River Plate crashed out of the 2009 Copa Libertadores last night after a 4-2 defeat in Asunción to Nacional de Paraguay, thus allowing Boca Juniors fans to laugh off most of the frustration at seeing their own team’s progress delayed for another match after their own defeat, 1-0 away to Deportivo Cuenca. You can watch the goals from both games right here.
Copa Libertadores 2009, 23rd April
Group 2: Deportivo Cuenca (ECU) 1 – 0 Boca Juniors
Group 3: Nacional (PAR) 4 – 2 River Plate
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
What is there to say about River in the Libertadores that hasn’t already been said about the war in Iraq?
It’s gone beyond a joke now. Doesn’t matter who the manager is, doesn’t matter who’s in goal or up front. Disgraceful performance. Was the atmosphere in the half empty stadium too hostile?
Yes, a pretty hostile response from the River fans. It seems the only positive for River these days is Gallardo.
Is it possible that Gorosito’s mullet is the worst in the western hemisphere ?
Even by the standards of futbol argentino, where the mullett still seems to be tolerated if not celebrated, Gorosito’s is heinous.
Justin, I could not agree more with your comments about River in the Copa.
But any criticism of mullets in Argentina is unacceptable boys, come on. Since Juampi Sorín’s fading form (and injury) saw him drop away from the selección, Argentine football has been seriously lacking in appalling hair (Messi’s, prior to his recent haircut, was just plain bad). Only Coloccini was keeping the flag flying, and now he’s playing so badly he doesn’t even get into the national side at centre back.
The mullet is an important part of Argentina’s footballing heritage, and it’s the brave few who are keeping its flag proudly flying in an era in which Boca’s leading goalscorer can have a sensible short-back-and-sides. Gorosito deserves to have his contribution to the cause praised, not criticised.
Screw all that…it’s all about staying up, right? :) ACADE!!!!!!!! Wow, what a nail-biter at San Malmart. Uno-Uno al final del encuentro!
Yeah, fantastic stuff Kent, did you see it?
I didn’t see it. Ustream used to be really good, but since all the games went over there from Justin, it has been terrible, with long periods of blank screens. I couldn’t find a single working stream that was showing it.
So I listened to the last 20 minutes on the TyC Sports radio comm with the crowd pictures that’s still on JTV. I was resigned to defeat even when we won a corner at the end, wasn’t even impressed to hear about Migliore going up for the corner, but the confusion clearly did the trick for Luguercio and Martinez!
That point could make all the difference!
Why on earth did Castroman start AGAIN though? Haven’t we seen enough? He did slightly better than in his previous efforts, but that isn’t saying much, he should’ve scored when 1 on 1 with Navarro but messed that up.
Caruso seems to have got more fighting spirit into the squad, though, which is good.
$imeone must be $ick tonight ;-)
PS: Castroman’s performance was what I did manage to see before Ustream went off, maybe it was so bad, it knocked the whole website out!!
I listened to it and watched Soccer-Net’s text feed. Not ideal, but something. Having followed La Academia since the late 80s, it’s been a tough couple of years. Sadly, just staying up is good enough for me at the moment. With so much talent overseas, the league’s wide open each week, isn’t it?
That’s right, it IS the most open and competitive league in the world.
I’m totally bored with the Prem and the same four (and ultimately two) teams battling it out at the end year after year. So Man United win another title? So what?
I love a league where the champions one tournament finish bottom the next ;-)
Hee hee, seems like I’m just trying to get in as many digs at Sam’s teams as possible, it’s not on purpose,honest! But I’ve followed fútbol argentino properly since the mid-90s, bringing the subject back to fabulous mullets, Claudio ‘El Turco’ Garcia was my favourite player, and the combination of this and growing up long suffering with the sky blue of Manchester City, I couldn’t be anything but a Racing fan!
I was leaping around the room shouting ‘goooollllll’ when the equaliser went in, last gasp stuff.
Have just been watching the Nacional B game between Atlético Tucumán and Chaca, well I wasn’t impressed with the standard so hopefully Gimnasia LP should be okay in la promo. Hopefully, Racing won’t even be in that.
I’ve been reading up about Nacional B a lot since Racing have been struggling, and notice that Talleres de Córdoba are possibly in line to finish in both promotion AND relegation play-off positions at the same time, because of these ridiculous averages. This is very similar to their 2004 season, with players like Velázquez, Serna, Piriz Alvez, Aveldano etc, they beat River and were fighting for the title, but were fighting the drop at the same time!
Does anyone know what will happen if Talleres manage to finish in both play-off positions?
Is it sad that on Tuesday night, I will probably be looking for a stream with Talleres-Belgrano instead of watching Chelsea-Barcelona? I’ll record the Barca game, of course, in case Messi does something amazing, but this Nacional B story is amazing in itself, maybe Sam could do a post?
Sam, that’s a reasoned and articulate defense of the mullet. You’ve given me pause. Upon further consideration, I’m afraid you’re still wrong!