Copa Sudamericana 2008: River Plate 1 – 2 Chivas de Guadalajara

By: Christian | October 22nd, 2008

River Plate 1 - 2 Chivas

Hear that sound? It’s the death knell ringing for River Plate.

Continuing their horrible week, which saw them fall 1-0 to Boca in the Superclasico this past Sunday, River put on a pathetic display tonight in front of a restless home crowd, losing 2-1 to Chivas de Guadalajara in the first leg of the 2008 Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals. With their entire season now resting on the Copa, los millonarios did themselves no favors, squandering chance after chance, and putting themselves in a difficult position ahead of the second leg, to be held in Mexico in two weeks. After tonight’s performance however, two weeks from now feels more like the end of the Copa campaign, and with it, our year, then an opportunity to advance.

It would be hard to criticize Diego Simeone’s tactics before the game: Use the height of Sebastian Abreu, partnered with Radamel Falcao, and try to score early. While that may have been the plan, it would apparently be too difficult to execute, with River crossing in ball after ball in the penalty area for much of the match to little or no avail, at times doing in with such randomness and imprecision, that it appeared to be a tactic out of desperation more than anything else.

The team would simply break down completely, with our passing particularly worsening as the minutes passed, and by the second half, with River already down one thanks to a stupid goal in the 44th gifted to Chivas, the players could not even perform the most basic functions – passing, defending, clearing the ball, etc. As the second half wore away, River looked, well, like the team that it is: a scared, intimidated, out of their league, deer-in-the-headlights looking, boys versus men, squad.

A penalty late in injury time gave us at least one goal to take into the second leg, but barring a complete turn-around in Mexico, the damage appears to have been done. With so much pressure on the squad from the media and the fans, River had a golden opportunity to make amends for this disastrous campaign by putting in a strong performance against a Chivas side that looked good, but were certainly beatable. In fact, all the Mexicans seemed to do was sit back and let River dick around with the ball, then hit them on the counter against our “defense.” It was an intelligent approach to the game, something this squad seems to have precious little of.

So now we must sift through the detritus of the match and see what we can take into Mexico for the second leg to eke out a victory. While I’m not one for making predictions, especially if they go against River, if we can’t score, defend, or pass the ball, I can’t see this going our way. Believe me, I’ll be there in two weeks, glued to my TV, wearing my beautiful kit, and singing my heart out, because this is River, and we never stop, even if the players do. But reason, the eternal enemy of the football supporter, is telling me things are not going to end well.

2008 Copa Sudamericana, Quarterfinal – Game 1
River Plate 1 – 2 Chivas de Guadalajara

Scoring Summary:
Omar Arellano (CdG), 44th
Marco De la Mora (CdG), 81st
Sebastián Abreu (RP), 91st

River Plate:
Juan Marcelo Ojeda
Paulo Ferrari, Gustavo Cabral, Eduardo Tuzzio, Cristian Villagra
Augusto Fernández, Leonardo Ponzio, Matías Abelairas
Diego Buonanotte
Radamel Falcao, Sebastián Abreu

Substitutions:
Mauro Rosales for Fernández, 56th
Rodrigo Archubi for Ferrari, 71th
Santiago Salcedo for Falcao, 75th

Highlights: