Friday’s and Saturday’s Torneo Inicial matches brought not an awful lot of goals, but some decent matches. On Friday, champions Arsenal de Sarandí finally won after five rounds without a victory, sending Colón de Santa Fe packing with a 2-0 win, before Independiente got their third straight win, 1-0 away to Argentinos Juniors. On Saturday, All Boys beat Belgrano 1-0, San Martín beat Unión de Santa Fe 2-1 away, and Vélez Sarsfield got a 1-0 win away to Tigre. Juan Antonio Pizzi’s debut as San Lorenzo boss ended goalless away to Godoy Cruz, as did the 2nd v 1st clash between Racing and Newell’s Old Boys, a fine game that I was at. All the goals from the matches that had them are right here.
Arsenal 2 – 0 Colón
Argentinos 0 – 1 Independiente
All Boys 1 – 0 Belgrano
Unión 1 – 2 San Martín
Tigre 0 – 1 Vélez
Newell’s Old Boys remain top of the Torneo Inicial, and are still unbeaten, with Racing just two points behind them in second. Vélez are third and Belgrano fourth, though Boca Juniors could go level on points with Vélez (and leapfrog Belgrano) if they beat Estudiantes de La Plata on Sunday. Independiente’s win lifts them (perhaps temporarily) out of the relegation zone in the promedio table – Quilmes could drop El Rojo back in the drop spots if they can beat River Plate on Sunday.
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 
I Know this is a bit off topic but if any of the regulars can help me i would be extremly grateful. Are there any good books about Argentinian football in english that anybody can recommend to me.
Hi Itch. There are none, I’m afraid, although I highly recommend the South American chapters in David Goldblatt’s ‘The Ball Is Round’ (actually I recommend that whole book, full stop).
Jonathan Wilson is heading down here later this week – he’ll be on next week’s Hand Of Pod, in fact (in case you’re new to HEGS, HOP is the podcast I present and produce, and you can find it at handofpod.wordpress.com) – and part of the reason for his visit is to begin research on a book on the history of Argentine football. So that gap on your bookshelf will be filled in a couple of years…
Thanks Sam I have been coming here since found your page a while back. I appreciate all the good work you do here it is good to have something about argentinian football in english on the net. I started to watch south american football in the late nineties when channel five had a programme in the small hours of the morning called futbol americas and have loved it ever since. I havent checked out the podcast but will give it a listen sometime soon. Thanks for the advice about “The Ball Is Round “, I amnt normally a book sort of person but have recently started a job where I get time to read in between busy periods to wile away the boredom. I ordered Maradona’s autobiography from amazon and as this is the only place i know that specialises in what i was interested in I thought you or one of the regulars would be the best people to ask. Would have liked to have read a book about one of the big clubs or players over the years. Anyway bro thanks for taking the time top reply to me as I said before I enjoy everything that you do here and the articles that are on other football sites Keep up the good work.