The Showdown of the Round in Boedo.

By: Mauro | April 30th, 2008

Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro vs. Club Atlético River Plate (Estadio ‘El Nuevo Gasometro’, Almagro, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Tape delay (Booooo!!!!) @ 9:00pm PST on Fox Sports Español.
Match is being played at exactly the same time as the América-Flamengo match.

Now I can wax poetic about this match all evening if you let me. But you shouldn’t because this could get longer than you care to read. Forget for a second, if you can, about the fact that Ramón Díaz was once a River Plate player, a River Plate coach and will most likely at some point in the future be the River Plate coach again.

And nevermind that San Lorenzo has picked up quite a few ex-River Plate players (approximately 6 players, one has since left, including Andrés D’Allesandro, a fact that still burns when I see him in the blue and red jersey).

This match is going to be really, really good. At least, it’s leading up to be, once on the pitch, anything could happen, I mean, look at Man Utd. vs. Barcelona (Quick, someone cue Jorge Valdano).

San Lorenzo are coming off a win in the Libertadores at home against group upstarts, Caracas FC. More importantly, in the local league, San Lorenzo are coming off a huge win at home against Boca giving them an enormous amount of momentum and a positive outlook on tonight’s match. In fact, the boys from Boedo have nine wins in their last eleven matches, nothing to scoff at while they’ve got Ramón Díaz on their bench.

It seems D’Allesandro has found his footing in this squad and Mensenguez is on fire, not to mention the important role that Botinelli and Tula played containing Palermo and Palacio in the second half. If there’s anything Ramón Díaz knows, it’s how to put a solid team together.

River Plate are no slouches either. They are riding high at the top of the table in the Clausura, Diego Buonanotte is on fire in the league and even the maligned Abreu has started scoring goals. As you read this, Simeone is still undecided about whether to start Buonanotte or Ortega since he would like to rest one of them so they could start in Sunday’s big game at La Bombonera.

Also, it looks as though Radamel Falcao is not traveling to be with his team mates on the Colombian national team to play the ’super important’ friendly against Venezuela. River is coming off a 5-0 win over Universidad de San Martin in their final match of the group stage in the Libertadores and they are coming off a 4-2 win at home over Argentinos Juniors just this last weekend in the Clausura.

Bottom Line: (Time to take my jersey off.) San Lorenzo have been tough at home during the cup but not unbeatable. They played to a goal-less draw at home against Cruzeiro, a team I think River Plate is as good as on their best day. River have been ok on the road during this cup, winning one in Chile against Universidad Catolica and losing the other two. There is little travel involved with this match so the away rule honestly goes out the window.

My pick: 2-1 to River. All bets are off. (Jersey back on.) River will look to win and within their borders and will not be denied. San Lorenzo are a good side and try as he might, Ramón will have to wait for another day for a win over us.

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