Tiros Libres: The Preseason

River Plate began pre-season training last week in the coastal resort town of Mar del Plata, ahead of their Copa de Verano debut this Saturday against Independiente which you can follow live at 7PM ET on FSC.

Aside from letting go some driftwood, it hasn’t been the best off-season for River or for new coach Diego Simeone, with not enough reinforcements joining the club as was initially expected. River were able to bring in former Uruguayan international Sebastián Abreu, who has amassed an impressive playing career as a forward stretching from Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico. However, the club has made little progress in solidifying our shoddy defense, which was responsible for an Apertura worst 31 goals against last year.

To understand where River are at right now, let’s take a look at the list of players currently in camp:

Goal Keepers: Juan Marcelo Ojeda, Mario Daniel Vega and Gonzalo Marinelli.

Defenders: Danilo Gerlo, Mateo Musacchio, Maximiliano Oliva, Eduardo Tuzzio, Cristian Nasuti, Paulo Ferrari, Cristian Villagra, Nicolás Sánchez and Emmanuel Martínez.

Midfielders: Nicolás Domingo, Oscar Ahumada, Leonardo Ponzio, Damián Lizzio, Diego Buonanotte, Marcelo Burzac, Augusto Fernández and Sebastián Sciorilli.

Forwards: Marco Ruben, Mauro Rosales, Andrés Ríos, Ariel Ortega, Alexis Sánchez, Gastón Gauna, Radamel Falcao García and Sebastián Abreu.

The biggest name missing of course is Fernando Belluschi, whose long rumored transfer to Greece’s Olympiakos was finalized to the tune of $7 million, although given the ridiculous state of transfers in South America, River will only pocket around half of that after selling a percentage of his rights some time ago. While Belluschi will be sorely missed, it was clearly the best move for both parties. The midfielder provided us with some great moments on the pitch and some highlight reel goals, but he was also prone to disappear during games, and his lifeless performance during the Copa Sudamericana semifinal was a heartbreaking example of that. Some of that blame has to be put on the shoulders of former coach Daniel Passarella, and his ridiculous and unrealistic claims that Belluschi was a “$40 million player”, but in the end, el “rasta’s” shot at winning a title had passed. He leaves River having been the teams top-goalscorer during the 2007 Apertura, with 7.

Surprisingly on the list is Radamel García, after many, including myself, believed him to be leaving la banda to join Fluminense, but it appears he will remain for at least one more season. As for the rest, there are some welcome returns (Alexis Sánchez, Diego Buonanotte), some question marks (Juan Pablo Carrizo is in Italy working out his passport issues), and some, unfortunately, back (Villagra, Villagra, and Villagra).

Bear in mind that there is still a month left before the Clausura begins, and we will have to wait and see how River perform in the short summer tournament to get a sense of where the squad are at. But Diego Simeone will need to make some major signings AND inspire the current squad if he is to announce himself as a bigtime coach capable of leading a traditional powerhouse like River back to its former glory.

Category: Team News, Transfer Rumors

Tags: Team News, Transfer Rumors

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