Yes, it’s January, and thus to the majority of HEGS readers that headline is six months early, but Argentina’s in a different hemisphere, you know. And the summer friendlies are just about to start. There’s the traditional Torneo de Verano between the ‘Big Five’, as well as the other regular events – the ‘City Cups’ of Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Córdoba and Tandil, and Colón’s annual international invitational. All the fixtures are right here.
Copa Torneo de Verano 2009
All the Torneo de Verano matches kick off at 22:10 Buenos Aires time.
Independiente vs. Racing Club (Sat 10th Jan in Mar del Plata)
Independiente vs. River Plate (Tues 13th, Mendoza)
San Lorenzo de Almagro vs. Racing Club (Weds 14th, Mar del Plata)
San Lorenzo de Almagro vs. Boca Juniors (Sat 17th, Mar del Plata)
Racing Club vs. River Plate (Sun 18th, Mendoza)
Boca Juniors vs. Independiente (Tues 20th, Salta)
Independiente vs. San Lorenzo de Almagro (Fri 23rd, Salta)
Boca Juniors vs. River Plate (Sat 24th, Mar del Plata)
Boca Juniors vs. Racing Club (Tues 27th, Mar del Plata)
River Plate vs. San Lorenzo de Almagro (Weds 28th, Salta)
Copa Ciudad de Mendoza
Boca Juniors vs. River Plate (Sun 1st Feb, 22:10)
Copa Ciudad de Mar del Plata
Independiente vs. Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (Sat 31st Jan, 22:10)
Copa Ciudad de Córdoba
Talleres de Córdoba vs. Vélez Sársfield (Sun 25th Jan, 18:45)
Lanús vs. Vélez Sársfield (Thurs 29th Jan, 22:10)
Talleres de Córdoba vs. Lanús (Sun 1st Feb, 20:00)
Copa Ciudad de Tandil
Chacarita Juniors vs. Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba (Mon 19th Jan, 22:00)
Arsenal Fútbol Club vs. Quilmes (Tues 20th Jan, 20:00)
Third-place playoff (Thurs 22nd Jan, 20:00)
Final (Fri 23rd Jan, 22:00)
Torneo Internacional de Santa Fe
To be played on the 23rd and 25th of January. Fixtures not yet confirmed but the participants will be Colón, of course, as well as Libertad of Paraguay, Defensor Sporting of Uruguay and Universidad San Martín of Peru.
These are the major summer tournaments. If anyone knows of any other pre-season fixtures in Argentina, please feel free to post them in the comments below.
Soccer Blogs
The Football Directory
Hope Racing’s games are on JTV. It’s not quite the same as the league, but at least it makes it feel like a proper weekend again :)
No more Copa Verancha?
You mean Copa Revancha, Justin. That’s essentially what the Copa Ciudad de Mendoza is (the ‘revancha’ bit refers to the chance for revenge for whichever side lost the super played during the Torneo de Verano pentagonal)..
Matthew, all the games should be available online. They’ll all be broadcast on TyCSports or Fox Sports, so you should be fine.
haha yeah revancha, sorry.
In my typical cynical style, I’m just here to say that the torneos de verano are absolute and utter rubbish.
They shouldn’t exist. I can’t see no reason for them to be played. The clubs and the AFA talk about fixture congestion….why don’t they introduce an official cup competition instead of the horrible torneos de verano which gives us no attractive football whatsoever and yet display horrible acts of crowd violence?
When are the full 2009 fixtures published?
They’ve been published, Andy. If you want to see them now you can view them in this PDF on the AFA site, but I’ll be typing them up in full here on HEGS over the weekend.
Thanks for that.
Just out of interest what would be the best way of getting a ticket for the BOCA JRS. vs C. DEP. GODOY CRUZ A.T. match on the 5th of April. I’m in Buenos Aries for a limited time but would like to attend the match.
Not really on topic, but I thought HEGS readers would be interested in a feature that La Gazzetta dello Sport ran today on Argentines that are being closely followed by Italian clubs.
The article is here: http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Estero/Primo_Piano/2009/01/08/argentini.shtml
and should be pretty comprehensible to anyone with good Spanish reading skills, but the quick summary is:
Angeleri (Estudiantes): Inter very interested, especially as he has a EU passport and is out of contract. Atletico Madrid also in the frame.
Barrientos (San Lorenzo): Napoli, considered by the Italians to be a different player since he came back from Russia.
Rinaudo (Gimnasia): Lazio and Napoli, considered a potential “Argentine Gattuso”.
Cabral (Velez): Highly rated, but no definite links yet.
Will in BsAs for 3.5 weeks during February. Any friendly fixtures in the city?
Oops, just realised season starts in Feb! Sorry about the query
Thanks for that link, Ursus, and sorry it took me so long to acknowledge your posting it.
Tony, it seems you’ve answered your own question! You’ll have Copa Libertadores matches as well as Torneo Clausura games to choose from, so enjoy yourself!
Something smells like there is going to be a surprise breakout team this season, River and San Lorenzo look worse now than they did last season, Boca without Datoló and a wrinkly prune for a starting keeper. The bad teams got worse too, Rosario Central and Newells seeing an exodus of first-team players, Gimnasia Jujuy sold their best player Carranza…
This is the year of la Tomba!