A little later on today, Racing Club de Avellaneda will play Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy away from home. A win will be enough for them to confirm safety from relegation – they won’t even have a threat of a playoff hanging over them if they claim three points against their already-relegated hosts – with a match still remaining. I’m at a friend’s birthday party tonight, and thus won’t be able to post on the match itself, but I’m gambling on Seba and Matthew, the two most frequent commentors on HEGS, and both Racing fans, having something to say during the match this evening. To that end, this post is being made to provide them with a place to discuss it. Please don’t let me down, boys…
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Je je je, as you say en castellano :-)
I am attempting to stay awake for a full 24 hours. I was up at 4.30 to catch a plane to Southampton to attend a work event, and arrived back in Manchester about an hour ago. I missed the final matches of Nacional B, but have found out that Instituto missed out, and Belgrano and Rafaela are in la promo. I hope GELP get the easier one (Rafaela, me thinks).
Waiting for the Racing match, and also the Tigre-Central game afterwards. That will take me to 3.30, so I might as well stay up another hour for the fun of staying awake 24 hours, something I haven’t done since my twenties, ha ha.
Amargos and $an Lorenzo 0-0 so far, but I’m busy digesting the bad news Seba has announced that Zucu may well go to Hoffenheim this winter after all :(
::::))))::::)))) We’re (La Academia that is) safe. Thank God! With my Betis going down in Spain, I was worried there for a good year that my Racing were on the outs too. Having followed the team since being an exchange student “down there” in 1988, these have been trying times.
Absolutely Kent. In all honesty, it was a pretty dire game, Zucu was the only player who stood out, but then suddenly Racing started putting attacks together. For a moment, Sosa seemed to forget himself, scoring against his old side but about to celebrate… but I don’t think any Racing fan wouldn’t forgive his reaction, it’s what we expect from the likes of Bergessio.
Leandro’s second goal was against a defence that had given up, but still thrilling none the less, and I was up on my feet singing ‘Racing, mi buen equipo’ and ‘Caruuuuso’ with the best of them! :-)
Of course, Zuculini’s future puts a dampener on everything, but at the moment I’m just relieved that Racing are safe.
Matthew: After watching us beat down Boca last weekend (on FSE) I was thrilled…AND dumbfounded at how this club could be so up-and-down for multiple seasons now. Whatever, this is a good day and a step forward for the club. It wasn’t that long ago when we won the league. A good day…
I’m trying to simplify this relegation thing.
RACING ARE SAFE FROM EVERYTHING!!!
Godoy Cruz can stay up with two draws, against River tonight and Central in 2 weeeks. This would put Central in a play-off with Belgrano.
If River beat Tomba, then Central just need a draw to be safe, and GC would play Belgrano.
If San Martín beat Lanús, GELP need two wins to definitely avoid direct relegation. One match is Boca away, the other Jujuy at home. So tonight’s match in La Bombonera is possibly the most important Gimnasia will play in their recent history.
If GELP get four points from their final two games, and SMT beat Lanús, then GELP and SMT finish on equal average, and will play-off to see who goes straight down and who goes into la promo against Rafaela!
Anything less than a win by SMT against Lanús, then they are down (even if GELP lose twice), and GELP play At Raf in la promo.
So should GELP try and hold Boca to a draw, given that this will probably guarantee them at least a desempate with SMT? A defeat leaves them at the mercy of los Tucumános whatever they do against Jujuy.
But then, if they face one or two more games before, at best, a promotion game against At Raf, it leaves them with more chance of getting players injured or suspended, and losing the excellent Villar has hit them hard.
I want Gimnasia to survive, so I’m hoping for them to win at Boca, and Lanús to beat Vélez so they still have something to go for in Tucumán.
As for the GC-Central battle, I’m not sure if it’s better for Racing which one stays up, as both will have a very similar average for next season to ours. Probably Central to go down, as they are more difficult to beat at home, and could attract better players in the window than Godoy Cruz.
Our average for next season is only eight less than Independiente!! I shall be keeping an eye on Arsenal v Independiente, hoping that we could get within five of them, then it really will be a battle!
Here’s another scenario! (all very possible)
GELP beat Boca draw against Boca and beat Jujuy
SMT beat Lanús
GC lose against River and Central.
ALL THREE ARE ON THE SAME PROMEDIO!
In which case, presumably there’s a triangular and the top two will then have to go onto la promo, Belgrano and La Crema will be rubbing their hands with glee.
This season could last into mid July!!!
Sorry, amend my previous post, GELP DRAW with Boca and beat Jujuy.
My head is spinning with this!
Thanks to Seba for sending me the figures.
I watched it with my very happy granpa Manolo and when I got back, had some stuff to do and couldn’t react here on the day…but VAMOS RACING!
Who would have thought that we would host Newell’s the last day of the season without having to worry about the promedios? Certainly not me!
What a relief! You know what I like the most about being safe (apart from the obvious reason that we get to play yet another season on the top flight and we get to avoid being the laughing stock of virtually every fan of every other club in Argentina)? What I absolutely LOVE about this is that I won’t have to be watching games I wouldn’t watch otherwise, with a calculator in one hand and a handkerchief in the other.
Not to mention the many times I was hoping for Boca, River, Independiente or San Lorenzo, even Estudiantes, to win their matches. That killed me. But not anymore now.
At least for one game.
Nice preview on next season’s relegation battle. A good Apertura campaign should see us escaping from it with plenty of time.
That’s the hope at least.
And Matt, in a typical Racing-supporter fashion (optimistic even when there’s no reason), I heard Zuculini’s interview right after the match was over last night and he said: “We are all very happy and now we have to think about next season”.
Now I don’t know if he is hinting that he could be staying, but again…I’m a Racing fan.
“Calculator in one hand and handkerchief in the other”. Yer either a Racing fan or a Wall Street bigwig. Ha Ha. Good one Seba.
Goal.com is reporting that Zuculini to Germany is a done deal, but I believe about 10% of what they have to say. They win the award for near worthless chismosos.
ITS DONE! Racing & Godoy Cruz stay up. central to play belgrano, Gimansia LP or San Martín with At. Rafaela
I see Gimnasia getting relegated now. If Lanús had won tonight, they would have gone to Tucumán motivated to win the title – and I think they would have, as I don’t see Huracán beating Vélez – but now there will only be one team going for it in that bearpit of a stadium.
Gimnasia, meanwhile, I think scored too early tonight. Yeah, it was great to see that header fly in after four minutes, and if Cuevas’ shot had gone in, they would have been in a good position, but you can’t hold on for 86 minutes against players like Palermo and Palacio… especially when the referee gives dodgy pens for Oscar winning acting.
Back to square one, come on Gimnasia, but I see Boca winning this.
As for the title, I’m right behind Huracán, but I was in 1994 as well and it didn’t do any good :-(
I don’t think it’ll be 4-0, but I don’t think the break will help Kappa’s side.
After they beat San Lorenzo, I thought it was Lanús’ title, but the international break destroyed their momentum, and now it’s all over for them. The same could happen to Huracán, I wouldn’t like it to, but it could.
And I guess it supports Seba’s anti-short championship point of view. Over the season, the Copa qualification table shows Lanús have been by far the best team in the country, yet they’re going to win nothing.
GOOOOOLLLLLL!
Looked offside to me, but who cares?
What a week… apart from Jujuy, ALL the threatened clubs won!
I should make more predictions when things aren’t going the way I want ;-)
Okay… Gimnasia to escape by beating Jujuy, still think SMT will win but will go down.
I haven’t seen Rafaela at all this year, so being a bit presumptuous calling that ‘easy’.
Central are so good at home, I think they will get past Belgrano easier than we did last year.
Zuculini’s gone to Hoffenheim
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11881_5394530,00.html
Also…two dead after Huracán – Arsenal.
Apparently, it was a fight between two groups inside the Huracán barrabrava.
Scum!
Oh my God, 4.7 Euros!!! We may as well have given him a free transfer! The transfer market is a joke, there’s no way Nigel de Jong is over four times as valuable as Zuculini.
It says he hasn’t signed yet… Seba, can you find out where the Zuculini’s live and go round to plead with them!
I hate that this story is all about Zuculini’s father, not about him. I think Zucu in his heart would rather build himself up for another year and maybe Juventus would come in.
I know Wolfsburg are champions now, but no-one could ever say they are a big club, and I think that was a poor move for D’Alessandro – he was being tipped to be one of the greats, but he got bogged down in what seems to be a pretty poor league by European standards (look at Bayern’s joke results against Barcelona, or title-chasing Hamburg being battered by a mid-table Prem team at Eastlands) .
This is a disastrous move for Zucu. A very sad day. Having said that, I’m probably going to start watching Bundesliga now Zuculini’s in it. He seems to be a Racing fan at heart, I’m sure he’ll be sad today.
Also, I can’t understand these Huracán fans. Are they not watching the wonderful football Cappa is putting before them? It makes me wonder why they bother going to the games, they clearly don’t care about football. I hope they don’t ban Huracán fans from the final game at Vélez, and virtually hand VS the title.