5 talking points from the Argentine Primera Round Three
1. Estudiantes earn the bragging rights after ANOTHER clásico victory
One of the fiercest clásicos in Argentine football was born in 1905 when Estudiantes was formed from a breakaway group of members of Gimnasia, one of the oldest sports clubs in the country but who at the time did not offer football, and created their own club in La Plata. Since the first official clásico in 1916, the two have been pretty evenly matched in their head-to-heads but in the last ten years the fixture has been dominated by the red and white of El Pincha. Estudiantes have won eleven of the sixteen and on Sunday afternoon in El Bosque they added another.
The match was by no means a classic but Estudiantes proved too much for their bitter rivals and Mauricio Pellegrino’s title hopefuls continued their 100% start to the season. Defender Jonathan Schunke headed El Pincha in front and the impressive Guido Carrillo fired them further in front. Gimnasia were able to pull a goal back but even after being reduced to ten men, Estudiantes added a third. In Carrillo, Estudiantes have won of the best centre-forwards in Argentina and after a good summer they remain in the group of title contenders.
2. Central’s perfect start continues
The surprise package so far in the Primera are Eduardo Coudet’s Rosario Central who sit alongside Boca and Estudiantes with maximum points. Given that they finished fifteenth in the Transición and won only six matches in the whole tournament, to have reached half that total after their opening three games is impressive.
Saturday night’s match against Crucero del Norte should be in theory one of the leagues easier fixtures but as many could well find out this season, playing on the lush grass of Garupá is not so easy. It appeared to be heading for a draw until diminutive attacker, Franco Niell popped up with a late winner.
Niell, along with talented youngster Franco Cervi and returning Central heroes Marco Ruben and César Delgado are enough to pose most Primera defences a few problems but Coudet has also instilled a much more disciplined defence. A clean sheet to gain victory over champions Racing on the opening day provided the foundations and since then they have conceded only one, in their victory over Tigre.
3. San Martín take huge scalp of Libertadores champions
So far in the Torneo 2015, most of the ten promoted sides have given a pretty clear illustration of why promoting TEN sides to the top flight at once is a bad idea. Most have struggled and already seven of the ten find themselves in the bottom half with only a handful actually claiming a victory in the league as of yet. Against the established Primera sides the gulf has usually been evident and although Sarmiento came close to stealing all three points away to Independiente last week, there had not yet been a really noticeable upset in the Primera.
However, on Saturday evening in Bajo Flores, San Lorenzo hosted San Martín de San Juan and the newly promoted side provided a shock by defeating the Copa Libertadores champions. A late Marcos Figueroa goal took advantage of a continuously fragile looking Los Cuervos backline earning the visitors a famous win. After winning their opening two matches and their Copa Libertadores group game, it was thought that perhaps San Lorenzo had turned the corner following their post-Libertadores slump. This performance certainly put any such talk on ice and Edgardo Bauza’s side need a response.
4. Strikers in the shop window with Bou and Calleri on target
The rumour mill has wasted no time in linking Boca Juniors’ 21-year-old striker Jonathan Calleri with a big move to Europe after his splendid form this season. His sumptuous lob against Temperley was followed on Sunday with the winner against Olimpo in La Bombonera and his growing reputation has scouts taking a closer look.
Perhaps the Primera’s most dangerous centre-forward was also on the scoresheet at the weekend as Gustavo Bou added the second in Racing’s 2-1 win over Temperley. The 25-year-old was transformed during the Transición to play a huge part in Racing’s triumph and he has now plundered back-to-back hat-tricks in this year’s Copa Libertadores. Undoubtedly if he maintains this form it will be impossible for Racing to keep him in Avellaneda.
5. The ugly side of Argentine football returns
It hasn’t taken too long for the subject of football violence in Argentina to make headlines and the inevitable finger-pointing and blame shifting have already begun. More than 200 Laferrere barra bravas attempted to enter the stadium without tickets midway through the second half of the Primera C match against Dock Sud and the result was a street battle with the police that left 14 officers injured, two seriously.
Among the carnage of stones and bottles and bottles being thrown, a van was set on fire, a police officer had his shotgun stolen and another was knocked from a horse and severely beaten with a rock.
Laferrere will now play their matches behind closed doors but once again the result fails to look at the much wider issue here. There is no quick and easy solution to this problem in Argentina and certainly playing matches without fans is not an option. An away ban is still in place and that has not helped and the planned AFA Plus scheme seems destined to yield the same failures.
ALL THE GOALS FROM ROUND THREE
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