Week 3 Results

By: Christian | August 20th, 2007

1-1

River Plate finally began their Apertura campaign yesterday, squeezing out a a 1-1 draw away at San Lorenzo. River played poorly in the first half, looking like a team that, well, hasn’t played in months, but the second half was a different story, as “El Burrito” Ortega gave los millonarios the equalizer in the 57th minute on an extremely soft penalty. Still, a draw is a decent result all things considered, and remember that we still have 2 games in hand. River now look forward to the season, playing newly promoted San Martin; an easy opponent in theory, but nothing should be taken for granted at this point.

It’s still to early to tell what kind of team this is, and to be honest, while I’m looking at a draw away to the reigning champs as a decent start, I can’t say that I was particularly convinced that this seasons squad can turn things around. Ortega showed his class and experience and was clearly River’s man of the match, and things looked much better overall in the second half after the substitution of Radamel Falcao, who as usual, showed lots of promise with no results to show for it. But personally, I still see a lot of holes. Belluschi looked good, but nothing like his form one year ago, not to mention being sent off late in the second half. But, Nicolás Sánchez looked solid in the back line, Juan Ojeda had a solid game in front of the net, and credit coach Passarella for tinkering with the lineup during halftime. Like I said, still to early to get a sense of what kind of team this really is, but I’m feeling optimistic. If only we had a way to score goals…

Full Results from Week 3
Gimnasia 0 2 Argentinos
Independiente 1 0 Rosario Central
Huracán 0 0 Tigre
Colón 2 1 Lanús
Olimpo 1 0 Arsenal
Banfield 1 0 Vélez
Gimnasia (J) 2 1 Racing
San Lorenzo 1 1 River
Newell`s 2 1 Estudiantes
Boca 1 0 San Martín (SJ)