I Done Seen Everything
By: Scott | November 24th, 2008
A bigger man than myself would extend some sympathy to the current plight of River Plate. Fresh off the heels of their latest championship, their inability to mesh their egos has led them to their worst season ever. Poor guys. Oh, wait, they can suck it. No sympathy to be found here. I did mention that they just won the title, right? Yeah, poor guys. By the way, the only name I have heard to replace Simeone as permanent coach is…Pipo Gorosito. Huh. Interesting. Take him. In my opinion, the team has done well in spite of his tinkering, not because of it. Take him, compensate us, and we’ll take Gallego. Please let that happen. But perhaps he could leave his pretty hair.
Regarding the title of the post, Argentinos walked into the Monumental and took away 3 points for the first time since 1993, which means that if you have fond memories of playing Doom, then they all happened since that infamous date. I don’t know what the circumstances were behind that victory, i.e. if River was bad, if there was a fake penalty called, etc., but it’s history. Milestones, people…milestones. The best thing about the whole affair was that the first half was even (Radamel Falcao headed the home side to the lead in the 15th minute, after Escudero and Hauche had both blown pretty clear chances to start Argentinos off in the lead) and then the second half was pretty much dominated by Argentinos. After a few hapless attempts at goal, Juan Sabia sidled up from his central defensive position to head a free kick home in a crafty move (That’s his first goal in the first division, so…hat’s off, big guy).
Then the boys in red pushed forward and went for the kill. The young and fresh legs of Andrés “Paco” Romero, Rafael Viotti, and Franco Quiroga linked together in a grand attempt to slip the ball past Daniel Vega to sneak away with three points. And just when it looked like they would fall just short, Paco did the silliest little play I have seen in a while by kicking the ball forward in an attempt to outrun everyone and receive it with no angle to shoot. Instead of fulfilling that fantasy, he instead saw the opportunity to leap over a sliding Daniel Vega in a desperate appeal for a last-minute penalty. Oh wait…here’s the best part, dashy little Rafael Viotti was making a pointless run to nowhere and happened to be in the basically the same place and ALSO dived. Penalty awarded, I believe due to the disbelief on the part of the ref that synchronized diving could be pulled off so effortlessly. Quite the thing of beauty.
Our beloved hunchback Nestor Ortigoza strode up the spot and deftly deposited the ball in the top right corner to move the score to the 2-1 final. And the feat had been accomplished, improbable though it had seemed. Hot dammit, I will take it.
A few additional thoughts:
River is playing scared. Salcedo and, more interestingly, Buonanotte were both taken out when River was clinging to a 1-0 lead. Go for the jugular! Now, don’t get me wrong, the talent scales were still greatly tilted in their favor, but there were twenty minutes left when Buonanotte stepped off. A lot can happen, and a lot did. CARP has not won at home since Week 2 and were desperately hoping to field a side that could hold Argentinos out of the net, instead of focusing on keeping their own flow of the game.
Nestor Ortigoza was the best player on the field. I am again struck speechless by his evolution as a player. My pride swells as if he were my own son. I now believe, as he is no older than 24, that he will soon be moving on to bigger pastures. And he will try to eat the grass in that pasture, too. He looks like a donkey…that’s the joke. But he will manage a game and move between offense and defense like nobody’s business.
Gabriel Hauche needs some time to himself. He disappeared last Thursday against Estudiantes and blew 3 (3!!!!!!!!!!!!!) one-on-one or one-on-NONE chances yesterday. Sit this one out, kid…you’ve scored two goals in the tournament (in addition to two wonderful and very important goals in the Sudamericana), but your impact and influence on the flow of the offense (i.e. breaking down a defender on the side to create a good centering chance, making the good center after the initial move, or poaching a goal from a weird bounce in the area) have not been existent…and it has limited this team greatly. I still love ya, kid, but…figure this out.
Just for fun, South Americans have decided they don’t know how to organize something. The Copa Libertadores is evidently going to have three additional spots open because Peru’s teams will not be able to participate. You will be missed. Now, no one knows who will replace them. Talk includes: Independiente and Santos, due to their history; the champion of the Sudamericana (dammit); or one additional spot in certain countries, including Argentina. Guess who occupies that spot currently? You guessed it…Tigre. BUT, guess who is only 4 points behind Tigre with 3 matches to play…Argentinos. A lot would need to happen in order for the boys to be distracted by a mid-week fixture again next year, including winning at least 2 (most likely 3) of their remaining matches and rooting for teams to beat Tigre, which this week means rooting for…River Plate. Life, have I told you lately that I love you?
Here go the highlights, to reward those that have made it this far:
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