Copa de Verano: River Plate 1 - 1 Independiente
By: Christian | January 12th, 2008
The Diego Simeone era began tonight in modest fashion as River Plate drew 1-1 to Independiente in the Copa de Verano.
Los millonarios went ahead in the first half on a Matías Abelairas penalty, but los rojos were able to pull it even in the second to leave it 1-all. As was expected, River played mainly a team of youngsters and as a result, the game looked every bit like the meaningless pre-season friendly it actually was. But regardless, it must be said that River played poorly and uninspiring, and after fading quickly in the second half, were lucky to come away with a draw.
So what does Diego Simeone take away from this game? Obviously tonight was about seeing some new faces, so it’s probable he took River’s performance with a grain of salt. But few players made cases for themselves, apart from second half sub Alexis Sanchez, and Abelairas. River’s defense was poor throughout, and players such as Villagra and Ruben did little to help their cause. Of the youngsters on the pitch, only Lizio showed he might be worth a second look.
There’s still plenty of time to go, so let’s hope el Cholo came away with some positives and took note of what needs to be changed for when the games start to count. NOTE: In a previous post I wrote that Matías Abelairas had not been invited to the summer tournament by Simeone, which I based on a report in Clarin, but according to press reports, Simeone felt he was short on left-footed players. There had been rumors that he was to join Gimnasia.
Line-Up
Juan Ojeda
Danilo Gerlo - Mateo Musacchio - Cristian Nasuti - Cristian Villagra
Damián Lizio - Nicolás Domingo - Matías Abelairas - Diego Buonanotte
Sebastián Sciorilli - Marco Ruben
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Comments
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Where’s Falcao? Because I know he didn’t go to Flu.
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United States
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He’s going to stay at River. Along with most of the first team, he sat out the opening game. There was a brief shot of him on the broadcast watching from the directors box and looking incredibly bored.
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United States
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