Copa Libertadores 2009: Nacional de Uruguay 3 – 0 River Plate

By: Christian | March 20th, 2009

River Plate suffered a terrible defeat last night in the Copa Libertadores group stage, falling 3-0 to Nacional in Montevideo, and complicating their chances of advancing to the knockout stage. Currently in third place in Group 3 with only 3 points, la banda must now win all 3 of their remaining fixtures to assure that their Copa dreams not end in yet another nightmare.

In a truly impotent performance (and really, is there any other way to describe it?), River were largely a non-factor for most of the night, allowing an average Nacional side to easily take control of the game. Not merely content to just be mediocre, several River players had disastrous starts, including Marcelo Gallardo, who despite making his first start did not make any sort of case of replacing Diego Buonanotte as enganche, and Cristian Fabbiani, rapidly fading after his phenomenal start to the season. But none perhaps worse than poor Mariano Barbosa, who inexplicably managed an own goal to put Nacional ahead 2-0 in the second half, after what should have been an easy save. You can watch the horror below.

Nestor Gorosito again said that the score did not reflect the performance on the field. OK, Pipo, let’s follow that logic for a minute. Are you suggesting that River somehow didn’t deserve to have 3 goals scored against them? That they somehow deserved to actually win the game, although from what I saw from your forwards their wasn’t any shot that looked remotely dangerous all night?

The “we wuz robbed” argument is starting to get a little stale. River can pout about the shoddy refereeing and the unfair results all they want, but at the end of the day, the only thing that counts is the table standings, and if the group were to end today, River would be done and dusted. At this point, River are in a position where they must win their final three games, and based on their play so far in this tournament, that seems very unlikely.

The Copa Libertadores is long overdue at River since our last win in 1996. It remains the most prestigious trophy for any South American club, and to hoist it once more in the Monumental remains the dream of every River fan. It is therefore so extraordinarily mind-boggling to see such wasted performances from River year in, year out. Do the players, the managers, and the board not see how painfully we want this? How we would give anything to see our club win the highest honor in the Americas? Since 1996, the answer seems to be sadly, no.

2009 Copa Libertadores, Group 3 – Game 3
Nacional de Uruguay 3 – 0 River Plate

Scoring Summary:
Alvaro Fernández (N), 41st
Mariano Barbosa, o.g. (RP), 73rd
Mauricio Victorino (N), 95th

River Plate:
Mariano Barbosa
Paulo Ferrari, Nicolás Sánchez, Facundo Quiroga, Cristian Villagra
Augusto Fernández, Oscar Ahumada, Rubens Sambueza
Marcelo Gallardo
Cristian Fabbiani, Radamel Falcao

Substitutions:
Diego Buonanotte for Gallardo, 66th
Matías Abelairas for Sambueza, 83rd
Mauro Rosales for Fernández, 83rd

Highlights