The third round of the 2012 Torneo Inicial had its fair share of delays due to torrential rain which hit Buenos Aires and the Argentine litoral* late last week. It eventually got underway on Saturday, though, and Boca Juniors beat All Boys 3-1, a little fortunately. There was a thumping 2-0 win for Racing over Independiente in the clásico de Avellaneda, a first win for Lanús away to Vélez Sarsfield, and a five-goal thriller in Victoria, where River Plate ran out 3-2 winners over Tigre. There are two brilliant long-range goals in this post, but I won’t tell you in which matches – it seems a shame to spoil the surprise…
Primera División, Torneo Inicial 2012
Club Atlético Boca Juniors (G. Burdisso 1; S. Silva 43, 46) 3 – 1 Club Atlético All Boys (I. Borghello 14)
Club Atlético Colón (F. Curuchet 28; S. Rodríguez 70) 2 – 2 Club Atlético Belgrano (C. Pérez 7, OFF 65; C. Carranza 13)
Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro 0 – 1 Club Estudiantes de La Plata (R. Martínez 88)
Racing Club (J. Sand 28, 74) 2 – 0 Club Atlético Independiente (C. Morel Rodríguez OFF 46)
Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba (M. Obolo 4, E. Insúa 45) 2 – 0 Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela
Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield 0 – 2 Club Atlético Lanús (M. Pereyra 62; V. Ayala 82)
Club Atlético Tigre (L. Orba 19; D. Ftacla 60) 2 – 3 Club Atlético River Plate (D. Villalva 10; C. Sánchez 15; M. Lanzini 46)
Quilmes Atlético Club (P. Lima 30; J. Carli 81) 2 – 1 Club Atlético Unión (J.P. Avendaño 34)
Arsenal Fútbol Club (L. López 12; D. Benedetto 73) 2 – 2 Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors (D. Placente 51; H. Nervo OG 71)
Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys (M. Cáceres 13; V. López OFF 20; G. Martino (manager) OFF 35; I. Scocco 22) 2 – 0 Club Atlético San Martín de San Juan
Boca 3 – 1 All Boys
Colón 2 – 2 Belgrano
San Lorenzo 0 – 1 Estudiantes
Racing 2 – 0 Independiente
Godoy Cruz 2 – 0 Rafaela
Vélez 0 – 2 Lanús
Tigre 2 – 3 River
Quilmes 2 – 1 Unión
Arsenal 2 – 2 Argentinos
Newell’s 2 – 0 San Martín
*Litoral, which is the Spanish word for ‘shoreline’, in Argentina refers to the area irrigated by the rivers Uruguay and Paraná – essentially the northern-central provinces of Entre Ríos, Corrientes, and Santa Fe.
You can follow the latest news from the selección and Argentina’s foreign legion of players, as well as the domestic championship 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 
Hi -I sent you in two questions for HOP, one about Racing and one about the Barras, but no response. I sent them on Twitter and whilst I dont really understand Twitter, I think I sent them right… The only other explanation I can think of is either that you have blocked me or there is some kind of setting on my profile, but I don’t understand why there would be such a setting as ‘noone sees your tweets’! I don’t think you would have blocked me since I don’t even know what trolling is, and I just want to know about Argentine football! This situation saddens me since I am a long time listener of the show -since the first Superclasico preview -and I would like to ask a couple of questions! Cheers, Sam
Hi Sam,
That’s very odd – I only have one person blocked on Twitter (not you), and that’s from the HEGS account not the @HandOfPod one. The only thing I can think is that perhaps you got them in a bit too late for one recording session, and we’d forgotten about them a week later when we did the next one. If they’re questions that weren’t time sensitive, and therefore that could go in the next episode (which will probably be online next Wednesday), please email them to me on sam [at] hastaelgolsiempre.com, and I’ll mark them as a priority to tackle on the next pod.
The first superclásico preview was the first ever episode, incidentally, so you are a VERY long term listener; congratulations and thanks for sticking around!
PS – if you include your Twitter handle in the email, I’ll follow you from the HOP account, to make sure any future questions get through to us.
Not sure if you saw these comments last week, Sam, but I definitely got your questions this week and answered them. We’re now following you from the HOP account as well, so shouldn’t be any doubts about future questions!