A manic Saturday

Things got turned on their heads somewhat on Saturday, with almost none of the day’s five matches in Primera A going to form. Leaders Vélez and Estudiantes both failed to win for the first time in the campaign, whilst Tigre returned to winning ways after an underwhelming start and Independiente continued their up-and-down form by beating Argentinos. Most eyebrow-raising, though, were relegation strugglers Olimpo, who beat the defending champions…

San Lorenzo, meanwhile, finally scored a goal – and not just one goal, but three. Ramón Díaz’s side were led by their captain and centre back Adrián González, who scored twice from free kicks, both right into the corner of the goal, once in each half. In between those, Mauricio Carrasco briefly levelled the scores up for Estudiantes, but Santiago Hirsig added one of his own with just over 20 minutes left to give San Lorenzo a much-awaited victory and end Estudiantes’ perfect start to the season.

Vélez’s 100% winning record has also gone, although they do remain undefeated at the top of the table, after being held to a 0-0 draw by Gimnasia de Jujuy, who were playing at home. In a dull match the only real talking point was Víctor Zapata’s sending-off three minutes into stoppage time. Tigre did a bit better than Vélez as visitors, beating Colón 2-1 in Santa Fé despite finishing the match a man down after first-half goalscorer Román Martínez was sent off with quarter-of-an-hour remaining. Darío Gandín struck early in the second half to cancel out Martínez’s strike, but Damián Leyes won it for Tigre with ten minutes left.

Independiente continued their lose-win-lose-win pattern, with Germán Denis and Daniel Montenegro scoring ten minutes before the end of each half, Montenegro’s strike effectively sealing the victory after Néstor Ortigoza had been sent off for Argentinos minutes previously.

It was Olimpo, though, who grabbed the biggest plaudits for the day, outplaying champions Lanús in the second half in Bahía Blanca, having already taken the lead in the first period, to win 3-2 and continue their fight to remain in the division. There were two doubles in the match, Diego González opening the scoring for Lanús midway through the first half, and later making it 2-1 in the 54th minute. In reply, though, José Ulloa hit two of his own, first cancelling out González’s first just after the break, and then netting the winner with 17 minutes to go after Gustavo Pinto had equalised González’s second strike. Lanús youngster Lautaro Acosta was superb in the first half but faded in the second, as the 5-1 pasting handed out to Colón last week was forgotten. Olimpo, meanwhile, claimed their first win of the year and will look forward to the relegation struggle ahead with renewed vigour.