Clausura 2008: River Plate 1 – 0 Huracan

By: Christian | May 25th, 2008

River Plate 1 Huracan 0

Ariel Ortega and Diego Buonanotte were the heroes Saturday evening, combining together on the only goal in a 1-0 victory against Huracan, enough to send River back to the top of the Torneo Clausura, and in front of a Monumental crowd celebrating the club’s 107th anniversary, reviving the teams chances of winning a title in this roller-coaster ride of a season. After Estudiantes were only able to draw 1-1 against Independiente on Sunday, los millonarios are once again tied for first with 34 points, level with Diego Simeone’s former squad, with only 3 games left.

After a tepid first half, which the squad left to jeers and whistles from the frustrated home crowd, Simeone made the substitution that just about everyone in the stadium was chanting for. With that, el Burrito Ortega came on in the second half, and the pace of River’s game changed almost at once. After some nail-biting minutes, a brilliant individual effort by Ortega ended with a pass to young Buonanotte, who effortlessly sent the ball to the back of the net. The crowd rose to its feet, Simeone went berserk, and the club came together after weeks of off-filed turmoil.

If you’ve read this blog over the past season, you know how River performed yesterday, so I won’t go over it again. What I do want to say is that I saw a team on Saturday that is starting to believe. They may not play the most beautiful football, and they may be leaving us River fans with more tense moments then we care to experience, but they are proving that they can get things done. And if Ariel Ortega, whose role at the club has been questioned in recent days, can take this squad on his back and lead them to the title, it would make this sometime nightmare of a season worth it.

And speaking of those fans who filled the Monumental yesterday, they finally appeared to come together to support the club, showing that while, yes, it’s sometimes necessary to tell the players when they’re playing badly, it’s also important to support them.

We now face three must-wins in the league: away to Colon, home to Olimpo, and away to Banfield. On paper, all three are wins, but River must take nothing for granted. Estudiantes meanwhile, will go away to Huracan, home to Colon, and away to Olimpo. Can River find it in them to grab three more victories? Will Estudiantes slip-up? Will there be a one-game title decider? Aguante River, and stay tuned.

NOTES: As you can see in the video below, River did indeed wear an alternate, violet strip, using that odd color for only the 4th time in the club’s history, and not since 1975 in the old Metropolitano. Depending on who you ask, the color is either a tribute to the Torino squad that perished in a plane crash in 1949, and whose kit was donated by the victims families after River traveled to Italy to play a benefit match, OR, were donated by a club member prior to a 1969 game against Deportivo Morón (who have a similar strip to River’s), after no other color was available. Either way, I have to admit that it didn’t look quite as bad as I feared, and wouldn’t mind adding it to my collection.

River Plate:
Juan Pablo Carrizo
Danilo Gerlo, Leonardo Ponzio, Gustavo Cabral
Paulo Ferrari, Nicolás Domingo (Ariel Ortega, 46th), Matías Abelairas
Augusto Fernández (Alexis Sánchez, 57th), Radamel Falcao, Diego Buonanotte
Sebastián Abreu (Mauro Rosales, 70th)