Finally getting his own way

Daniel Passarella’s been a grumpy boy for a while now. First the fans start booing him midway through the Clausura campaign, then River Plate’s board insist that he offload players in the close season just because the club are in crippling amounts of debt. Then he’s forced to fly with his team to South Korea to [...]

Primera A 2007 - 2008: Meet the teams

This Friday sees the start of the 2007 Primera A Torneo Apertura, with that long football-less week-and-five-days since the World Youth Cup win finally over. But who are the teams? Where are they from? Who manages them, what are their histories like and which are the main derby rivalries? The superclásico’s an easy one, of [...]

A lovely new home

Independiente have been groundsharing with Racing since the start of the Clausura, and will have to go through that indignity for another season whilst their rather proud but very crumbling Doble Visera is remodelled. The plans for the new ground have been unveiled, complete with artists’ impressions - and doesn’t it look lovely?

Happy birthday Ferro

Sunday was a quiet day for the pre-season preparations of the ‘big’ sides, but one of the biggest exiles to the lower divisions had cause for celebration this weekend. I told you a few weeks ago how Ferro, a grand old club with a semi-glorious past, just escaped relegation to the B Metropolitana after seeing off Estudiantes [...]

Final preparations…

Four of the ‘Big Five’ were playing friendlies on Saturday, with just six days remaining before the start of the Apertura. River Plate played one half with the starters and one with their substitutes against Primera B Nacional side CAI (Comisión Actividades Infantiles) of Comodoro Rivadavia. With Diego Buonanotte playing as the 10 in a [...]

Going somewhere?

I’ve been away for a couple of days, hence the lack of updates yesterday, but with it being pre-season not much of interest has been happening anyway. Except for two developments in the transfer market. Last week, I told you with some scepticism that the British newspaper The Independent had reported Ángel Di María’s imminent [...]

Contrasting attitudes

Two rather different attitudes to problem players are being demonstrated today, on either side of the Atlantic. Villarreal, who have a playmaker many sides would be delighted to get their hands on, are trying to get rid of Juan Román Riquelme. And River Plate, who have a second striker no-one else will touch with a [...]

The Millionaires start spending… oh.

After all that selling, River Plate have finally signed a footballer in this transfer window - but the traditional big-spenders won’t be shelling out anything but his wages. Ernesto Farías, Juan Pablo Carrizo, Nelson Rivas, Ruben Sambueza, Víctor Zapata, Diego Galván and Matías Oyola have all left. Today, Sixto Peralta arrived - on loan - [...]

A shock draw

Boca continued their pre-season tour of the United States on Tuesday night with a 1-1 draw in Utah against Real Salt Lake. Falling behind early on to a harshly given penalty after Real’s Freddy Adu fell over in the box. Again Boca used the 4-4-2 system with wide midfielders Neri Cardozo and Jesús Dátolo providing [...]

Hasta El Gol Siempre readers’ survey

Yes I know, it all sound terribly official and whatnot. It’s not really, though, more just an encouragement for you to give me some feedback on the site, which is now 5 1/2 months old. With the Apertura starting in a week-and-a-half, I’m doing some work in the background to expand and improve the site [...]