Tiros Libres: Copa Sudamericana, The Return of el Loco, and Huevo

By: Christian | September 24th, 2008

As River Plate head coach Diego Simeone waited in the airport after his teams 3-1 defeat this past Sunday to San Martín, a loss which essentially ended the squad’s Apertura title hopes, he was approached by a group of fans who told him quite simply that the players needed to, “poner huevo.” They promptly turned, said goodbye, and walked away. For those who don’t speak Spanish, huevo, aside from it’s other more widely known meaning of egg, signifies in football, heart. Dedication. Playing for the shirt. Or to put it plainly, it means having a set of balls.

And so with that brief statement began one of the strangest stories this past week, a debate that, if you are at all familiar with football in Argentina, you know could only happen in Argentina: Is River simply playing badly this season? Or are they just playing without heart/ Without, yes, huevo?

It’s easy to see where this feeling from River fans comes from. The team have been an unmitigated disaster in this year’s Apertura, and while many felt that River, after losing players like Carrizo, Ortega, and Sanchez in the off-season would struggle to retain their league title, no one could have imagined that after only 7 games into the tournament, los millonarios would be done and dusted.

So now the focus shifts to the Copa Sudamericana, the continent’s second most prestigious tournament, and one that River have never won, having reached the final in 2003 only to lose to Peru’s Cienciano 4-3 on aggregate. If you’ll recall last year, River were denied a spot in the final when they lost to Arsenal de Sarandí in the semis on penalties. To help them win this elusive Cup, they have retained the services of Sebastian Abreu, the much maligned forward who joined the squad last season, and left to join Israel’s Beitar Jerusalem. With River in need of some help up front scoring goals, and Abreu unhappy in Europe, the deal was made to bring el Loco back.

Abreu won’t exactly be returning as the conquering hero. During the 2008 Clausura, el Loco only found the back of the net twice in the entire season, and often was the brunt of much abuse from the fans, sometimes actually deserving it. Granted, he did score 7 goals in the Copa Libertadores, including three in one match against San Martin in the group stages, but it’s still seems a huge risk on the part of Simeone to place Abreu as the piece of the puzzle that will reverse the squad’s fortunes.

But coming back to the issue of “huevo,” this deal brings up some interesting questions. River have been pursuing Abreu for weeks, however they’ve know in all that time that Abreu would be ineligible to play in the Apertura since the transfer window had closed, and only barring a massive injury to one of the current squad players would Abreu be allowed to play in the leauge. Are we to assume then that even prior to this weekend’s loss, Diego Simeone and the club were already conceding the Apertura, and instead focusing solely on the Cup? Does it make that much sense to bring in a reinforcement who you know from the outset can only participate in one competition? If that’s at all true, then essentially River have simply been walking through these first 7 league games. So what else to assume then that River aren’t playing 100% on the pitch, if it appears they aren’t even interested in competing? Where’s the huevo in that?

So are River a team with heart that is simply not playing well enough? Or are they just not trying? Simeone claims that the team is just not very good right now. From my point of view, it doesn’t really make a difference. The team is shocking, and whatever the reason, it’s no excuse for the way River has approached either the off-season, the league, or the Copa Sudamericana. Not enough reinforcements, poor to average performance on the field, and questionable priorities about which competitions to take seriously is leaving me pissed and nervous. What is certain is that if River fails to make something of the Copa, and if they make as big a disaster of it as they have the league, then expect the team to come away from this year with nothing more than egg on their face.

River Plate take on Defensor Sporting from Uruguay tomorrow night in Montevideo. You can watch it live on FSE at 7PM ET/4PM PT.