Torneo Inicial 2012

The new season is upon us and with it a new name as the Apertura will now be known as the Torneo Inicial and the champion will not officially be recognized as a champion as they will play off against the 2nd half league winner for the 2012-13 league title.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to prognosticate the league title, it looks very much open for multiple clubs to win it. In my opinion defending champion Arsenal, after losing Burdisso and Leguizamon, are not as strong as last term and perennial powers Boca and Velez look much different from last year, and much weaker I might add, especially Velez. Tigre, after losing top scorer Carlos Luna and playmaker Roman Martinez also look weaker than last competition's runnerup.

So who does that leave? Relegation percentage worries mean Newell's, Independiente and San Lorenzo also bolstered their teams well this offseason. But will they each be more concerned with avoiding relegation than fighting for league honors? Racing also helepd themselves in the offseason but we say that every year and they then proceed to play medicore futbol!

Maybe this is the year for Estudinates, now without Veron, Boselli and Perez to rebound after several mediocre seasons? Or maybe Argentinos Juniors or Lanus, will be hard to beat? It really is wide open. Olimpo and Banfield went down, River and Quilmes went up and obviously a lot of eyes will be on River. A veteran, Trezeguet, and a youngster Ocampo, will be their keys I think in the new season. But I really do not expect River to contend just yet for the first half title.

I also posted this in the offseason thread but here is a list of this past offseason's comings and goings for each first division club.

Hard to believe the start of the new season is here and defending champions Arsenal begin the new season tonight playing Union in the first match.

Obviously all River fans are relieved to be back in the top division and while the clubs goal is of course a title, I do agree with rosarino, best to first concentrate on building the club up to be consistent. last year in La B, River beat up on the league's weaker teams but really did not do all that well against the better ones. That must change now that we are back in the first division. Having Trezeguet healthy and fit from the start will really help and Ocampos' development is something we are all excited to see.

New signing Jonathan Botinelli will begin the season on the bench as he gets used to his new surroundings but another newcomer right back Gabriel Mercado will start as will Manuel Lanzini, back from a season on loan at Fluminense. Another new signing, goalie Marcelo Barovero, may or may not start as Almeyda is uncertain whether to use Barovero or Daniel Vega between the post in the league debut versus Belgrano, ironically the club who defeated River in June 2011 sending us down to La B.

River's expected lineup for the league debut:

Daniel Vega o Marcelo Barovero; Gabriel Mercado, Jonatan Maidana, Leandro González Pírez, Luciano Vella, Lucas Ocampos; Leonardo Ponzio, Ezequiel Cirigliano, Manuel Lanzini; Rogelio Funes Mori y David Trezeguet

Carlos Luna's transfer to Lanus from Liga de Quito (he was on loan last seaosn with Tigre) has fallen through because of osteoarthritis problems in his knee. But Lanus will have Gonzalo Castillejos, top scorer last season in the Nacional B with Rosario Central.

Another list of offseason moves.

I am not sure what to think of this new season. I am inclined to agree with rosarino, it is very wid eopen, even more so than in recent years and there is no clear cut champion. Recent powers Boca and Velez do appear to be weakened but both clubs always still seem to find a way to be competitive and I expect that will not change this season.

Last season's top two Arsenal and Tigre do appear to be less strong this term but Arsenal in particular are well enough organized where I think they can still contend. Signing defender Braghieri from Lanus to fill Guillermo Burdisso's vacancy will help, he should make a good tandem with Lisandro Lopez.

As rosarino noted Newell's, San Lorenzo and Independiente all were very active in the player market and look to have improved themselves. But each one's sight is more on avoiding relegation than a title. Still maybe they can emulate Tigre and still challenge for the championship? Each does appear talented.

I think Argentinos could be a dark horse this year. Watch out for their new Peruvian forward, Jose Carlos Fernandez, who is known as the "Zlatan Ibrahimovic of South America!"

So Independiente start the new season away to Newell's in the grudge match I have with my friend rosarino. 5 of El Rojo's new players have not yet had their player passes arive from their old clubs so unless something changes in the next 24 hours; Santana, Morel Rodriguez, Tula, Vargas and Zapata will not be eligible to play against Newell's.

Oh Morel .. I miss that guy! I wonder if he's still that good as he was while playing for Boca.

I'm waiting to hear the verdict on Boca's opening day debacle!

The long and short of it is Boca simply played horrible and were beaten by Quilmes 3-0. Last week Boca played a friendly in Venezuela and it's charter plane could not take off because of technical problems and the club had no backup plan and it took several extra days before a new charter could be obtained (why they didn't fly commercial is a good question) and then the flight ended up making several stops in between Venezuela and Buenos Aires so the team did not arrive until Thursday and this incident obviously angered the team with Rolando Schiavi in particular being vociferous about his complaints. So while not totally explaining their poor play, fatigue and crankiness probably did effect Boca's play. As does their eyes probably being on this Wednesday's Copa Argentina Final versus Racing.

The good news of the weekend is River lost 2-1 at home to their verdugo Belgrano de Cordoba and Rogelio Funes Mori missed a game tying penalty late in the match. So River's promedio currently stands at 0.00!

With Tigre-Estudiantes to be played tomorrow, here are the rest of the opening weekend scores:


Arsenal - Unión 1 - 0
Vélez - Argentinos 3 - 0
Racing - Rafaela 1 - 1
Colón - Lanús 1 - 0
Quilmes - Boca 3 - 0
Newell`s - Indep`te 0 - 0
Godoy C. - All Boys 1 - 1
S.Lorenzo - S. Martín SJ 2 - 1
River - Belgrano 1 - 2

Impressive win for Velez who may not be as bad off as some predicted for them this season. San Lorenzo with a solid win to start the seaosn off too. And champions Arsenal begin this season like they ended the last- winning.

Check out the video linked here showing the highlights from Belgrano's victory over River. Belgrano's goalkeeper Juan Carlos Olave commits a penalty (a doubtful one to me), gets carded, then Funes Mori, as xeneize noted misses the penalty, he shoots it over the bar, then Olave celebrates the penalty miss and the referee acuses him of provoking the linesman who called the penalty and he then sends Olave off with his 2nd yellow! Belgrano finished the game with 10 and because they had made all their substitutions, they finshed with a field player in goal!

Belgrano despite having some major calls go against them still hold on and beat River at the Monumental (again.)

Olave runs into the River player after he has already headed the ball towards goal but in the direction of going out of play. Not sure if I would have given that as a penalty but Olave's reactions were over the top. Still Belgrano held on for the win, they really do have River's number now.

A typical opening game for both Newell's and Independiente which ended 0-0, with each team having numerous new signings, it may take each about a month to start clicking. Speaking of new signings, Newell's are trying to obtain another new player, and another old boy from Newell's, Gabriel Heinze. He is not in the new Roma coach's plans and won't play there but in order to sign with Newell's after the season has begn, he will have to be out of contract so he will have to reach an agreement to rescind his Roma contract and then sign with Newell's. Hope it happens as he would be a great addition and another former Newell's player wanting to end his career where it started!

More good news for Boca, in addition to winning the Copa Argentina (discussed in the thread dedicated to that competition) Boca also completed two new signings, one we already discussed before but it is now complete, that of central defender Guillermo Burdisso, Nicolas' younger brother, who moves from champions Arsenal. The other new signing is attacker Lautaro Acosta who comes from Sevilla in Spain. Acosta is a pretty lively and mobile forward who can fill the role once held by Guillermo Barros Schelotto and later Pablo Mouche. I think once he gets in shape to play, Falcioni can mix and match between Silva, Viatri, Blandi and now Acosta at forward but Acosta may end up being the best option to pair with a traditional 9.

Independiente-Velez was postponed this weekend due to a water inundated field, same for Rafaela-Arsenal, both matches will be played on Monday. Boca are about to kick off vs Tigre but River won 2-0 away to Estudiantes, Racing won by the same score away to Argentinos and Newell's beat Lanus 1-0. Belgrano and San Lorenzo finished 0-0. It has been a muted start to the new season.

Augusto Fernandez completed his move from Velez to Celta Vigo in Spain while Gabriel Heinze did work out his departure from Roma and has signed with Newell's.

Boca beat Tigre 2-0, so nice bounce backs from both River and Boca after losing their openers.

Not sure how I feel about Heinze returning to Newell's. Hopefully he can help, but we are starting to load up on returning players over 30. We all saw what can happen with that with what happened at River.

A good game by Boca to beat fighting Tigre 2-0. Ustari saved some key shots, while both Pochi Chavez and Viatri with nice hits from outside beat ex-Boca Javi Garcia to win the game.

For me, the key here was Sanchez Mino. This kid (which i'm happy Sabella is looking at) brought Boca back to life after a mediocre first half, subbing the tired Erviti. He has amazing dribble skills near the line, and killer passes looking for the forwards. I love this kid!!

I am not happy that River sold Lucas Ocampos to Monaco in France. First of all, he should stay and develop for another year or two in Argentina, then Monaco, a 2nd division team in France? I know they are ambitious about trying to regain their lost status but Ocampos is better than that. I guess if nothing else he will get playing time there though.

It just occurred to me, I wonder if Trezeguet, who once played there, had any influence on Ocampos going to Monaco?

Some comments from Maxi Rodriguez reflecting something we have previously discussed here, the level of play has gone down in the Argentine league, according to Maxi, it is because too many clubs play afraid, and thus overly defensive because the coaches are afraid a 4 game bad spell could lead to them being fired. Maxi speaks a lot of truth there.

This weekend's calendar:

Friday
21:10 Colón - Belgrano

Saturday
14:00 Racing - Indep`te
16:10 Boca - All Boys
20:20 S.Lorenzo - Estudiantes

Sunday
15:00 Godoy C. - Rafaela
17:15 Vélez - Lanús
19:15 Tigre - River

Monday
15:00 Quilmes - Unión
17:10 Arsenal - Argentinos
19:15 Newell`s - S. Martín SJ

The clasico de Avellaneda between Racing & Independiente is probably the highlight of the weekend. Tigre-River could be a good game but David Trezeguet will miss it due to tendinitis. After 2 rounds, only Colon has maximum points, tonight they put that record to test vs Belgrano. San Martin, Union, Lanus, Tigre and Argentinos are the clubs without any points after 2 matches. let's see if that changes this weekend.

More nasty weather, Colon-Belgrano will be completed tomorrow. There may be more games cancelled tomorrow.

Maxi makes a good point about fearful coaches leading to more defensive play.

Chino Luna has signed with River and will join the club's list of forwards.