Estudiantes impressed in the first half, and rode their luck in the second. Friday night still saw them start their Clausura campaign with a victory though, 2-1 over Newell’s Old Boys, for whom loan signing Claudio Bieler from Racing missed a sitter. Gastón Fernández and Gabriel Mercado scored Estudiantes’ goals. In Avellaneda, a thoroughly entertaining opener saw Independiente and Vélez draw 2-2, with Wednesday’s penalty-winning national team hero Juan Manuel Martínez grabbing an equaliser for Vélez with twelve minutes to go, after they’d been 2-0 down at half time. All the goals are right here.
Estudiantes de La Plata 2 – 1 Newell’s Old Boys
Independiente 2 – 2 Vélez Sarsfield
You can follow the ins and outs during the build up to the 2011 Torneo Clausura, as well Argentina’s performances in the Sudamericano Sub 20, the country’s vast foreign legion and the latest news from the selección during the 2010-2011 season direct from Buenos Aires with HEGS on Twitter. If you’ve not signed up yet you can do so here. You can also join the official HEGS Facebook group, to keep up to date with the latest posts on the blog and discuss things with other fans. You’ll find it here. Also remember to bookmark Hand Of Pod, our Argentine football podcast, which returns for its first episode of 2011 very, very soon indeed (subscribe to it on iTunes here).
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Love Maxi’s goal celebration, even though I hate that he plays for Vélez. No, Maxi, I couldn’t hear anything either :-)
Sam, these goal videos with radio commentary are great, takes me right back to listening to RAE on shortwave in the 90s!
I still don’t understand this new passive/active offside rule. Perhaps I should ask Sian Massey. I’ve looked at the second Vélez goal four time, and Martínez is definitely offside when the ball is played forward by Maxi, so why didn’t he become active when it was headed back into his path? Not that I’m complaining though. :-)