Monday, February 15, 2016

Tucumán stun Boca in the Bombonera - Argentina Roundup

Leandro González. (photo from ole.com.ar)

The unthinkable has really happened: Atlético Tucumán, just promoted, have beaten Boca Juniors in the Bombonera, 0-1. Here is the roundup of all of Saturday's and Sunday's action in Argentina's Primera División. 

It has only been a week since Tucumán's stunning win against Racing, now the team from Juan Azconzábal won away to Boca Juniors. Leandro González scored the goal of the game 23 minutes in, his second of the season. 
Throughout the game, the big favourite only managed two shots on goal, compared to Tucumán's five. The bottom line is a sixth game in a row in 2016, in which Boca has not managed to find the back of the net. As of Monday morning, coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena was still in charge, but that is likely not going to hold until Thursday's visit to San Martín. 
Defensively, Boca was horrible and allowed way too much, seemingly uninterested. Does the team still have its hunger after winning last year's double? The next few weeks will prove if these performances were predominantly on the coach.

Sí, Señor: Pablo Barrientos wins the game late for San Lorenzo. (photo from elpatagonico.com)
San Lorenzo managed to get away with an injury time winner to beat Sarmiento at home on Saturday. Pablo Barrientos was the late hero of his team. The hosts fell behind quickly through Walter Busse's 6th minute goal. San Lorenzo had trouble finding offense and it took them until the final 15 minutes to get any consistent pressure on the visitors. Then a penalty from Nestor Ortigoza and a sending off for Sarmiento's Ferracutti did the rest before Barrientos won it. 

Racing Club suffered further goalkeeper problems in their 2-2 draw with San Martín. Both goals should have been saved by Sebastián Saja. With this form, Racing are far from contending for any title this season. At least Gustavo Bou continued his good form and gave his team the lead right before halftime. Daniel González tied things up in the 69th, before Óscar Romero answered with a gorgeous goal from distance into the top corner four minutes later. While Toledo's 89th minute equaliser took a little deflection, there is no excuse for Saja to not make this save. Racing start the season with just one point from two games.

Andres D'Alessandro's return to River ended in a loss. (photo from globoesporte.globo.com)
The story of River Plate's visit to Belgrano was clearly the return and debut of Andres D'Alessandro for his old team. Marcelo Gallardo named the 34-year old in his starting XI in place of last week's two goal man Pity Martínez. While D'Ale had an assist on River's first goal from Nicólas Domingo (26th), it was not good enough. By that time, Belgrano had already exposed their visitor's defense multiple times and scored twice through Iván Etevenaux and Jorge Vélazquez. When Etevenaux added another one right before halftime, the game seemed nearly decided already. Turns out, it was, since Iván Alonso could only get one back for his side in the 69th minute through a well-placed header. 
At the end of the day, River had just themselves to blame. Just like Boca earlier, they did not manage to get many shots on target. Belgrano surely did nothing magical and had their own problems defending throughout the game as well.

Lanús have opened their season with two wins. After last week's win over Estudiantes, a brace from José Sand saw Lanús get by Defensa y Justicia, 2-1. Making their victory even more special is the fact that they came from behind to get there. Fabian Bordagaray had given Defensa the lead after only 9 minutes.

Estudiantes themselves celebrated their first three points of the season. Lucas Viatri scored the golden goal at Atlético Rafaela after 39 minutes. The win for the away side was deserved, especially in the second half, Estudiantes did more for the game and had the better opportunities.

Freshly promoted Patronato has fallen into the league's one relegation spot after matchweek 2 following a 3-2 loss at Gimnasia y Esgrima. Despite the loss, Patronato did not look out of place at all and could have come away with at least a point on the night as well. Matias Garrido scored twice for his team, but Franco Niell, Lorenzo Faravelli and Walter Bou had other plans. Gimnasia have not won a lot lately, so these are some big points for them out of an even game.

Aldosivi continues with great offensive football and beat Argentinos Juniors 3-2. Jonathan Galván had his team on the scoreboard inside 5 minutes, but Juniors countered with Insúa's penalty. However, before halftime, Aldosivi got two more. Cristian Llama and Gastón Díaz with a penalty of his own put the game out of reach for the visitors. Lautaro Rinaldi should make it 3-2 in the 76th, but it was not enough.

Last but not least, Vélez Sarsfield have managed to win a game. Goals from Cristian Nasuti (9th) and Maximiliano Romero (79th) were sufficient to beat Olimpo 2-1. The away goal was marked by Walter Acuña in the 38th minute. Olimpo weakend themselves through a red card for Juan Quiroga in the 86th minute, making any sort of final push for a point impossible.

Here are all the goals in a long highlight video, because there were simply many goals this weekend:

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