The majority of the players who so failed to distinguish themselves last Wednesday were rested by their clubs on their return from what Sir Alex Ferguson, Carlos Tevez’s boss at Manchester United, called ‘Mars’ this weekend. A few Argentines were in action, though, so here as ever is the rundown – a rather briefer one than normal.
We’ll start in Mexico, which Tom Clark has as ever been keeping a roving eye on. The main Argentine gritos (that’s ‘shouts’) were two penalties from Christian Giménez for Pachuca as the champions drew 2-2 away to Santos Laguna. Atlas and Monterrey drew 2-2, with Darío Botinelli scoring for the hosts and José María Basanta for Monterrey, whilst Martín Bravo scored for Pumas as they beat Cruz Azul 3-2 in the Mexico City derby. For Necaxa, Federico Insúa scored a penalty to win the game 2-1 against Jaguares de Chiapas, but the goal of the weekend by any Argentine anywhere has to be Eduardo ‘Chacho‘ Coudet’s 50th minute equaliser for the same team: Necaxa are in white here, and Coudet’s is their first goal.
In Spain, Sergio Agüero played but had a quiet one for Atlético de Madrid, who lost 4-2 at home to Osasuna. Whilst most of the other national team players were rested or had only bit part roles, there was some joy for an Argentina hopeful – Gonzalo Higuaín scored the only goal of the game for Real Madrid away to Málaga in superb style, bursting forward with the ball from inside his own half and brushing off a couple of challenges before stroking the ball home.
In Serie A, Germán Denis got a 90th minute equaliser for Napoli to draw 2-2 away to Sampdoria. In England, meanwhile, Jonás Gutiérrez returned to Newcastle to find that, between his national manager and his new club boss, he’s got two Messiahs and laughably little experience of managing football teams. His team-mate Fabricio Coloccini continued his baffling drop-off in form since leaving Deportivo de La Coruña as Chelsea beat their hosts 2-0.
Elsewhere, there were some Argengoles in Greece. Ismael Blanco scored for AEK Athens away to Panthrakikos in a 1-1 draw, and Luciano Galletti bagged the winner for Olympiakos, who beat Levadiakos 2-1 away, with Blackburn Rovers’ Matt Derbyshire having equalised for the Athens club (I only mention this because I had absolutely no idea he was on loan there until I looked these scores up).
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
I’m sure Seba will be extremely happy – and Sam less so – that ‘Racing Porto’ managed to grab a late equaliser at Man U tonight! : )
A cracking match, I was on the edge of my seat all night and very happy with the final result, and the combination that scored the 2-2.
I was in town this afternoon, and was surprised to see the Porto VIP coach, with its darkened windows, ticking over outside the Radisson Edwardian – I would have expected them to be staying in the Cheshire countryside rather than the city centre. Well, I waited around for half an hour in the hope they would come out… unfortunately I had to be somewhere else after this, and ‘well, I was waiting around for Lisandro, Mariano, Lucho’ would have been a pretty poor excuse met with blank looks. Hmm, if they had come out at that moment, it might have been pretty funny to start singing Racing songs : )
And for viewers in England… Clive Tyldesley, apparently the nation’s number one TV commentator, thought that the scorer Rodrigues was Lisandro when he got the ball, looked a bit of a fool when he it went in and he had to say ‘er… no that was Rodrigues who shot there’. More sinisterly, in the highlights package that went out on ITV4 immediately after the game, he’d re-recorded it, so people who’d been watching the other game wouldn’t even realise he’d made the mistake!
1984 is alive and well in the offices of ITV… well I knew that already with disappearing local presenters becoming unpersons, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the likes of Vignolo make such glaring mistakes, though.
Overjoyed as you can imagine, Matthew. I’ve never seen United defend that badly. 20 minutes in I was convinced I was watching Johnny Evans’ last appearance in a red shirt, he seemed to have his heart set on a transfer to one of next season’s promoted clubs.
Entertaining game, though. But who has ever called Clive Tyldesley ‘the nation’s number one TV commentator?’ No-one I’ve spoken to or read articles by…
I think it was an ITV Sport press release ;-)
Indeed, we are a mess at the moment. An old-fashioned swashbuckling display of sustained attacking is required next week, without resort to defensive caution. Because at the moment, we can’t pull off defensive caution.
I cringed through that Tyldesley moment. ITV’s patronising attitude to any foreign club or player – outside the Really Big names at the Really Big clubs like Juve, Inter, Barca, Madrid etc – is embarrassing to anyone who loves International football. You just know that all Tyldesley knows about most of these players is what he’s reading off the crib-sheet some researcher’s cobbled together off wikipedia…
Great game, though.
Lisandro to Mariano and is Racing’s best times in recent memory all over again!
Think of this, Matt, after they knocked Aguero, Pernía, Forlán and Leo Franco’s Independiente’s bunch at Atletico, they have now scored against the Red Devils! If only we could have some of that stuff happening still at Racing…
I was watching and I was thrilled to see that goal from Mariano, who was my favourite player at Racing when he came along.
It was justice made in a very sweet way!
Sam, are you waiting till all games have been played till writing about the Libertadores?
Watched River last night, and that passage of play involving Falcao, Barrado and Fabbiani, when the keeper saved, then it rebounded onto the bar, then the defender cleared a shot off the line, keeper flapped at it but couldn’t clear properly and another shot came in, and it was blocked again, well for a non-River fan it was pretty funny, as that sort of thing usually happens to Racing! But you can’t feel too sorry, Nacional had a lot of chances as well, so River could’ve been buried.
Looking at the table, it’s going to be *very* difficult for River to qualify now, an unlikely combination of results, and after fiascos in the league, I don’t think Gorosito will be in charge next season.
Just wondering, as a rule, do Argentinians support other countries’ clubs to get their rivals knocked out of the competition? I know GELP fans loved it when Estudiantes were knocked out in 2008, displaying the flags of their Colombian (I think it was) opponents. And to be honest, I’d rather see Boca, River and Estudiantes knocked out, but for some strange reason, I’d have liked Lanús and even CASLA to progress.
It’s a bit like England… I would guess apart from their own fans, the majority of the country hate Man United and Chelsea and would like them knocked out, but apart from their direct local rivals, Liverpool and Arsenal seem to carry much more country-wide goodwill when they play foreign opponents.
To be honest, Matthew, it got to 1am last night and I just felt exhausted. I was still a bit pissed off from the United performance as well, so I thought I’d give myself the evening off. I need one now and then!
It looks like it might come down to that last game at home to San Martín de Porros, but frankly River embarrassing themselves in the Copa is an annual tradition now anyway…
The Estudiantes match is late starting due to piqueteros. Those dadgum piqueteros !
Very funny you wrote San Martín de Porros! haha! What a difference one letter can make! Porres is a place, Porros will take you to many places without even moving from where you are! hahaha!
Anyway…regarding Matt question, well…it’s the same as in England. There are teams that are hated and fans of other clubs like them to get knocked out of the Libertadores (even when they face Brazilian opposition).
Of course when Velez won it in 93, every neutral or rival (except for those who support Ferro Carril Oeste, San Lorenzo and Argentinos Juniors), wanted them to win. Then their fans (and Bianchi) became so arrogant, they were no longer everybody’s second team.
As a Racing fan, I never support the other four from the Big 5 (this season I was especially wanting for San Lorenzo to get knocked out as they have never won the Libertadores and they shouldn’t win it. NEVER. It’s like a rule of life. They should NEVER win it).
A big Libertadores rivalry Racing have with Estudiantes, makes me also want them to get knocked out.
I wanted Lanús to do well, though.