not be used, and 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If still tied after extra time, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.