On Wednesday evening, River Plate and San Martín de San Juan played the final 13 minutes of their fourth round Torneo Clausura match, which was called off due to torrential rain first time round. There was very little to say about such a short match. Elsewhere, ex-Huracán manager Antonio ‘Turco‘ Mohamed has taken over at Colón after Leonardo Astrada’s resignation.
The first half of the ‘match’ at the Monumental consisted, more or less, of a seven minute competition to see how far each team’s defenders could kick the ball up the pitch. San Martín’s players couldn’t find the creativity to get through River’s lines, whilst the hosts, knowing they were already 3-2 up, didn’t exert themselves overly. In the second, six-minute half, San Martín might have equalised from a dead ball, but nobody arrived in the box to meet the delivery, and Mauro Rosales, right at the end, took the ball down on his own in the box and could have extended River’s lead, but failed. 3-2 it finished to River, who move into second in the league, a point behind leaders Vélez Sársfield.
Mohamed, earlier in the day, had come to an agreement through his agent with Colón’s directors, having cut short a holiday in China to fly home via Los Angeles. He’ll arrive in Santa Fé on Friday to take charge of his first training session. Although he’ll be back in the country just before it, common sense dictates that he won’t be in charge of the team for the weekend match against Boca Juniors, but will instead take charge on the 28th, next Friday, against Gimnasia La Plata.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Can someone please explain why they had to play the remaining 13 minutes? What is the logic? Why not call it the scoreline and that is it. How many spectators bothered to go and see a 13 minutes of play? I think it is pathetic, waste of time and money.
I was more suprised by the two halves. The game was called off in the second half, so why couldn’t they have just have played the remaining minutes in the same direction as they left off? Two halves just encourages time wasting.
They still don’t want to penalize a club if they happen to be heading into a gale force wind or something when trying to score. Thus, the two halves. As for calling the match and not playing the last 13 minutes, I would agree, but only if San Martin agreed to it. If you are a River fan you know alot of goals can be scored in the last few minutes of a match.:)
I guess if the difference was bigger, then I wouldn’t make much sense to play the remaining minutes. But 13 minutes can be a lot when you are only leading by 1 goal. And, believe me, that point that San Martín could have won by scoring once yesterday would have been vital for them. Could even make the difference between staying up or being relegated.
This is not a new rule. And it’s not the record of less minutes played after a postponement. I don’t have the fact here (and I’m lazy to go and look for them right now) but there were matches that were resumed with even less time to be played.
The weather factor is a key here. In the past, matches were postponed due to lack of natural light.
If it’s a riot caused by one or the other set of supporters and the match is abandoned, then it’s very likely the result will stay like that and the team whose supporters caused the problems will get fined or receive a points deduction.