River Look to Defend Their Home Ground.

By: Mauro | May 8th, 2008

Club Atlético River Plate vs. Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro (Estadio Antonio Vespucio Liberti “El Monumental”, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
LIVE @ 4:30pm PST on Fox Sports Español. (Woo Hoo!)

Billed as the Match of the Year in Buenos Aires, this match has generated as much buzz as this past Sunday’s Superclasico and with only 500 tickets (the $90 and $100 ones, of course) still available, you can bet the atmosphere at this match will be electric.

It appears that Simeone will be fielding the squad in a 4-4-2 formation and we’ll likely see such big names as Mauro Rosales, Ariel Ortega and Alexis Sanchez on the bench. The only difference in the starting line up from last week’s match at El Nuevo Gasometro is Rodrigo Archubi is coming off to make way for wonderkid Diego Buonanotte.

River have a good record at home in the Libertadores, winning all three matches they’ve hosted and getting a great wide open result against Universidad de San Martin in the last match of the group stage. Since the beginning of the year, River is unbeaten on their ground with only one draw, coming in against Racing, way back in mid-March.

If this match has to be similar to any other match that has already taken place at El Monumental, it would have to be the match against CF América where Ortega came out of nowhere to score the game winner. This could be a close game with plenty of attacking and most likely not a lot of defending.

Unfortunately for River, the lack of defense is not by choice. It’s no secret that finding the right defense has been a tough nut to crack for Simeone. He’s been able to field one good defense (not great) and the second one plays as if they’ve never met each other before they stepped on the pitch together.

Also, River has over a decade of flops in the Libertadores and about 4 years without a single league win in Argentina, so time is of the essence and the pressure is just piled on.

Look for Buonanotte to try to hook up with Radamel Falcao and Sebastian Abreu (still not a player that’s in my good graces) and to draw plenty of fouls from the San Lorenzo defenders.

San Lorenzo, on the other hand, are coming into this match with a full head of steam and expect to make a good match out of this one. They are riding a great record (9 wins in their last 11 or so, in the league), they reached the top of the Argentine Clausura table and they beat River in the first leg of their Libertadores tie.

Most of all they have what I consider, the José Mourinho of Argentine football as their coach in Ramón Díaz. He has a fun banter with the press and is willing to humor them, answering their questions in a playful way but when he’s done talking/listening, he’s done with a “Ta luego!” and you get the back of his head.

San Lorenzo are definitely on the upturn (keep their great record of late in mind) so their prior match with River in El Monumental where they lost 2-0 was well before their current reversal of fortunes. In the Libertadores, San Lorenzo has had mixed results as the away team, they won one away (at Real Potosi, where Cruzeiro were crushed) and lost two, one in Belo Horizonte and other in Caracas.

Andrés D’Allesandro will be returning home, albeit in a different jersey, and has finally found his form in this squad. Look for him and Andrés Silvera to hook up and create some trouble for the River Plate back four. The only change from last week’s line up is Gastón Aguirre coming off and Jonathan Bottinelli coming on.

Bottom Line: While it does appear that San Lorenzo have the upper hand, River are tough to beat at home. What is certain is that if last week’s match was an indicator, this is going to be a tough one to call ahead of time.

My pick: 3-1 to River. The home ground is important here and while River do not have an on field leader when Ortega (a poor substitute for an on-field leader as it is) is on the bench, the remaining players find El Monumental a very comfortable place to play and are able to fit the bill.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.