The seventeenth round of the Torneo Inicial is underway, as a ridiculously close title race hots up. On Friday night, Vélez Sarsfield came from behind to beat Godoy Cruz 2-1 at home, and on Saturday there were three more matches. Argentinos Juniors drew 1-1 after falling behind at home to Quilmes; the first time this season that Argentinos have conceded first and not lost. In Bahía Blanca, Olimpo claimed a 1-0 win over a Rosario Central side who performed dreadfully, and in the big title challengers’ clash of the day (there’s another tomorrow), Atlético de Rafaela took a 2-0 lead but were pegged back by two frankly ridiculous golazos from San Lorenzo’s Ignacio Piatti, to be held to a 2-2 draw. All ten goals are right here.
Vélez 2-1 Godoy Cruz
Mauro Óbolo scored against his old club for the visitors in the first half, but they came back in the second; Agustín Allione headed in the equaliser eleven minutes into the second half, and Lucas Pratto – who’d been trying long shots all game, and had to get one in sooner or later – got the winner with six minutes left.
Argentinos Juniors 1-1 Quilmes
Pablo Garnier opened the scoring for Quilmes in La Paternal, thanks in no small part to Argentinos’ defence falling to pieces (that, at least, was how it seemed from my position in the stands). After being second best for most of the first half, though, the hosts equalised shortly before half time thanks to a long range strike from Rodrigo Gómez, and that was how the game remained, largely thanks to Argentinos’ total failure to make their second half superiority tell.
Olimpo 1-0 Rosario Central
I missed almost all of this match – I was travelling home from Argentinos v Quilmes when it kicked off. By all accounts, it was dreadful, and Olimpo won it with a lateish goal (14 minutes left on the clock) from Dylan Gissi, who becomes the first Swiss citizen to score in the history of the Argentine league – his dad was a professional footballer and he was born and raised in Geneva.
Atlético de Rafaela 2-2 San Lorenzo
The day’s big clash of title hopefuls saw Rafaela host league leaders San Lorenzo, and they flew into a 2-0 lead with goals from Lucas Albertengo 10 minutes in and Diego Vera in the 50th minute. San Lorenzo hit back with two beauties, though; an indirect free kick scored by Ignacio Piatti, which was quite frankly hit far harder than any human being reasonably needs to kick a football, and a second with five minutes left in which Piatti flicked the ball over his marker’s head, and then back, before stabbing it beyond the goalkeeper from the edge of the box.
Seriously, you’ve got to watch this video for Piatti’s second goal alone. It was scored seven hours ago as I type this, and I’m still trying to get over it.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 