Argentina Football Previews

Super Clasico / Round 2 / The last River - Boca...until when ?

2012-01-29T00:42:00.004-03:00

Only 10 days left for Clausura 2012, Copa Libertadores has already started, but once again Argentina's football stops tonight to see another edition of the Super Clasico between River and Boca.

The 1st leg was a solid 2-0 win for the Apertura champion, who seems to take this 2nd leg a little bit more relaxed.
Coach Julio Falcioni didn't confirm the starting lineup, but it's almost a certainty that he will mix 3 young players (left defender Sanchez Miño, midfielder Erbes and striker Araujo) with some of the usual regulars.
Once again midfielder Diego Rivero, striker Cvitanich and playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme won't be available.

For River things are a little more serious. They started last Wednesday's game with high confidence, but everything went wrong for them after Boca's first goal.
Rumors said that they would use some reserves, but coach Matias Almeyda decided to use his best team, except of course for playmaker Alejandro "Chori" Dominguez who was sent off in the previous game.

Is this going to be the last Super Clasico of 2012 ? or will River get promoted back to 1st division and they will meet again in the next semester ?

One thing is for sure: this is a game that no one wants to miss, even if it's nothing else but a friendly.

Probable Lineups:

Boca Juniors: Agustín Orión; Franco Sosa, Rolando Schiavi, Juan Insaurralde, Juan Sánchez Miño; Pablo Ledesma, Leandro Somoza or Cristian Erbes, Walter Erviti; Cristian Chavez; Sergio Araujo, Nicolás Blandi.

River Plate: Daniel Vega; Luciano Abecasis, Jonatan Maidana, Ramiro Funes Mori, Juan Manuel Díaz; Carlos Sánchez, Ezequiel Cirigliano Leonardo Ponzio, Martín Aguirre; David Trezeguet or Rogelio Funes Mori, Fernando Cavenaghi.

Super Clasico / Round 1 / Boca 2 - River 0

2012-01-26T00:19:00.003-03:00

Despite the important missing players, despite the first 5 minutes where River completely dominated, it was Boca again who took the first Super Clasico of Summer 2012.

It took the Apertura champion only 1 attack position to score the 1st goal and put River under even bigger pressure, something they couldn't handle because only a few minutes later their best player, Alejandro "Chori" Dominguez was sent off on a double yellow after a foul + insult to the referee.

And then the Boca 2011 appeared, making the game a very dull and boring one, easily holding to the 1-0 and waiting for their chance to score the 2nd, which came with 10 minutes left when they were already playing also with 10 men due to a deserved red card on defender Facundo Roncaglia.

Both goals scored by young striker Nicolas Blandi, who should be a third option (or maybe even a 4th one when Viatri is recovered from his torn ACL) this semester behind Cvitanich and newly acquired Santiago Silva, who is only allowed to play in Copa Libertadores this semester due to some FIFA rule (he already played for another two teams this season).

The 2nd leg of this Super Clasico will be played next Sunday @ Mendoza, and it will be Boca this time a bigger favorite with some of their regular offensive players back, against a River without their best player (suspended Alejandro Dominguez).

But you know, a derby is a derby and there's no room to relax.

River learned it the hard way today adding another humiliation to the long list they suffered in the last couple of years.

...and after 7 months they meet: Boca - River tonight !!

2012-01-25T01:58:00.004-03:00

7 months ago River suffered their biggest humilliation ever, getting relegated to 2nd division for the first time in over 100 years of history.

When they thought they couldn't go lower, their all time rival Boca easily won the 1st division Apertura 2011 !

There have been discussions about these two derbies (the next one will be played next Sunday) for months. Unbelievable but true, months of talking about a couple of friendlies, and today one of the mayor sports channel (Fox Sports) will have a special coverage starting 6 hours before the game !!!

All pressure is on River as they have to prove that they are in 2nd division but not dead, and what better opportunity than to win a Super Clasico against the 1st division champion ?

They've built up a pretty good team and in the offseason they've added a new star to play with Alejandro "Chori" Dominguez and Fernando Cavenagui in attack, as 1998 World Cup champion David Trezeguet returned to play in Argentina after 15 years in Europe, and to do it in he club he's been a fan since he was a little kid.

His debut couldn't have been better: he played only 20 minutes in a friendly vs Racing, scoring the winning goal of a 2-1.

Boca definitely doesn't want to lose one either, but they will have some problems to put a decent starting lineup, especially offensively because midfielders Rivero, Ervitti, playmaker Riquelme and striker Dario Cvitanich are all out due to injuries/suspensions (yes, we have suspensions in friendlies) and new striker Santiago Silva (added from Fiorentina where he played very little the last 6 months) is still not ready to play for his new team.

River seems to be in better mood and more focused for this very expected Super Clasico, but they can't relax against the current Argentinean champion.

For the first time ever the derby will be played at Chaco, a province all the way up to the north of Argentina and tickets are of course sold out since long ago.

Argentina Previews paid service starts SOON !!

2012-01-19T11:31:00.005-03:00

With Copa Libertadores starting in less than a week and Arsenal debuting in the 1st stage against Peru's Sport Huancayo, it's time to kick off the 2012 paid information service for Argentina Previews that will start this next Sunday !!

As I've been doing since 2010 there will be two different services, which can be combined to get the BEST information there is about Argentinean football :

* Early Information: 2 days before each round of Clausura starts, you get a short preview for every game with missings for each team, a few lines of analysis and a prediction.
This service includes also Copa Libertadores/Sudamericana games that involve an Argentinean team.

* Full Previews: very early in the morning of each league game you get a full preview with even deeper information, analysis, probable lineups and predictions.
This service does not include any Copa Libertadores/Sudamericana game.

Both services include a short analysis of previous games, plus odds comments, bets recommendations and of course, I'm available on MSN/Skype/Email to answer any questions.

Contact me now at mncarg@gmail.com for fee details, previews samples (you can see any game of the last 2 years) and other questions.

Join ASAP for the whole semester and you will get a special price with a discount !!!

Transfer Market News - Vol. 2

2012-01-16T13:37:00.003-03:00

The traditional summer friendlies started and there were no surprises as all teams played exactly as expected: slow and absolutely boring football.

3 draws in 3 matches (Estudiantes 1 - Racing 1, San Lorenzo 0 - Independiente 0 and River 0 - Estudiantes 0) that left very little to analyze, as most of them were using mixed lineups or made many changes in the 2nd half.

Tuesday will have the debut of the last champion, Boca, playing against San Lorenzo but without a doubt the most expected matches are the "SUPERCLASICOS" between Boca and River (25/1 and 29/1) the first ones since River was relegated to 2nd division last July.

In terms of transfers, everything is still pretty much quiet and very few things are worth mentioning:

* Boca will have midfielder Pablo Ledesma back (he was playing at Italy's Catania) and they've added veteran Uruguayan striker Santiago Silva (ex Velez, Fiorentina) but curiously he is only allowed to play Copa Libertadores for them because this season he has already played for two other clubs and FIFA does not allow a third one.

* Belgrano lost their best player as Franco "Mudo" Vazquez was sold to Italy's Palermo and they are looking forward to sign Colombian striker Marco Perez, who did very little for Independiente in Apertura.

* Despite having one of the biggest debts in Argentinean football, Independiente is looking forward to add another striker and ex Estudiantes attacker Ernesto "Tecla" Farias could be the man if he manages to be released from Brazil's Cruzeiro, where he played last year.

Transfer Market News + Summer Friendlies

2012-01-10T10:48:00.003-03:00

Hello from the 38 degrees Buenos Aires ! (picture above is Mar del Plata, about 400 km from here)

I definitely can't remember a more quiet Summer market.
Teams are only allowed to add up to 2 new players, but with the very little available in the market that is worth and not much money around as usual, so there has been very little news worth mentioning.

Some of them:

* Not many new players...but a lot of coaches changes !
The most important one is probably veteran Alfio Basile (ex Argentina NT in 2 periods, Boca and many many others) returning to his "1st love", Racing. Lots of expectations that he will be the one to use the potential of this team.
Another coach who returned to his beloved club is Gerardo Martino (recently coached Paraguay NT in the 2010 World Cup), joining Newell's, the team where he played almost his whole career.
Also Jorge Da Silva jumped from Godoy Cruz (they hired 1986 World Cup Champion Nery Pumpido) to Banfield,

* One of the few teams that already has 2 new players is Velez, who lost veteran striker Guillermo Franco (went to Mexico's Pachuca) but added playmaker Federico Insua (was playing in Turkey) and striker Mauro Obolo, who comes from a couple of successful seasons playing for Arsenal.

* Experienced Uruguayan striker Carlos Bueno (scored 21 goals for Mexico's Queretaro in 2011) joined San Lorenzo, who hopes to have a good semester that makes them avoid the promotion playoffs. Also left defender German Voboril returned from his loan to Godoy Cruz, who tried to keep him until the last minute before he decided to play for San Lorenzo again.

* Playmaker Martin Morel (ex Tigre, good but very irregular player) joined All Boys and Leandro Gracian (ex Velez, Boca, also a very irregular playmaker) will play for Colon.

* The Apertura champion Boca is still looking for a scorer. They wanted Obolo but he already signed for Velez, so now they are pointing at Godoy Cruz's Ruben Ramirez and Fiorentina's Santiago Silva.

The usual mini Summer friendly tournaments start tonight with Racing and Estudiantes playing in the seaside city Mar del Plata.
This will be the full schedule (many other informal friendlies are usually played), including the extremely expected 2 meetings between Apertura champion Boca and (now 2nd division) River Plate:

Copa Ciudad Mar del Plata Elaion YPF 2012 (Estadio José M. Minella, Mar del Plata)

Tuesday January 10
22.10-- Racing Club-Estudiantes de La Plata

Saturday January 14
22.10-- River Plate-Estudiantes de La Plata

Jueves 19 de enero
22.10-- River Plate-Racing Club

Copa de Oro Elaion YPF 2012 (Estadio José M. Minella, Mar del Plata)

Thursday January 12
22.10-- San Lorenzo-Independiente

Tuesday January 17
22.10-- Boca Juniors-San Lorenzo

Saturday January 21
22.10-- Boca Juniors-Independiente

Copa Provincia de Buenos Aires Elaion YPF 2012 (Estadio José M. Minella, Mar del Plata)

Saturday January 28
22.10-- Independiente-Racing Club

Copa Ciudad de Mendoza Elaion YPF 2012 (Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza)

Friday January 20
22.10-- Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-San Martín de San Juan

Monday January 23
22.10-- San Lorenzo-San Martín de San Juan

Thursday January 26
22.10-- Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-San Lorenzo

Copa Luis B. Nofal (in Estadio Centenario, de Resistencia, Chaco; and in Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, de Mendoza)

Wednesday January 25
22.10-- Boca Juniors-River Plate (Chaco)

Sunday January 29
22.10-- Boca Juniors-River Plate (Mendoza)

Apertura 2011 - The End / Happy Holidays !!!

2011-12-24T10:30:00.006-03:00

First of all I want to thank everyone that uses their time to follow this blog and is interested in Argentinean football. Clausura will start in mid February and you are all invited to join the information service that will enter its 3rd consecutive year ! As usual, if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me at mncarg@gmail.com so I can give you more details about the service and fees.

Stay tuned for more updates in the next days/weeks with all the Summer transfers and friendlies schedule !

That Boca was the champion 2 rounds before the end made this Apertura one of the least interesting tournaments of the last few years.
The only thing decided in the end was the Copa Libertadores qualification, where Godoy Cruz finally won the points they needed to take the last available place and join Velez, Boca, Lanus and Arsenal as the other qualified teams.

Also Copa Sudamericana places were decided, but this will start on August 2012 and even though some teams are in the qualification zone they won't be able to play it if they have to play promotion playoffs or are relegated so the final list of teams won't be decided until June/July 2012.

With one pending game to be completed in early February (Estudiantes 0 - Banfield 1 suspended after 13 minutes), this were the final standings of Apertura 2011 and the 2011 table that set the teams that will play international competition in 2012.

Apertura 2011 Final Standings:

2011 Final Table:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!!

Boca is the Apertura 2011 Champion !!

2011-12-06T19:14:00.004-03:00

It was definitely coming since long ago and it finally happened with 2 rounds left: Boca is the Apertura champion.

It's been long since one team made such a difference above everybody else in one of this short 19 rounds tournaments, where usually we have very tight finishes with 2 or more teams fighting until the end.

Not only they won the championship when we still have 2 more rounds before the Summer offseason, but also they are still undefeated (if they stay like this in the last 2 games it will be their 2nd time ever that they win a championship without losing a game) and they are about to set a record of less goals conceded: only 4 so far, all in different games and all with shots from outside the box !!

Absolutely undisputed champion, left everybody playing for the 2nd place since a long time ago.

Few things to decide in this last 2 rounds because relegations/promotions aren't finished until June.

The 2011 table (Clausura + Apertura) decides the international competition qualification.
Velez, Boca, Lanus and Arsenal are already qualified to Copa Libertadores 2012 while Godoy Cruz will probably join them, and Copa Sudamericana 2012 (that starts in August) will have -at least for now, it can change- Racing, Independiente, Argentinos Jrs, Colon and 2 other teams including the Copa Argentina champion, who is under way with the Round of 32 currently being played.

This are the standings as of today (All Boys 1 - Argentinos Jrs 0 of the 18th round was already played and Estudiantes - Banfield have a suspended game that will be completed in February 2012):

Apertura 2011 Round 15 - Boca one step away

2011-11-22T11:32:00.005-03:00

It's been long since one tournament in Argentina was so easily decided.
After some seasons of very closed finishes, including a final game that had to be played in 2006 and a 3 teams mini-tournament that decided Apertura 2008, this time Boca took such a big advantage over every other team that allowed them to draw the last 2 games and still have the certainty that this next weekend or the following one they will be celebrating the championship.

The key to their success is not a great offense, but a very tight defense that has conceded only 3 goals in 15 games (new record in Argentina for the first 15 rounds of a tournament).
Once they score, it's almost impossible to get back into the game, and if they decide to close a match not lose it like it happened in the boring 0-0 draw vs 2nd placed Racing this last weekend, they just do it.

Of course, all other teams helped them take this big difference above everybody else. Racing was supposed to be a contender and even though they are still undefeated they were only able to win 5 of 15 games and drew all others. Similar situation with Lanus, a team from what a lot more was expected but they could never find some regularity.

Promoted teams Atletico Rafaela and Belgrano are having a great semester, but they don't have what it takes to fight for a championship, plus some terrible disappointing performances by Independiente, San Lorenzo (struggling in the Averages table, currently in promotion zone), and Estudiantes, who everybody pointed as a big candidate to get the championship and not only they are in the last place, but their future doesn't look too bright either as their big club idol Juan Sebastian Veron is retiring this December when Apertura ends.

Four rounds left before the summer vacations, Boca has the chance to win the championship as soon as this next weekend, and this are the current standings :

Round 16 Schedule :

Friday November 25
21.15--Tigre-Atlético Rafaela

Saturday November 26
17.00--All Boys-Lanús
17.00--Olimpo de Bahía Blanca-San Martín de San Juan
19.10--Racing Club-Belgrano de Córdoba
21.10--Newell's Old Boys-San Lorenzo

Sunday November 27
17.00--Arsenal F.C.-Estudiantes de La Plata
17.00--Vélez Sarsfield-Colón de Santa Fe
19.10--Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-Boca Juniors
19.10--Banfield-Argentinos Juniors

Monday November 28
21.15--Unión de Santa Fe-Independiente

Apertura 2011 - Round 12

2011-10-27T19:16:00.006-03:00

Only 7 rounds left in Apertura and it's almost safe to say there's not a team that can take the championship away from the undefeated Boca.
They passed a big test in this round, playing without their 3 attacking players: playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme, and strikers Cvitanich and Viatri (torn ACL, out for 6-8 months), and they did it without any sweat. Colon was a lousy rival and Boca took an easy win to keep their 6 points advantage at the top.

The 2nd placed team is Atletico Rafaela, who finally played again a solid match after some irregular performances, beating last placed Argentinos Juniors 3-1.

Next round Boca and Atletico Rafaela meet.
Will the leaders take a bigger difference, or will Rafaela take the 3 points and open the race for the title ?

Racing is definitely a curious case. They are still undefeated and have conceded only 4 goals, but they just can't play as they are expected to and after 5 consecutive draws it seems like their championship dreams are gone, even though they still have to play against Boca.

Clausura champion Velez recently woke up. They won the last 4 games, but it's probably too late for them as well because the 8 points difference with Boca and their main goal for this semester is Copa Sudamericana where they've advanced to the Quarterfinals and will meet Santa Fe from Colombia.

Even though there are still 8 more months until relegations are decided, the fight in the lower places of the Averages table has been really hard.
San Martin, Tigre, Olimpo, All Boys, Union, San Lorenzo and Arsenal are fighting to avoid the relegations and promotion playoffs, and it promises to be a tough finish when the season ends.

Round 13 will be played this weekend but we have a postponed match because San Lorenzo and All Boys won't be played.
San Lorenzo crisis got even worst this week as some "hooligans" went on a fight with defender Jonathan Botinelli during Wednesday's practice and that ended with the security committee suspending the game.

Round 13 schedule :

Saturday October 29
15.05—Argentinos Juniors-Vélez Sarsfield
19.15—Newell’s Old Boys-Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
21.15—Independiente-Arsenal

Sunday October 30
14.00—Lanús-Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
18.10—Boca Juniors-Atlético Rafaela
20.20—Belgrano de Córdoba-Colón de Santa Fe

Monday October 31
17.00—Unión de Santa Fe-Tigre
19.05—Estudiantes de La Plata-Racing Club
21.15—San Martín de San Juan-Banfield

Standings:

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Apertura 2011 - Round 9 & 10 Update

2011-10-06T11:08:00.006-03:00

*** HALF OF THE TOURNAMENT HAS PASSED BUT THERE'S STILL A LOT OF PROFIT TO MAKE IN APERTURA !!!
CONTACT ME AT MNCARG@GMAIL.COM FOR DETAILS AND FEES FOR ARGENTINA FOOTBALL PREVIEWS ***

We are through the half of the tournament and there's one thing for sure: this is Boca's championship to lose.
After 10 rounds they are still undefeated, with only 2 goals conceded and 5 points above the 2nd placed team, the recently promoted Atletico Rafaela, and 6 above Racing who is also still undefeated and has conceded just 3 goals but drew 3 of the last 4 games.

* Racing had the chance to make a difference and grow in confidence with back to back derbies against San Lorenzo and Independiente, but they tied both and saw Boca take a bigger difference above them.

* The other story of this first half of Apertura is the good performance by most of the recently promoted teams. Rafaela, Belgrano and recently Union are among the top 10 of the league and have established themselves as very tough rivals. Now it comes the most difficult part: to keep the pace until the end of the season, something usually difficult for teams that come from 2nd division.

* Most important news this week in Argentinean football has been the confirmation that Juan Sebastian Veron is retiring at the end of this month when Estudiantes hosts Racing for the 13th round.

Besides his age (he's 36) the main problem is the ankle injury he's been suffering all year and that it seems like it won't heal so with nothing to play for until the end of the year he decided to retire sooner.

* Talking about Estudiantes, they are without a doubt the most disappointing story of Apertura. After an awful Clausura they rebuilt their team to fight for the championship and there was no season preview that didn't put them among the candidates.
But things never worked OK for them. A mix of injuries, bad performances and some bad luck put them exactly at the other side of where they were supposed to be: bottom of the standings with only 1 win in 10 games.
Their semester is gone and now with Veron retiring we'll see what happens with the club that was at the top of everyone the last 5 years.

* The end of the season and the promotion playoffs/relegations might be 8 months away but the fight in the lower places of the Averages table is as tough as always with San Martin, Tigre, All Boys, Olimpo, San Lorenzo, Arsenal and other teams coming in and out of the dangerous zone.

* Copa Argentina's first season is underway and about to reach the most interesting part !
The early stages have been played in August and September and next month the 40 First Division and Second division teams will join the 24 teams that went through the first phases.
For those of you interested to read a little more about it: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Argentina_2011/12

The league is now in a break for the first rounds of the World Cup 2014 qualifiers to be played on Friday and Tuesday, and will resume next Friday with round 11:

Friday October 14
17.10-- Olimpo de Bahía Blanca-Tigre
19.25-- Newell`s Old Boys-Arsenal F.C.
21.30-- San Lorenzo-Banfield

Saturday October 15
14.00-- Independiente-Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
16.30-- Unión de Santa Fe-All Boys
21.15-- San Martín de San Juan-Racing Club

Sunday October 16
14.00-- Estudiantes de La Plata-Atlético Rafaela
16.10-- Argentinos Juniors-Colón de Santa Fe
18.30-- Boca Juniors-Belgrano de Córdoba
20.30-- Lanús-Vélez Sarsfield

Standings:

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Stay Tuned !

2011-09-22T22:34:00.002-03:00

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, but it's been terribly busy days over here and the midweek round didn't help at all.

Please, stay tuned because as soon as I have a few minutes available I will write an update of this Apertura that Boca will win (and hopefully saying this I will jinx them :P )

Apertura 2011 Round 6 - Boca + Lanus

2011-09-13T09:52:00.003-03:00

Round 6 ended with two new leaders, Boca and Lanus, who not only have the same points but also the same amount of goals scored, goals conceded...and they meet next weekend !!

For sure it will be a game to watch and one of the most important so far of this Apertura.

* Lanus was better than Argentinos, even if there was no 4 goals difference between them, but like it happened for Argentinos last week in Copa Sudamericana once they conceded the 2nd goal they completely collapsed and stopped fighting.
Argentinos completed their 8th game of the season without a win, and the 2nd 0-4 in less than a week so coach Pedro Troglio's future will be decided tomorrow.

* Except for a couple of counter attacks by San Martin, Boca dominated the game and had the best chances to score at least 1 or 2 more goals.
It was far from a superb performance, just another average one, but they hit the post 3 times (2 in the 1st half and one off a freek kick in the 2nd half) plus a couple more chances missed for an easy win.

* Much more unlucky was Velez who ended losing a game where even a draw was unfair. Union played the typical super defensive game while Velez didn't play great but had the best chances to score.
They hit the post once, Union's goalkeeper saved some and Velez's strikers missed the others. With the home team all in attack, in the 87th minute a midfielder lost a silly ball that led to a counter attack and the lucky 0-1 for Union.

* Everything that could go wrong for San Lorenzo just went wrong.
Before the 10th minute San Lorenzo's best player, midfielder Nestor Ortigoza, and that changed the history of the game. Bad defense gave Colon the 1-0, and a very lucky goal the 2-0 early in the 2nd half. The 2-1 made things more fair, but with few minutes left and San Lorenzo all in attack Colon finished the game on a counter.
4 attacks, 3 goals for a Colon team that was not much superior to San Lorenzo, but was almost 100% effective offensively.

* Atletico Rafaela - Newell's, besides the game ending in a scoreless draw it was a game much more entertaining than what I expected.
Both teams had unbelievable good chances to get the 3 points but both goalkeepers and some luck saved them.

Round 6 results :

9/9 — A. Rafaela 0 – 0 Newell`s Old Boys
9/9 — Colón 3 – 1 San Lorenzo
10/9 — Godoy Cruz 6 – 1 All Boys
10/9 — Estudiantes 1 – 3 Tigre
10/9 — Racing Club 1 – 0 Olimpo
11/9 — Banfield 0 – 1 Arsenal
11/9 — Belgrano 2 – 0 Independiente
11/9 — Boca Juniors 1 – 0 San Martín (SJ)
11/9 — Vélez Sarsfield 0 – 1 Unión
12/9 — Argentinos 0 – Lanús 4

Round 7 Schedule :

Friday September 16
17.00-- Independiente-Colón de Santa Fe
19.10-- Olimpo de Bahía Blanca-Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
21.15-- San Martín de San Juan-Belgrano de Córdoba

Saturday September 17
15.05-- Tigre-Arsenal F.C.
17.10-- All Boys-Banfield
21.15-- San Lorenzo-Atlético Rafaela

Sunday September 18
14.00-- Newell's Old Boys-Vélez Sarsfield
16.00-- Estudiantes de La Plata-Argentinos Juniors
18.10-- Lanús-Boca Juniors
20.15-- Unión de Santa Fe-Racing Club

Standings :

Apertura 2011 Round 5 - No goals, no fun

2011-09-05T15:25:00.004-03:00

Awful round in Argentina with only 13 goals in 10 games, and mostly pretty boring games.

The surprising Atletico Rafaela won again and with 12 points they are still the only leader of Apertura. It was a lucky win though because they won with an own goal by an Union defender when the home team was playing better. Union also missed a penalty in the 2nd half and got a red card int he last minutes that showed how frustrated they were because they lost a game that they deserved to at least draw.

With the win in the derby @ Independiente, Boca is one of the 2nd placed teams and they keep getting stronger.
They don't play well, they rarely dominate their rivals, but they show a solid defense, an effective offense and some luck as well. Independiente had been better int he 1st half, but when Boca scored the goal 4 minutes into the 2nd half they showed no reaction at all.
After that Boca should have won it by more goals because they missed many counter attacks, but their win was never in danger because Independiente was a completely harmless team.
The night ended with Independiente fans showing their anger and rumors say that coach Antonio Mohammed will resign on Monday morning.

The last game of the round showed as expected a Velez team struggling in offense. Olimpo played an intelligent game and showed some improvement from previous rounds.
When Velez was expected to go for the win like they used to do, they couldn't find the ball and Olimpo scored the 2nd goal. They still had the chance to get the draw but missed a penalty and left their coach and fans worried about the future, because unless they find a way to improve offensively it will be a long semester for them.

Unfortunately San Lorenzo just couldn't find a way to beat a team that played only defense the whole 90 minutes, and won with a long shot late in the 2nd half.
San Lorenzo played a bad game and didn't have any ideas, but I'm not exaggerating if I say that the Belgrano players didn't make 3 passes in a row. They just let the home team have the ball and decided that their only goal would be to destroy what San Lorenzo tried to do. The 3 points where a huge prize for a team that would have celebrated a draw.

If Newell's and Colon didn't play their game it could have been almost the same. The match was a 0-0 in everything, and Colon seemed more happy with this result.
And the same idea can be applied for the other two awful games of the round, All Boys - Racing and San Martin - Argentinos Jrs.

Tigre 's win was only 1-0 but should have been a bigger difference, specially for what they did in the 1st half. Banfield stays with 0 points and 0 goals scored and the new coach Ricardo LaVolpe was presented today.

Round 5 results :

2/9 — Newell`s Old Boys 0 – 0 Colón
2/9 — Tigre 1 – 0 Banfield
2/9 — San Lorenzo 0 – 1 Belgrano
3/9 — Arsenal 1 – 2 Godoy Cruz
3/9 — All Boys 0 – 0 Racing Club
3/9 — Lanús 2 – 1 Estudiantes
4/9 — San Martín (SJ) 0 – 0 Argentinos
4/9 — Unión 0 – 1 A. Rafaela
4/9 — Independiente 0 – 1 Boca Juniors
4/9 — Olimpo 2 – 1 Vélez Sarsfield

Round 6 Schedule :

Friday September 9
19.00-- Atlético Rafaela-Newell's Old Boys
21.10-- Colón de Santa Fe-San Lorenzo

Saturday September 10
15.05-- Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-All Boys
17.10-- Estudiantes de La Plata-Tigre
21.15-- Racing Club-Olimpo de Bahía Blanca

Sunday September 11
14.00-- Banfield-Arsenal F.C.
16.00-- Belgrano de Córdoba-Independiente
18.10-- Boca Juniors-San Martín de San Juan
20.15-- Vélez Sarsfield-Unión

Monday September 12
19.00-- Argentinos Juniors-Lanús

Standings :

* Table taken from www.La-redo.net

Apertura 2011 Round 4 - Five down, Rafaela up

2011-08-30T12:39:00.003-03:00

Round 4 started with 5 leaders (Velez, Lanus, Boca, Colon and Racing) and neither of them won !
So now the only leader is the surprising Atletico Rafaela, with 9 points.

* The round started with Godoy Cruz being far, far superior to Banfield. The 1st half should have ended already in a home win but a good game by Banfield's goalkeeper Cristian Luchetti kept the game scoreless.
In the 2nd half finally Godoy took the 1-0 lead and from there the visitors started to play a little better and could have scored, but it was always the home team who had the best chances on counter attacks.
It was 1-0, but should have been a 2 or 3-0. Four played, four lost and no goals scored for Banfield and coach Sebastian Mendez might had to resign after this game.

* It's very difficult to explain what is happening with Estudiantes. They have the names, but they don't have a team.
For 20 minutes they looked like the super team they were expected to be. 2 goals scored by their strikers who had missed many chances in the 1st games, 2 other goals cancelled due to very small offsides, and it looked like a rain of goals was coming but they suddenly stopped playing, relaxed too much and allowed San Martin to start growing. Before HT the visitors scored the 1-2, and in the 2nd half basically dominated the game taking a draw that could have been a victory because they played vs 10 Estudiantes men the last 10 minutes.
Once again Juan S. Veron couldn't complete the 90 minutes due to pain in his ankle and his retirement looks every day closer (I would bet this could be his last tournament if they continue like this).

* Racing and Arsenal basically didn't play and the scoreless result shows exactly what happened on the field.
Arsenal dominated most of the game but without creating real danger and the frustration fouls came in the 2nd half resulting in 2 red cards for Racing (including their best striker Teofilo Gutierrez) and 1 for the visitors.

* On Sunday the Santa Fe derby was played after 8 years, and Colon and their panic attack when playing at home. Union had an intense 20 minutes where they scored twice and simply cruised for the rest of the game.
Colon had a few chances but was never completely dominating and ended booed by a packed stadium that can't believe that they won only 2 games of 12 there this year.

* The other derby of this round, Boca - San Lorenzo, was also an intense match. In a very balanced 1st half San Lorenzo scored a nice goal from a free kick, but they conceded early in the 2nd half when it looked like they could finish it on a counter attack.
From there Boca was better and they missed two big chances (one of those was simply unbelievable what a San Lorenzo defender saved) on the line and the game ended on a 1-1 draw that overall was fair because except for those two opportunities Boca never fully dominated the game.

Round 5 starts next Friday, and it will feature another big derby, Independiente Boca.

Round 4 results :

26/8 — Godoy Cruz 1 – 0 Banfield
26/8 — Estudiantes 2 – 2 San Martín (SJ)
26/8 — Racing Club 0 – 0 Arsenal
27/8 — Lanús 0 – 0 Tigre
27/8 — A. Rafaela 3 – 1 Olimpo
27/8 — Vélez Sarsfield 0 – 1 All Boys
28/8 — Colón 0 – 2 Unión
28/8 — Belgrano 2 – Newell’s Old Boys 3
28/8 — Boca Juniors 1 – 1 San Lorenzo
28/8 — Argentinos 0 – 0 Independiente

Round 5 Schedule :

Friday September 2
16.00-- Newell´s Old Boys-Colón
18.10-- Tigre-Bánfield
21.10-- San Lorenzo-Belgrano de Córdoba

Saturday September 3
15.05-- Arsenal F.C. - Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
19.15-- All Boys-Racing Club
21.20-- Lanús-Estudiantes de La Plata

Sunday September 4
14.00-- San Martín de San Juan-Argentinos Juniors
16.00-- Unión-Atlético Rafaela
18.10-- Independiente-Boca Juniors
20.15-- Olimpo de Bahía Blanca-Vélez Sarsfield

Standings :

* Table taken from www.La-Redo.net

Apertura 2011 Round 3 - Five at the Top

2011-08-23T12:18:00.004-03:00

It was for sure a profitable round for customers of the previews service, who were recommended bets on San Lorenzo -0.25, Racing DNB, Colon +0.25, Belgrano +0.25 and the only lost one was Newell's +0.25 with an unfortunate Boca goal in the 87 minute of the game.
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Third round of Apertura ended and we now have 5 (!!) leaders with 7 points, 7 undefeated teams, 8 teams that still couldn't win, 2 that didn't concede a goal yet (Boca and Lanus), 2 that couldn't score one (Estudiantes and Banfield) and only one team with 0 points (Banfield).

* The first game of the round was finishing with a fair draw when in the 91st minute Velez, the team that had tried more to win it along the 90 minutes, scored a nice goal to get the 3 points.
First half was a good one. Both hit the post once and Velez played a little better, but in the 2nd half not much was happening until the 0-1 at the end.
Velez, the last champion keeps making a difference with their solid team.

* It's always a nice day when your team wins (San Lorenzo in this case), especially with a solid performance, and even more if the game goes as predicted.
There was not much nice football in the 3-1 win vs Argentinos Jrs, but once again San Lorenzo proved to be an intense and very focused team and the 3 points were definitely deserved.
Coming up next : the big derby @ Boca !!

* Lanus had just another poor performance. They could have won it, but the scoreless draw was definitely a fair result.
Sooner or later they will start playing better, but meanwhile they are one of the leaders of the league

* In the last game of Saturday Independiente had the luckiest win in a looong time. Estudiantes was far far better in the 1st half, hitting the post one and missing chance after chance.
When Independiente got a red card before half time it looked like the away win was inevitable, but Independiente scored in their only shot at goal 2 minutes into the 2nd half and from there
just held in defense for the remaining 43 minutes while Estudiantes kept missing incredible chances. The stats probably say that Estudiantes shot at goal at least 5 times more than Independiente, but in the standings they have only 1 point of 9, completely far from what they expected to have by the 3rd round.

* A goal with less than 3 minutes left gave Boca the win.
If there had to be a winner in the game it was fair that Boca was it because although they didn't have many clear chances they controlled the ball and tried to attack until the end. Newell's could have scored earlier but in the end tried to settle the draw and ended paying with a last minutes defeat.

* Racing got their 2nd win in a row and is another leader of apertura.
It was a very similar game to the one Racing drew 1-1 at Tigre in the first round : early goal by Racing and they just tried to hold to it in the 2nd part.
The difference was that Banfield just doesn't have any luck this days and everything they tried went wrong. They are not a bad team and probably will come back from this awful start (3 of 3 lost and no goals scored).

* Sunday started with All Boys losing a game they were winning since the first minute. They never found out how to close it, Rafaela kept attacking -no good football but they tried a lot- and with 2 goals in 15 minutes got their 2nd win in 3 games. All Boys never knew how to close the game and is still win-less in Apertura.

* Colon is the 5th leader and was always a little better than Olimpo during the game and although it could have ended in a draw, the away win was a deserved result.
Next week they will play the Santa Fe derby against Union for the first time in 8 years !

Round 4 starts next Friday and will have two derbies that stand out as the most important games of the round : the Santa Fe derby Colon - Union (played for the first time since 2003) and one of the biggest derbies in 1st division, Boca - San Lorenzo.

Round 3 results :

19/8 — Arsenal 0 – 1 Vélez Sarsfield
20/8 — San Lorenzo 3 – 1 Argentinos Juniors
20/8 — San Martín (SJ) 0 – 0 Lanús
20/8 — Independiente 1 – 0 Estudiantes
21/8 — All Boys 1 – 2 A. Rafaela
21/8 — Tigre 2 – 1 Godoy Cruz
21/8 — Newell’s Old Boys 0 – 1 Boca Juniors
21/8 — Banfield 0 – 1 Racing Club
22/8 — Olimpo 0 – 1 Colón de Santa Fe
22/8 — Unión 0 – 0 Belgrano

This is the full schedule 4th Round schedule:

Friday August 26
17.05-- Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-Banfield
19.10-- Estudiantes de La Plata-San Martín de San Juan
21.15-- Racing Club-Arsenal F.C.

Saturday August 27
15.00-- Lanús-Tigre
17.05-- Atlético Rafaela-Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
21.15-- Vélez Sarsfield-All Boys

Sunday August 28
14.00-- Colón de Santa Fe-Unión de Santa Fe
16.05-- Belgrano de Córdoba-Newell's Old Boys
18.10-- Boca Juniors-San Lorenzo
20.15-- Argentinos Juniors-Independiente

Standings :

* Table taken from www.la-redo.net

Apertura 2011 Round 1 - League of Draws

2011-08-08T19:19:00.005-03:00

Football was not really good in this first round, but customers sure had profit with the previews and the recommended bets that included Atletico Rafaela +0.5, Colon +0.25, Olimpo +0.25 among others.

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Apertura seems to have started exactly where Clausura left : home teams that don't know how to win, and visitors that feel comfortable just waiting and playing on counterattacks.

This was what happened to All Boys in a very boring game where Belgrano found a goal on a defensive mistake. The home team was lucky to answer fast right when things started to get complicated for them.
The game was pretty similar to Union - Argentinos Juniors the day before and a fair score would have been a scoreless draw.

Atletico Rafaela showed exactly what was expected from them and proving that they are a team with good tactical order.
They found 2 goals very fast (of course it wasn't deserved so early) and even though they had to play almost the whole 2nd half with 9 men due to two stupid red cards (but both deserved), they knew how to hold Banfield.
The home team also proved that they will need to adapt to this new midfield and it might not be easy. They probably deserved to score at least 1 goal, but all their scoring positions came from long balls or desperate attempts.

Union - Argentinos was intense match, but bad played. Few chances to score for both teams and a very deserved draw in a match that should have been a scoreless one.

Arsenal and Colon looked like they exchanged jerseys at half time. The first half was almost completely dominated by the home team and they ended it getting a very deserved 1-0 lead.
But in the 2nd half it was the visitors who took control of the game and Arsenal just went back and gave them the ball. In 3 minutes Colon scored 2 goals and took 3 points that in the first half looked completely impossible.

Godoy Cruz and Velez had a very balanced first half with the home team leading 1-0, but right before it ended defender Nicolas Sanchez received a silly red card for arguing a call and the game changed.
Velez scored a very deserved draw and could have won it as they had the best chances in the 2nd half.

Draws, draws and more draws...well, except for San Lorenzo :(
The strangest thing was that "we" definitely didn't deserve to lose. First half was very balanced until Lanus scored through an own goal.
After that they barely had any shots at goal, and I can even say that in the 2nd half they didn't cross the midfield line. San Lorenzo didn't have a great performance but had at least 2 or 3 very clear chances to get the draw. As a fan I left the stadium not really worried because the team showed very good attitude, hopefully results will be there too.
Lanus didn't show much but it's important to say that not only they missed Diego Valeri as expected, but also Mauro Camoranesi got injured after 10 minutes and they have some players still not ready to debut.

All other Sunday games were draws, and all were fair results. Maybe Estudiantes, who missed the best chances in their visit to Newell's, deserved to win it but the difference was not that big.

Olimpo as expected didn't have much problems to stop a Boca that looked too much like the poor team they were last season, and Racing started playing better than Tigre and when they took
the 1-0 lead it looked very difficult that the home team could score the draw, but in the 2nd half the visitors looked tired and Tigre slowly started to dominate and in the end got the draw that was overall deserved.
With one game left to be played in this first round (Independiente - San Martin de San Juan, postponed and with no date yet) there were no home wins and 6 draws in 9 games.

This will be the Round 2 Schedule :

Monday August 15
15.00--Atlético Rafaela-Arsenal de Sarandí
17.05--Estudiantes de la Plata-San Lorenzo
19.10--Vélez Sarsfield-Banfield
21.15--Boca Juniors-Unión

Tuesday August 16
15.00--San Martín de San Juan-Tigre
17.05--Lanús-Independiente
21.15--Argentinos Juniors-Newell’s Old Boys

Wednesday August 17
17.05--Colón de Santa Fe-All Boys
19.10--Belgrano de Córdoba-Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
21.15--Racing Club-Godoy Cruz

48 hours to Apertura 2011 !

2011-08-03T16:34:00.003-03:00

Only 48 hours before Apertura 2011 starts, what are you waiting to join the best (and only?) information service for the Argentinean league ?

Previews for each and every game of the tournament plus all the information, and also starting from this season, included in the service there will be odds and bets recommendations !

Contact me at mncarg@gmail.com to know more about fees and get samples of this service that will start its third consecutive season.

Transfer Market News - August 2011

2011-08-01T11:37:00.005-03:00

New season is only few days away and while everybody was distracted with Copa America, most clubs have renewed their squads for the new tournament.

A few news worth mentioning :

*The last champion Velez kept the base of the great team that won Clausura 2011, but they lost two very important players : playmaker Maximiliano Moralez (to Atalanta) and young star Ricky Alvarez (to Inter). Their challenge will be to feed their excellent strikers, Silva and Martinez, without them.

* Estudiantes is trying to get back from their very poor semester and rebuild the team that was one of the strongest a few months ago. They struggled in attack in Clausura, so it's great news for them that Copa Libertadores 2009 top scorer Mauro Boselli is back after not playing much for Wigan in the last season.
They've also added Copa America's best goalkeeper, Paraguay's Justo Villar, and offensive midfielder Facundo Coria (ex Argentinos Juniors, Pachuca),
New coach is Miguel Angel Russo, of a poor season with Racing in 2010/2011.

* As usual it was Boca who spent the most : goalkeeper Agustin Orion (ex Estudiantes, San Lorenzo), striker Dario Cvitanich (ex Banfield, Ajax), defender Franco Sosa (ex Racing, Lorient) and 38 years old veteran defender Rolando Schiavi (comes from Newell's, had some glorious years with Boca before) are the new faces.
Cvitanich will have the difficult task of replacing all time Boca top scorer Martin Palermo who has retired, while Schiavi will be in charge of making this awful defense better.
Anyway, Boca's European tour was far from spectacular : 1-3 defeat vs Espanyol, 2-2 lucky draw vs Arsenal and 0-3 defeat vs PSG.

* Racing is candidate on paper as usual. New coach is Diego Simeone who comes from a good season with Catania. They kept last season's base and added an experienced goalkeeper in Sebastian Saja (ex San Lorenzo and AEK) and a good defensive midfielder with Agustin Pelletieri (ex Lanus). Still their main hopes for this semester will be on Colombian playmaker Giovanni Moreno recovery from the torn ACL injury that made him miss the last Clausura. With him plus his countrymen, striker Teofilo Gutierrez, they could be a top team.

This are only a few of the many transfers that have been made during the offseason. If you want to get all the best information for Apertura 2011 you can suscribe to the paid service.
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Apertura 2011 Previews

2011-07-29T10:31:00.006-03:00

Apertura 2011 is now only one week away and if you don't want to miss the best information you can join now my service of previews for each and every game of the tournament.

Also starting from this season, in the emails I will send with the previews there will be odds and bets recommendations !

Contact me at mncarg@gmail.com to know more about fees and get samples of this service that will start its third consecutive season.

Madness !

2011-07-26T11:16:00.005-03:00

Yesterday the AFA committee approved a huge change of the 1st Division for the 2012/2013 season : First and second division will be melt into one league of 38 teams !!
Everything will change : how will the championship be decided, qualification to Copa Libertadores/Sudamericana and relegations.

I still have to find one football fan, or even an unbiased journalist, that agrees with this.
The new format should be approved in October when the mafia...sorry, AFA boss Julio Grondona (the one in the right of the picture...the one on the left doesn't need to be introduced) will be reelected once again.
Hopefully before this date they will realize this is completely madness and will think of a more logical way to organize tournaments (why not a long 38 rounds tournament each season like normal countries do ?!).

The new format (would start in 2012/2013) is still is not 100% decided, but FIFA.com did a little explanation of the idea :

The Argentinian Football Association are to implement a radical change to the country's domestic competition with the top two divisions combining to make a 38-team tournament from 2012/13. The motion, put forward by AFA president Julio Humberto Grondona, has been passed by 15 of the 20 top-flight teams.

The new competition will see the teams split into two zones of 19. Traditional rivals like River Plate and Boca Juniors will be kept apart but would then face each other in 'inter-zone' matches. The top five teams in each zone will advance to the Championship Stage, to define the league winners, while the other 28 will play to avoid relegation.

It means River, who suffered relegation for the first time in their illustrious history in the recently-completed Clausura season, will spend just one season in the second tier before the new format comes into play.

Copa America - The End

2011-07-25T21:16:00.002-03:00

Uruguay was the champion simply because they were the only normal thing of this tournament.

Some under-performed and others over-performed, but Uruguay was basically the only one that did exactly what was expected from them.

Like i wrote some days ago they were the only TEAM in this competition and not just a group of good players, and as they showed in the final they were without a doubt a 100%

deserved champion.

15th Copa America for Uruguay, CONGRATULATIONS !!

And don't forget...Apertura 2011 starts in only 12 days !!!

Copa America - The Final

2011-07-21T23:01:00.003-03:00

After some games something weird happened in Copa America : the team that deserved it won ! :)

Uruguay is without a doubt a deserved finalist because they have something different from the rest : they are a TEAM.
Five years with the same coach and the same group of players is finally playing out for them and even though they might don't show good football most of the times, they are very solid in every line and difficult to every rival.
Among the teams that have played in Copa America probably only Paraguay is close to this, but they lack the quality offense that Uruguay has with Forlan and Suarez (and remember Cavani has been injured since the 1st game) so this puts them one step behind. Same for Venezuela but the quality and experience difference in this case is much bigger, while Chile probably showed the best football but they still need to find more solidness in defense.

Peru (they will play the 3rd placed on Saturday) overachieved and they will be for sure a tough team in the upcoming qualifiers once they recover their injured players.

On the 2nd semifinal once again a very lucky Paraguay advanced, and they've reached the final with 5 draws in 5 games !!!

The game was extremely boring, but Venezuela was definitely better as they hit the post 3 times and deserved to advance to their first final ever.

Paraguay will have to play better than this to beat Uruguay because sooner or later they will run out of luck and Suarez or Forlan won't forgive them like Venezuela did.

*A few hours ago rumors started appearing about Argentina's coach Sergio Batista getting fired next week, and this would be excellent news indeed.

Candidates to replace him are current Paraguay's coach Gerardo Martino (he's Argentinean and his contract ends after Copa America) and Alejandro Sabella (ex assistant coach of Daniel Passarella and won Copa Libertadores 2009 with Estudiantes as main coach).

Without a doubt both options look much better than Batista.

Enjoy the final next Sunday...Apertura 2011 is only 2 weeks away !!!

Copa America - Game Over for Argentina

2011-07-17T01:46:00.002-03:00

Oh well...when things go wrong, they rarely end well and this is what happened today.
Argentina played 45 minutes with one more player on the field (Uruguay's Diego Garcia red card was 100% deserved, and it should have happened earlier actually) but could barely take advantage of it, and when they did Uruguay's goalkeeper Muslera saved everything.

On the other hand Argentina played another AWFUL AWFUL defensive game.

Every long ball and every cross into Argentina's box was headed by a Uruguayan player, and every time Forlan and Suarez attacked it ended in a foul by Milito or Burdisso.

It's painful to see how we are wasting a great generation of players due to bad coaching.
Since Pekerman left after the 2006 World Cup, Basile proved that he's an outdated coach that didn't know how to work with young players, and Maradona and Batista showed they didn't know what they were doing and never had a correct answer from the bench when a rival was playing better than their teams.
Unfortunately it looks like Batista is staying and I guess only a bad start of the WC qualifiers would remove him before WC 2014.

In the first game Colombia had everything to advance, including a penalty that Falcao missed with 25 minutes left.
It's difficult to say that Peru didn't deserve to win it, but they really didn't. Colombia didn't have a very good performance but a penalty missed and two balls in the post in the 2nd half were enough to make them the best team on the field, but it is Peru who will play the semifinal.

Uruguay and Peru show exactly how balanced is this tournament : they both won only 1 game in the 90 minutes, 1-0 against Mexico, arguably the worst team of the tournament.
Meanwhile Argentina was eliminated undefeated (Colombia too), but also with only 1 win, and the 4 teams that will play tomorrow are so far undefeated as well !!

Copa America - Finally !

2011-07-12T10:20:00.004-03:00

Finally !!!

The class difference between the two teams was even bigger than expected. Actually, it was exactly what could have been expected 10 days ago before the tournament started, but Argentina's poor performances had opened a little door for a Costa Rica surprise that didn't happen and was never close either.

Argentina started the game very nervous and missed lots of chances, but it was clear that once the 1-0 came it was game over. And it came in the perfect moment, right before HT and things were much easier after that. It was only 3-0, but the difference should have been at least 5 or 6.

And also finally a great performance by Messi. All of us want to see him score, but today he played behind Aguero and Higuan and his job was to assist them and he did it with amazing quality.

He assisted in the last 2 goals and gave at least 4 or 5 great assists that were missed by Higuain, Di Maria and Lavezzi (hit the post in the end).

Argentina ended in the 2nd place of group A and next Saturday will meet the 2nd placed team of group C, that will be decided today.

I can only hope that even though there was no rival on the field because Costa Rica was probably the weakest team of this tournament, this is the start of something good for our National Team.

Copa America - Does it get any worst than this ?

2011-07-07T00:24:00.004-03:00

There's not much to say about Argentina but I wanted to leave a few words here.

It's just sad to see this players failing once again, looking completely disoriented on the field and not being able to make 2 or 3 passes in a row.

Goalkeeper Sergio Romero was without a doubt the man of the match and because of his 4 or 5 big saves (plus an unbelievable miss by Dayro Moreno) the only responsible that Colombia didn't win this game.

Colombia did just what was expected from them : wait, defend, and play on counter attacks.
The draw was good enough for them but I'm sure they regret not getting the 3 points because they deserved the win.

Argentina will still qualify just by beating the inexperienced Costa Rica next Monday so the chances to advance are still there, but this team has no direction at all.

Players look frustrated, fans were very angry with the team, everybody booed at the end and I can't think how will coach Sergio Batista continue if this tournament ends in a failure like it looks like it will happen.

Copa America - Where are the goals ?

2011-07-04T10:36:00.003-03:00

If you find some goals taking vacations in Europe, please send them to us because we are freezing down here (temperatures have been below 5 degrees, with even some below 0) during the last week and the starting games of Copa America are not helping at all to warm us a little.

I had a very nice experience attending Brazil - Venezuela today in a packed stadium (a new one, by far the best one in Argentina) with lots of Brazilians and Venezuelans, but unfortunately the game didn't help especially in the 2nd half, and all our hopes to see a brilliant Brazil team with almost all their stars were gone pretty soon.

Later Paraguay showed some good football but the Ecuadorian goalkeeper kept the game, the day and group B completely scoreless.

This is just starting and probably in the end we'll see the usual teams fighting for the championship.
Bolivia and Venezuela might have been tough for Argentina and Brazil, but if the big teams had scored first it would have been impossible for the smaller teams to come back from it and this is what will probably happen in later stages if they meet.

Today other two candidates debut : Uruguay and Chile, and hopefully we'll see better football and some goals !

Disappointment

2011-07-02T11:36:00.003-03:00

There's no other word to describe Argentina's debut in Copa America but "disappointment".
Bolivia played a very intelligent game.

I could say this is a new low for our NT, who has been struggling the last 3 or 4 years (Copa America 2007 was the last good performance in a tournament), and except for a few highlights during the last World Cup it's very difficult to find a good game by this players that are without a doubt stars on their own team.

Bolivia had the perfect game : they didn't play as expected with lot of people on defense, but instead they put pressure all over the field on Argentina who could never make 2 or 3 clear passes in a row.

And they could have even won it with two huge chances they had when Argentina was all desperate in offense !

The host played better in the 2nd half with Aguero and Di Maria on the field but their chances were never clear enough and the early Bolivia goal in the 2nd half (huge mistake by Banega) put them in a desperate mode.

The chances for Argentina to advance are still there of course.
5 points are more than enough, and even 4 could make them advance as one of the top two 3rd placed teams, but this awful performance raised a big alarm and showed that nothing will be easy in this tournament.

There will have to be changes for next Wednesday when they meet Colombia : Lavezzi, Banega, Cambiasso, maybe Tevez too are candidates to be replaced, and Messi needs to play more forward because he went too far back on the field to get the ball and he was useless in offense.

Let's hope we'll see something different in the next game.

24 hours to Copa America !

2011-06-30T10:34:00.003-03:00

Hi, this post is only a reminder about the service I'm offering for Copa America.
A 9 pages preview team by team, plus early information for every game of the tournament is available.

Those interested, contact me at mncarg@gmail.com for price and service details.

As most of you probably know we're less than a month away from the most important football even of this winter/summer, Copa America, and it will be played here in Argentina.

The tournament starts on July 1st and will end on July 24th and will feature 12 national teams : the usual 10 of CONMEBOL + 2 invited guests from CONCACAF, Mexico and Costa Rica.

If you want to see the complete match schedule, check here : http://www.ca2011.com/jogos_todos.php

During July I will offer a service with the best information, analysis and prediction like I usually do for the Argentinean league, for the 26 games of the competition.
You won't get information any faster and better than this !

RIVER RELEGATED TO NACIONAL "B"

2011-06-27T00:41:00.003-03:00

And the UNTHINKABLE and IMPOSSIBLE finally happened : River, for the first time in 100 years, was relegated and will play the 2011/2012 season in the Argentinean 2nd division, named Nacional B.
They scored an early goal, only 5 minutes into the game, and it looked like they were going to have the perfect afternoon but after missing some good chances in the 1st half they went back to normal in the 2nd : nervousness, mistakes, and the 1-1 came.
But to make this historic day more heartbreaking, striker Mariano Pavone missed a penalty with 15 minutes left !
When there were only 30 seconds left and they needed to score 2 more goals, something that was impossible, madness started : very violent riots that continued outside the stadium with huge fights between hooligans and police that ended with lots of injured fans.

What's next for River ?
Nobody knows. Nacional B is a VERY difficult tournament, and also long because there are no Apertura and Clausura, just a long 38 rounds tournament where the top 2 promote and the 3rd and 4th place play the promotion playoffs.
Very long trips (there are teams from all over the country) and in the last 4 seasons no away fans were allowed in the stadiums to prevent fights and riots.
Future is bleak for one of the biggest teams in the continent, and today was a historic day in Argentinean football.

On the other promotion playoff San Martin beat Gimnasia 1-0 and left the series totally opened for the 2nd leg that will be played @ Gimnasia next Thursday. With any win Gimnasia will stay in 1st division, and with a draw or a defeat they will be relegated after 25 years in 1st division.

Clausura 2011 - Promotion Playoffs

2011-06-23T23:59:00.004-03:00

Argentinean football is living a historic moment with River, the most successful team in the league with 33 championships and one of the biggest teams in the continent, only 90 minutes away from getting relegated to 2nd division.

Over 100 years in 1st division (80 since professionalism started in 1931 + 20+ of amateurism) were in risk on Wednesday and once again this disoriented River team, coached by a guy that seems like he doesn't know what he's doing, didn't step up and lost 2-0 against a decent Belgrano team who did everything right.
Now River needs to win by 2 goals or more to stay in 1st division, and since they were only able to do it once this year (2-0 vs Huracan back in the 2nd round of Clausura), their future doesn't look promising at all.
To make things worst they will miss some experienced players and mood in the team is not good at all.

River fans this days are divided in two groups : some are dead depressed and feel like they are already relegated and some are crazy mad and just want to break everything no matter Sunday's result.
I have a couple of friends in the first group, and those in the second group (mostly the famous "barras bravas" (hooligans)) were part of some riots during the game (it was interrupted for 20 minutes) and also on Thursday afternoon trying to break into the stadium even though it was closed.

At some moment the game was going to be played behind closed doors, but it was finally decided to play it with fans in the stadium (probably to prevent even bigger disasters) and with 2500 policemen !!!

The 1st leg on Wednesday broke some ratings records on TV, and was by far the most watched game in Argentina this year, even more than the last Boca-River, and the 2nd leg on Sunday will have even bigger ratings for sure because there's no TV or radio show in this country that doesn't talk about what is happening with River.

How is this going to end ? Nobody knows, but the only thing for sure is that the whole country will be watching on Sunday a game that will be talked about for years by every football fan in Argentina.
Everybody expects River to become River again. The team that dominated so many years...will they finally step up or will Sunday be a historic day ?

Meanwhile, Gimnasia easily won the playoff against the poor Huracan who got relegated for the 4th time in 25 years.
Gimnasia will play the promotion playoffs for the 3rd year in a row, this time against Nacional B 3rd placed team, San Martin de San Juan. The 1st leg at San Juan will be played on Sunday, a few hours after River - Belgrano.

Clausura 2011 Round 19 - Amazing Finish

2011-06-20T12:33:00.003-03:00

Saturday was an UNBELIEVABLE day in Argentinean football. Historic day, with 5 games played at the same time and scores and situations changing minute by minute.

And also historic, because for the first time ever River will play a promotion playoff and is in danger of relegating. This had been talked all season, but nobody imagined it would happen...and it finally did !

Olimpo's unlikely (and very lucky) win, combined with River's defeat put one of the biggest teams of this league (or the biggest depending who you ask) in a situation they've never been into.

On Wednesday (at 9pm) they will play the 1st leg, against Belgrano de Cordoba (4th placed team of Nacional B), a big team from the Cordoba province with many fans and good history in 1st division.
The promotion playoffs are played in 2 legs (2nd one will be on Sunday), with the first leg played at the 2nd division team's stadium.
If after both games the teams are tied in points and goal difference (both draws or both win by the same difference), each teams stays in their own division (there is NO away goal rule).

But if this wasn't dramatic enough, the relegation games had their own big drama as well.

Quilmes finally missed the miracle they were looking for and will play next season in 2nd division, and the unbelievable came in the other games.
Gimnasia was leading comfortably against Boca (first 2-0 and then 2-1 before HT) and was qualifying to the promotion playoffs, while Huracan was destroyed by Independiente with a terrible 5-1.
The game ended and Huracan fans and many players were literally crying because they were relegated, but in that same moment some miraculous news came : Boca scored the 2-2 in the last second of the game, and this put Gimnasia in a tie with Huracan so they will have to play a game in neutral ground (on Tuesday at 2.30pm at Boca stadium) where the loser will be relegated and the winner will play the promotion playoffs against San Martin de San Juan, a not so big team but also a tough one.

So, to resume :

* Quilmes is relegated to Nacional B
* River - Belgrano is one of the promotion playoffs, 1st leg at Belgrano on Wednesday at 9pm, 2nd leg at Buenos Aires on Sunday (KO time to be determined)
* Gimnasia and Huracan will play a game at Boca stadium (Wednesday at 2:30pm). If they are tied after 90 minutes there are 30 minutes of ET and then a penalties shootout if it's stil a draw.

Loser relegates, winner plays promotion playoffs against San Martin de San Juan (3rd placed team of Nacional B). 1st leg will be played next Sunday and 2nd leg on Thursday June 30 (just one day before Copa America starts)

Also Copa Sudamericana teams have been confirmed : Velez, Estudiantes, Godoy Cruz, Lanus, Arsenal, Argentinos Juniors and Independiente (winner of Copa Sudamericana 2010) will be the Argentinean teams in the cup that starts in August.

River ended in 5th place in the season table, but lost his place in Copa Sudamericana because by rule, if a team has to play the promotion playoffs, they can't qualify to an international tournament in the same season.
So...the final numbers of Clausura 2011 :

Round 19 results :

18/6 — Argentinos Juniors 1 – 1 Tigre
18/6 — Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata 2 – 2 Boca Juniors
18/6 — Independiente 5 – 1 Huracán
18/6 — Quilmes A.C. 0 – 1 Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
18/6 — River Plate 1 – 2 Lanús
18/6 — Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba 1 - 0 All Boys
19/6 — Arsenal F.C. 1 - 0 Estudiantes de La Plata
19/6 — Newell’s Old Boys 1 - 0 Colón de Santa Fe
19/6 — Banfield 1 - 1 San Lorenzo
19/6 — Vélez Sarsfield 2 - 1 Racing Club

Playoffs / Promotion Playoffs Schedule :

22/6 - 2.30pm - Huracan - Gimnasia (at Boca stadium)
22/6 - 9.00pm - Belgrano de Cordoba - River Plate (1st leg)
26/6 - River Plate - Belgrano de Cordoba (2nd leg)
26/6 - San Martin de San Juan - Gimnasia/Huracan (1st leg)
30/6 - Gimnasia/Huracan - San Martin de San Juan (2nd leg)

FINAL Standings :

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Copa Sudamerica 2011 table ( Top 6 qualify to Copa Sudamericana 2011 + Independiente because they are Sudamericana 2010 champion) :

Clausura 2011 Round 18 - Velez adds its 8th star

2011-06-16T09:46:00.006-03:00

And finally we have a champion in Clausura, and it's 100% deserved as they were without a doubt the best team of Clausura, with a great offense, solid football overall and if they hadn't been playing Copa Libertadores at the same time they would have been champions 2 or 3 rounds ago.

But there's still a lot more to be played in the last round, because no teams are relegated yet (2 of Quilmes, Huracan and Gimnasia will relegate and the other one will play promotion playoff), and there are also 3 teams fighting to avoid the other promotion playoff spot (River, Olimpo and Tigre).

Because of this, Saturday will have 5 games played at the same time and after that everything will be decided...or not, because there are some chances of ties in all spots !

It's not easy to explain what can happen in this last round, but this is a good summary :

Relegations :

Huracan 1.106 (125 points in 113 games)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gimnasia 1.097 (124 points in 113 games)
Quilmes 1.054 (39 points in 37 games)

* If Huracan wins (@ Independiente) they will play the promotion playoffs and Gimnasia and Quilmes are automatically relegated.
* Quilmes MUST win (at home vs Olimpo) and hope that Gimnasia and Huracan don't win.
* Gimnasia needs to win and hope that Huracan doesn't.
* Weird fact : If Quilmes wins and Huracan draws, they will end with the same Average !! In this case, if Gimnasia doesn't win, they would have to play a game in neutral field to decide who is relegated and who plays the promotion playoff !!

Promotions :

Tigre 1.265 (143 points in 113 games)
River 1.248 (141 points in 113 games)
---------------------------------------------------------
Olimpo 1.216 (45 points in 37 games)

* Olimpo MUST WIN (@ Quilmes). If they don't win, they will play the promotion playoffs.
* If Olimpo wins and River doesn't, River will play the promotion playoffs (and Tigre would be automatically saved).
* Weird fact : if Olimpo wins, River wins and Tigre draws...the 3 would end with the same Average !!!!!!!!!!!!!! and they would have to play a mini tournament between of 3 games in neutral field to decide who plays the promotion playoffs.

Also the last spot of Copa Sudamericana will be decided this weekend as Arsenal, Argentinos Juniors, Racing and Boca will be fighting for it.

Round 18 results :

10/6 — Olimpo de Bahía Blanca 1 – 1 Newell’s Old Boys
11/6 — Colón de Santa Fe 0 – 1 Arsenal F.C.
11/6 — San Lorenzo 0 – 2 Quilmes A.C.
11/6 — All Boys 1 – 0 Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata
11/6 — Tigre 0 – 0 Independiente
12/6 — Huracán 0 – 2 Vélez Sarsfield
12/6 — Estudiantes de La Plata 1 – 1 River Plate
12/6 — Lanús 0 – 1 Argentinos Juniors
12/6 — Boca Juniors 1 – 1 Banfield
13/6 — Racing Club 2 – 3 Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba

Round 19 Schedule :

Saturday June 18
15.00—Independiente-Huracán
15.00—Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata-Boca Juniors
15.00—Quilmes A. C. – Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
15.00—River Plate-Lanús
15.00—Argentinos Juniors-Tigre
20.10--Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba-All Boys

Sunday June 19
14.00-- Arsenal F.C.- Estudiantes de La Plata
15.00—Newell’s Old Boys-Colón de Santa Fe
17.10—Banfield-San Lorenzo
19.30—Vélez Sarsfield-Racing Club

Standings :

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Copa Sudamerica 2011 table ( Top 6 qualify to Copa Sudamericana 2011 + Independiente because they are Sudamericana 2010 champion) :

* Tables taken from "La Redó" (www.la-redo.com.ar)

Copa America 2011 is coming !

2011-06-08T21:38:00.005-03:00

As most of you probably know we're less than a month away from the most important football even of this winter/summer, Copa America, and it will be played here in Argentina.

The tournament starts on July 1st and will end on July 24th and will feature 12 national teams : the usual 10 of CONMEBOL + 2 invited guests from CONCACAF, Mexico and Costa Rica.

If you want to see the complete match schedule, check here : http://www.ca2011.com/jogos_todos.php

Clausura 2011 Round 17 - Velez or Lanus

2011-06-07T10:54:00.006-03:00

Click here to download all the previews of Round 17 and contact me on mncarg@gmail.com to know how to get them before the games !

Monday games left only two teams fighting for the championship : Velez and Lanus.

Velez game was very difficult and even though they had the ball all the time during the 1st half, they barely had any chances to score and Godoy Cruz was holding without much problems.
When the 2nd half started it was the visitors who had the best chances to score and they missed two huge ones, saved by Velez's goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero, and when it looked like Velez couldn't find a way to score, striker Juan Manuel Martinez, one of the best players in this league, scored an amazing goal.
The 1-0 hurt Godoy Cruz who couldn't react and in the last minute of the game David Ramirez put the 2-0. The 2 goals difference was probably too much, but Velez was overall a fair winner in a very balanced game.

Also balanced was the game of Lanus visiting Independiente. The visitors got the lead in the 1st half through a great free kick by Diego Valeri (another best player of this league) and they could have finished it earlier but they missed a penalty. When the 0-2 came on a counter attack it looked like it was game over, but Independiente scored with a header off a corner kick only a few minutes later and pushed in the last minutes but couldn't get the draw.

Velez is still the leader with 33 points, followed by Lanus with 32 and Godoy Cruz was left behind as they have only 28 points with 2 rounds left.
Next week Velez will visit the desperate Huracan (for now behind closed doors because of Huracan's suspension) and Lanus will host Argentinos Juniors, while in the last round Velez will play at home vs Racing and Lanus will visit ... River !

Almost every TV show about football and in meetings between football fans the talk is much more about the relegation/promotion playoffs than who will win the championship and after Sunday's results this won't change.

Gimnasia's draw vs Racing combined with the unexpected but deserved Huracan win changed things in the last places of the Averages table because now it's Gimnasia who is in a direct relegation place and Huracan is only 1 point above them in a promotion playoff !!
Things might change again next week because Huracan visits the worst rival they could have now, Velez, while Gimnasia will visit All Boys, who only needs 1 more point to be 100% safe.
The other promotion playoff place is for Olimpo now, but River couldn't take advantage of Tigre's defeat and only drew vs Colon and things are still really tight down there.

Round 17 results :

3/6 — Arsenal F.C. 2 – 0 Olimpo de Bahía Blanca
4/6 — Banfield 3 – 1 All Boys
4/6 — Newell’s Old Boys vs San LorenzoPostergado por incidentes
5/6 — Quilmes A.C. 2 – 2 Boca Juniors
5/6 — Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata 0 – 0 Racing Club
5/6 — Huracán 3 – 2 Tigre
5/6 — River Plate 1 – 1 Colón de Santa Fe
6/6 — Argentinos Juniors 0 – 0 Estudiantes de La Plata
6/6 — Vélez Sarsfield 2 – 0 Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
6/6 — Independiente 1 – 2 Lanús

Round 18 will be amazing as it will feature 10 games where in all of them there are teams fighting for something : championship, relegation/promotion or Copa Sudamericana qualification !!
For now this will be the schedule, but there are big chances that it will be changed so probably Velez and Lanus play at the same time :

Friday June 10
21.10--Olimpo de Bahía Blanca-Newell`s Old Boys

Saturday June 11
14.00--Colón de Santa Fe-Arsenal F.C.
16.10--San Lorenzo-Quilmes A.C.
18.20--All Boys-Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata
20.20--Tigre-Independiente

Sunday June 12
14.00--Huracán-Vélez Sarsfield
16.00--Estudiantes de La Plata-River Plate
18.10--Lanús-Argentinos Juniors
20.20--Boca Juniors-Banfield

Monday June 13
20.10--Racing Club-Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba

Standings :

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Copa Sudamerica 2011 table ( Top 6 qualify to Copa Sudamericana 2011 + Independiente because they are Sudamericana 2010 champion) :

* Tables taken from "La Redó" (www.la-redo.com.ar)

Clausura 2011 Round 16 - Three for the glory

2011-06-01T14:58:00.006-03:00

With Velez's defeat (using 8 reserves in their starting lineup due to their Copa Libertadores game) against Tigre opened the championship again when there are only 3 rounds left.

* Tigre got a deserved win in a very balanced game because Velez's reserves lineup couldn't play like they usually do with their regular players.
What will happen with this tired Velez ? This week they decide their future as they play the 2nd leg of the Copa Libertadores semifinal, and next week they host Godoy Cruz.
Great win for Tigre who took a 3 points difference from the promotion playoff places.

* Lanus did exactly what was expected from them (and Huracan also did it : play awful) and in another very good performance they easily won 3-0 to get 1 point behind Velez. Easiest win of the semester for them against the hopeless Huracan who next Thursday will complete the remaining 60 minutes of the game they are losing 2-0 vs Estudiantes.

* Godoy Cruz had a tougher game because Gimnasia put up a fight and in the first minute of injury time put justice in the final score with the 2-2. A home win could have been fair as well, but Gimnasia had done enough to deserve a draw and now they are in the promotion playoff places (at least temporarily until Huracan's result vs Estudiantes).

* Crisis for River continues as they were only able to get a scoreless draw against Olimpo. The home team was without a doubt better, because River played another very poor game and looked nervous, but Olimpo failed to score and the draw leaves River in a promotion playoff place with only 3 rounds left.

* Boca should have won much easier than the 1-0 that was the final score because they were a lot better than Newell's. The visitors used this inexplicable very defensive tactic like the draw had any use for them and Boca dominated almost the 90 minutes, even missing a penalty in the 1st half. Because of Racing's defeat on Saturday they are now only 1 point from the Copa Sudamericana zone and with big chances of qualifying.

Next round will have a key game for the future of this tournament as Velez hosts Godoy Cruz. Also 2nd placed Lanus visits the uprising Independiente, and for the Averages table the more important games are Olimpo visiting Arsenal and River hosting Colon.

Round 16 results :

28/5 — Colón de Santa Fe 1 – 2 Argentinos Juniors
28/5 — San Lorenzo 1 – 1 Arsenal F.C.
28/5 — All Boys 1 – 0 Quilmes A.C.
28/5 — Racing Club 1 – 3 Banfield
29/5 — Tigre 2 – 1 Vélez Sarsfield
29/5 — Estudiantes de La Plata 2 – 0 Independiente
29/5 — Boca Juniors 1 – 0 Newell’s Old Boys
29/5 — Olimpo de Bahía Blanca 0 – 0 River Plate
30/5 — Lanús 3 – 0 Huracán
30/5 — Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba 2 – 2 Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata

Round 17 Schedule :

Friday June 3
21.10-- Arsenal F.C.-Olimpo de Bahía Blanca.

Saturday June 4
17.15-- Banfield-All Boys.

19.30-- Newell´s Old Boys-San Lorenzo de Almagro.

Sunday June 5
14.00-- Quilmes A.C.-Boca Juniors
16.00-- Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata-Racing Club.
18.10-- Huracán-Tigre.
20.20-- River Plate-Colón de Santa Fe.

Monday June 6
17.00-- Independiente-Lanús.
19.10-- Argentinos Juniors-Estudiantes de La Plata.
21.15-- Vélez Sarsfield-Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba.

Standings :

Averages Table (http://www.argentinapreviews.com/2010/05/how-are-relegations-decided.html) :

Copa Sudamerica 2011 table ( Top 6 qualify to Copa Sudamericana 2011 + Independiente because they are Sudamericana 2010 champion) :

* Tables taken from "La Redó" (www.la-redo.com.ar)

1 year of Argentina Previews !

2011-05-28T10:07:00.003-03:00

Today (well, yesterday actually) the blog got 1 year old.

I had so many doubts to start it back in May 2010, after Clausura 2010 had ended and with the World Cup excitement around the corner, so I would like to thank the people that encouraged me to do it. For those who said that would last only a few weeks...well, thanks too :)

One year, 100 posts and 350 previews later after thousands of visits from more than 120 countries (!!!) my life has changed thanks to the many people that contacted me.

So...the only thing I can say is THANK YOU !!!