Clausura 2009: River Plate 2 – 2 Colón de Santa Fe

By: Christian | February 9th, 2009

River Plate 2 - 2 Coln de Santa Fe

Photo courtesy LPM

Just when it appeared that River Plate were set to begin their 2009 campaign with a win at the Monumental and usher in the Néstor Gorosito era on a positive note, a stunning strike from Sebastián Prediger in injury time denied los millonarios what appeared a certain victory in yesterday’s shocking 2-2 draw to a 10-man Colón de Santa Fe.

It was a frustrating way to begin the new season, made even worse by the fact that River clearly deserved the three points. The first half was relatively quiet, with Colón’s compact, 5-man midfield stymieing much of River’s attempts to move forward, and the first 45 minutes would have passed without incident, but a late challenge on Diego Buonanotte led to a straight red, and River would enter the second half with a 1-man advantage.

And it wouldn’t take long to capitalize. Defender Gustavo Cabral, left unmarked in front of net during a corner kick, connected with a powerful header to put River up 1-0 in the 56th minute. Colón had no choice but to drop back, and River took control of the game, dominating most of the possession, and growing much stronger and more confident as a team. Radamel Falcao added a second goal in the 68th minute, and despite a truly beautiful strike from Alejandro Capurro in the 77th minute that put the score at 2-1, it appeared that River were set to hold on for the win, and possibly even add to their lead.

Wrong. Dead wrong. A wicked shot in the 92nd minute silenced the Monumental and crushed River’s hope of giving Néstor Gorosito his first win in charge. They clearly deserved the three points, so what happened? As Gorosito told reporters after the game, “not even Superman” could have stopped both of Colón’s shots on goal. But most maddening was that Colón showed nothing else on the afternoon, and there was never any indication that they would come back for the draw. It was as if their two goals were from another team playing a different game, to paraphrase stunned keeper Juan Marcelo Ojeda.

But even conceding those goals, River should regardless have put the game away. They held possession for most of the game, and did everything they needed to put themselves in a position to win. They showed patience with the ball and creativity in attack, and more importantly, got better as the game progressed. But rather then strike the final blow to Colón, which they could have done on multiple opportunities, they fell asleep at the two worst possible moments, left without an answer after inexplicably losing the lead.

It would be best for all involved to forget this disappointment and move on; the last thing we need is to linger on the what-ifs, especially when what River needs most is to forget the weekly horror show that was our last campaign. The Copa Libertadores is set to begin this week; let’s focus all our positive energy on that.

2009 Clausura Fixture 1
River Plate 2 – 2 Colón de Santa Fe

Scoring Summary:
Gustavo Cabral (RP), 56th
Radamel Falcao García (RP), 68th
Alejandro Capurro (C), 77th
47m Sebastián Prediger (C), 92nd

River Plate:
Juan Marcelo Ojeda
Paulo Ferrari, Gustavo Cabral, Nicolás Sánchez, Cristian Villagra
Augusto Fernández, Oscar Ahumada, Matías Abelairas
Diego Buonanotte
Mauro Rosales, Radamel Falcao

Substitutions:
Daniel Villalba for Rosales, 71st
Danilo Gerlo for Cabral, 78th
Robert Flores for Buonanotte, 87th

Highlights