River, a champion of the time: Gallardo’s team were once again a competitive steamroller in decisive circumstances

SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO – Buenos Aires. Osaka. Cordova. Madrid. Mendoza. Santiago del Estero. New destination, same image: River champion. With his weapons, his football and his style. Like always. On the way to the seven years of the most successful cycle in the history of the club, the forms are not negotiated and the showcase is gigantic. Marcelo Gallardo and its customers keep a constant promise: the team continues to measure themselves to compete at the highest level. The 2019 Argentinian Super Cup won against Racing is not only the twelfth Doll title and the 67th in club history. This is confirmation of a process that does not appear to have an expiration date. River is still the team to beat, but few can do it in the final instances.. Play, enjoy and shine. He even has the luxury of beating 5-0. And Santiago’s hot night left the feeling that he still seems to have a lot more to offer.

The river is the same as always. Last names, patterns, venues and even championships change. What remains unchanged is your idea. Gallardo has built a vintage team ready to show off their credentials on any stage and in front of any rival. He comes out determined to control the ball, attack the goal before, press high to force mistakes, connect quickly and directly, look for walls, find the right gap intelligently and throw himself to his side almost like wingers. It’s River. Try, play and win.

Nothing could make a shy and uncomfortable Racing, which has never found its place in the meeting. Juan Antonio Pizzi’s side, still unable to win in their first four games, held zero for 30 minutes and ran out of ideas. Sometimes he asked Franco Armani with cross balls to split with center and middle distance shots. But there were no cases. The realities of the two teams were exposed from the first moment: there were very marked footballing, emotional and mental differences..

Before 1-0, River had at least six finishes that demanded academic defense and goalie Gabriel Arias. It always came easily. Even sometimes it seemed like Racing had one less player on the pitch. And the dashboard opening came with a shout from Gallardo. “First! First!” He asked Nicolás De La Cruz, who took the corner from Rafael Borré’s header at the edge of the small area. At the nearby post, of course, as requested by the DT. The Colombian striker, who arrived with just enough due to an iliac crest trauma, has once again shown that he is a striker always up to the task: he has scored goals in all the decisive instances of the Copa Libertadores, he celebrated in front of all the greats of Argentine football and accumulates 49 goals in 134 games.

When it seemed that the lack of a goal was once again a headache and Racing was only having hope because of this ineffectiveness, all the goals fell: in just 12 minutes, River scored four. Julián Álvarez, De La Cruz, Leonel Miranda (against) and Matías Suárez scored and denounced constant mistakes of the defense of the Academy, which had neither momentum nor clarity. It all came from River. The game and the title.

Without an audience in the stadium, those who celebrated were the leaders and friends. And the thousands of fans who made a red caravan and on route 9 to accompany the team in the 73 kilometers that separate Termas de Río Hondo with the Sole Mother of Cities stadium in Santiago del Estero. On the field, inaugurated yesterday for 29,000 spectators and with a total cost of 1,500 million pesos, there was a small football atmosphere. From the boxes of the Racing delegation came songs, complaints to the referee, requests to the coach and encouragement to the players. As if it were another audience of the Cylinder. On the river side, total tranquility with isolated applause. Even the goals, with loud cries.

There are already 12 crowns in 16 definitions throughout the Gallardo cycle. Only Huracán (Argentine Super Cup 2014), Barcelona (Club World Cup 2015), Lanús (Argentine Super Cup 2016) and Flamengo (Libertadores 2019) were able to beat him in the final. For the doll, this represents one more jump to the top: He has 20 titles at River (five local and seven international as TD and six local and two international as a player) and was two behind the eternal Ángel Labruna. in the ranking of the greatest number of champions in the history of the club. Revolutionizing history is not for everyone. Winning a 5-0 final in the oldest classic in history, either.

More information