Vélez Sársfield visit Gimnasia La Plata on Saturday hoping to extend their lead at the top of the Primera División table, with second-placed Lanús set to host Rosario Central the night before, in Friday’s second match. Even when they’re seventh in the table, every Racing match is a relegation decider, but if they beat San Martín de Tucumán on Sunday, they’d be doing themselves a major favour due to San Martín’s points total being divided by fewer matches than their rivals. Arsenal de Sarandí, meanwhile, will go ahead of Boca in the Clausura table if they beat Carlos Ischia’s reserves in La Bombonera.
All kick off times are local. Add four hours for British Summer Time.
Primera División A Torneo Clausura 2009, fourteenth round:
Argentinos Juniors vs Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba (Fri, 19:00)
Lanús vs Rosario Central (Fri, 21:15)
Huracán vs River Plate (Sat, 16:10)
Newell’s Old Boys vs Banfield (Sat, 18:20)
Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata vs Vélez Sársfield (Sat, 18:20)
Tigre vs Colón de Santa Fe (Sat, 21:10)
Boca Juniors vs Arsenal Fútbol Club (Sun, 15:00)
Racing Club vs San Martín de Tucumán (Sun, 17:10)
Independiente vs Estudiantes de La Plata (Sun, 19:30)
Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy vs San Lorenzo de Almagro (Sun, 19:30)
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Godoy Cruz vs Argentinos was a barn-burner I think you should write something up about this year’s surprise package
Didn’t see Godoy Cruz’s match, as I went to bed at 8, setting my alarm for 1am to see Lanús :)
Gracias Granate, for taking some of the pressure off Racing’s six-pointer on Sunday (though we still can’t afford San Martín ANY points at all to build up momentum), but also for fantastic football entertainment in that second half.
Blanco was fantastic tonight, especially receiving so much punishment from Central’s rough play.
For all Angel Cappa’s ‘tiki-tiki’ with Huracán, Lanús deserve this title. Mind you, of the leading contenders, I wouldn’t mind anyone except Vélez.
Matthew:
Why not Velez?
Personally I hope Lanús (not only because i predicted them winners) will win but I got nothing against Velez. They produce some good football from time to time.
I think I was put off by the way they stole a point last week, *fume*. Mind you, if I bore grudges against every team that has unfairly stolen points against Racing, I wouldn’t watch anybody else in the league! :-)
Admittedly, they did produce a partidazo to come back and beat Colón, but Lanús and Huracán are far more attractive sides, and now I’ve accepted that Racing cannot possibly catch Colón in the promedios, a title for them would be deserved for Bichi Fuertes, for his amazing season, though I’m not too keen on Mohamed.
Also, for Vélez, it’d be ‘just another title’, for any of the other three it would be an historic achievement for their fans to savour.
Actually, I wasn’t even counting River as one of the contenders, but I wouldn’t want them to win either.
They have some talented individuals, but for any side capable of some of the ineptitude we have seen this past nine months, to actually go on and win a competition, would be a damning indictment on standards in the domestic game. Most non-River and SL fans will probably be hoping for Huracán to win convincingly tonight. Sorry Sam ;-)
I’m with you on this one too, Matt.
Don’t like Velez fans at all. Their club? Amazingly run by those in charge throughout their history. Great youth system. Now they are playing some good football too. But their fans are so annoying (thankfully they are so very few!).
They think they are the cream of Argentine football. They even think they are bigger than San Lorenzo.
They even sang at Racing Club the song everybody sings at them: “Equipo chico la puta que te parió” (“You’re a small team and say hi to your mother” sort of).
Can’t stand them. I was keen on them when they first won the Libertadores and then defeated AC Milan in Tokyo. But since then, not only a lot of unknowns started ‘following’ them, but they also claim they are the reason why it should be a group of Big 6 clubs instead of a Big 5.
I want Huracán to win the title. Long-suffering fans. Amazing tradition for their club. A few friends of mine are fans and the way Cappa (my all-time former Racing managers favourite) is making them play are more than enough reasons.
If not them, then Lanús (I was born near that area). They are another perfectly ran club but their fans are not as pretentious as Velez’s and they are much more loyal. Oh and…gracias for last night v. Central! I was devastated after Godoy Cruz took all three points from La Paternal and Blanquito and Lagos made my night!
Colón? It’ll be great to see a club from Santa Fé winning the league for the first time. They deserve it too.
VAMOS RACING MAÑANA!
Can’t wait for the European season to end, ha ha… it means I won’t have to put up with the streaming sites slowing down and freezing as thousands of gamblers watch end-of-season ambles such as Udinese-Milan and Villarreal-Madrid.
I’m trying to concentrate on what is turning out to be a fascinating match between Huracán and River between the annoying interruptions.
River might possibly be ahead as their chances have been a lot clearer, but what a goal out of nothing by Pastore, the sort of thing we in Europe love Argentine soccer for!
A few months ago, I wrote on here that Huracá were a ‘powder puff’ side who would lose more than they won ha ha! I’m enjoying being proved wrong… Cappa is a lovely man who talks a great, idealistic game in the finest traditions of football, but I always thought of him as a slightly naive coach who the modern game was passing by… I think it was like that at Racing for him sometimes. But this side he has now is really improving fast… I don’t think they can pip Lanús over the next six weeks, but they are helping make this a really exciting race of the sort that barely exists in Europe.
Can’t wait for the second half of this!
Is this second half the worst *ever* performance by a group of individuals wearing River Plate shirts? (I’m not even going to call that a ‘team’).
Will Gorosito ever be able to work in top level football again?
A game that finished ten seconds ahead of time to avoid more embarrassment. But some beautiful training-ground football from Huracán, who must have thought this easier than playing against cones.
Matthew:
Here you have one San Lorenzo fan who actually wanted el globo to win against river. That´s mostly because my experience with lbdt is far from good.
First of all I had to run for my life (literally, I really thought my time had comed) before the clasico against Racing at Monumental last season. 7 or 8 of them chased me down the street throwing stones after me and shouted some anti-Racing chants after me. Don´t know why since I wasn´t wearing anything that could be associated with Racing.
The second time was after Independiente-River where a bunch of river thughs attacked us at the railway station in Avellaneda.
They are just a big bunch of cunts.
Vamos Ciclón!
No need to apologise to me for bad-mouthing River, Matthew. I’m almost past caring with them now. I like Buonanotte, and Falcao is amazing obviously, but the club’s an institutional mess and so many of the players are of the ‘good, but not good enough’ variety at the moment, and don’t seem to care at all, however much they talk about caring.
River are a write-off until Aguilar is gone.
I’ve found it tricky to warm to Huracán since they got rid of Ossie 18 months ago. Carlos Babington represents so much of what’s wrong with Argentine football. But the football they play (and have played, historically) is a lot of fun to watch. My current preferences are for Lanús, and then them.
Glad Gimnasia delivered and stopped Velez unreal unbeaten run (that lasted one week too far after they save their lives last week against Racing).
Newell’s 1-1 Banfield is also not a bad result for Racing. We are not too far from them. We’ll need more than one game to be able to catch them, but we are in with a shot.
Tomorrow’s match against San Martín de Tucumán is getting more and more important and anything less than 3 points will be close to tragic for us and for our chances. A win and we’ll open a 6-point gap over Central and will hit the tucumanos with a huge blow. And suddenly…if we win tomorrow, we’ll be 5th and only 6 points behind leaders Lanús. I don’t think we have a realistic chance of winning the league, but boy…I’m getting dizzy. It’s been a long time since we got this high!
As for Huracán! Oh boy! I watched it. Pastore was a human highlight reel. I think he’ll nutmeg his folks when he arrives at home, not before he nutmegs the bus-driver, the security guards and the autograph hunters. He can’t stop doing that! Incredible stuff. Specially Huracán’s third goal (Pastore’s second on the night).
River? That club is officially in a process of RACINGUIZATION that doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon.
Tigre v Colón is good as well – this is a great weekend of action!
But where is Morel, the star of the Apertura?
Morel’s been injured for most of the Clausura, Matthew.