Vamo Por La Copa! River Plate Debut Tonight Against Nacional de Paraguay

By: Christian | February 12th, 2009

River Plate will debut tonight in South America’s most prestigious cup competition when they host Nacional de Paraguay in Group 3 of the 2009 Copa Libertadores. You can watch the game live on FSE at 7PM ET/3PM ET.

For all River fans, the Copa is the ultimate prize, more important than the league, and dare I say it, even more important than the Superclásico. Despite having won the title twice, in 1986 and 1996, the Copa has eluded us ever since, often with disastrous and humiliating exits, most recently:

2004: Knocked out on penalties to Boca in the semifinals
2005: Again knocked out in the semifinals by 5-2 on aggregate by São Paulo
2007: Didn’t even advance out of the group stage
2008: Last year’s debacle in the round of 16 where a 9-man San Lorenzo came back from 2 goals down to win the series 4-3 on aggregate

Can River reverse the trend in 2009? History has proven that anything can and will happen in the Copa, and while for us that lately means embarrassing exits, there is always the hope that all the elements can come together for us to win our third title, and advance to the FIFA Club World Cup.

Complete Group 3 Teams:
River Plate
Club Nacional de Football (Uruguay)
Universidad San Martín de Porres (Peru)
Club Nacional (Paraguay)

Notes: Gustavo Fernández will most likely be included in Néstor Gorosito’s starting XI. La tortuga you’ll remember enjoyed a fine debut during this year’s Copa De Verano, scoring a goal to boot. With all the positive press he’s been receiving, hopefully he can solve River’s on-going forward crisis, which has seen flops such as Sebastián Abreu and Santiago Salcedo come and go, and be the perfect partner to Radamel Falcao.