Lanús and champions Boca Juniors both began their 2012 Torneo Clausura title campaigns on Friday night, the opening evening of the new championship in Argentina. Both won: Boca beat Olimpo de Bahía Blanca 2-0 in La Bombonera, Darío Cvitanich and Pablo Mouche getting a goal apiece, whilst Lanús raced into a 3-0 lead over San Lorenzo after just 25 minutes, and eventually won 4-1, with Mariano Pavone scoring twice. The goals from both games, and the kick off times and referees for the rest of this weekend, are right here.
All kick off times are local. Add three hours for Greenwich Mean Time.
Primera División Torneo Clausura 2012, first round
Club Atlético Boca Juniors 2 – 0 Club Olimpo (refereed by F. Beligoy)
Club Atlético Lanús 4 – 1 Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro (S. Pezzotta)
Club Atlético Belgrano v Club Atlético All Boys (Sat, 19:10; P. Lunati)
Club Estudiantes de La Plata v Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys (Sat, 19:10; S. Trucco)
Club Atlético San Martín de San Juan v Club Atlético Independiente (Sat, 21:15; S. Laverni)
Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela v Club Atlético Banfield (Sun, 17:00; F. Rapallini)
Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield v Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba (Sun, 19:10; N. Pitana)
Racing Club v Club Atlético Tigre (Sun, 19:10; D. Abal)
Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors v Club Atlético Unión de Santa Fe (Sun, 22:10; P. Loustau)
Club Atlético Colón v Arsenal Fútbol Club (Mon, 22:10; G. Delfino)
Boca Juniors 2 – 0 Olimpo
Lanús 4 – 1 San Lorenzo (apologies for using a video with Brazilian commentary, but it’s a far, far better image than any of the alternatives at the time of writing)
Boca normally play on Sunday of course, but played on Friday this week because they make their debut in this year’s Copa Libertadores on Tuesday night against Zamora, of Venezuela. Lanús are also in Libertadores action in midweek; they take on Flamengo on Wednesday.
You can follow the latest news from the selección and Argentina’s foreign legion of players, as well as the domestic championship, River Plate’s first second division campaign in over a century and the ever entertaining/tragic/infuriating capers of Julio Grondona & chums 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. And remember to bookmark Hand Of Pod, our Argentine football podcast, or if you prefer you can subscribe to it on iTunes here.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Looks like a long hard Clausura for San Lorenzo, they looked a lot worse than River at this stage last year. Neira was very entertaining for Lanús, I thought. He can really shine in a better side than Gimnasia.
I watched the Boca vs. Olimpo match on GOLTV with commentary by Ray Hudson. Hudson and his play by play man discussed how Boca played pretty poorly on the attack and will have a tougher time this tournament. Hey, they played like that all the way through the last tournament and were never whipped ! They did look awful through much of the first period however.
Can Boca translate their somewhat ugly success locally to the Copa Libertadores ? Hard to say. If they play as they did not last night…….