Argentine Superliga round-up week 9: Boca take first loss while Colon remain unbeaten

The international break is over and the Superliga is finally back. We kicked things off on Friday where Argentinos jrs. hosted Cólon. Argentinos Jrs. came into this game full of confidence after winning 3 out of their last 4 matches. However, it was Colon who took all three points back home to Santa Fe. Argentinos Jrs. dominated possession and had the most chances but Colon’s defence proved to be solid and were able to keep a clean sheet. Colon’s centre back Guillermo Ortiz scored the only goal of the game which moved Colon back up to 5th place.

Atletico Tucuman drew 0-0 with Arsenal de Sarandi. A disappointing result for the hosts who definitely felt they should have won this game. Arsenal can thank their goalkeeper Pablo Santillo for this point, as he saved all of Tucuman’s 7 shots on target. Belgrano stole a late victory in Rosario where they faced Newell’s Old Boys. It was still level up to the 89th minute where Joel Amoroso scored with his only shot of the game. 0-1. Banfield are flying high this season again and were clear favourites coming into their home game against Temperley. The visitors were rock-bottom coming into this game, having won only one of their first 8 matches. However, Temperley put up a good fight and managed to scrape out a point of this. A disappointing 0-0 draw for Banfield, who seem to play worse against the ‘’lesser’’ teams in the league.

Defensa y Justicia picked up a comfortable victory over Lanus who rested their entire team ahead of this week’s Copa Libertadores final against Gremio. Nicolas Fernandez lifted his tally up to 5 goals this season with a brace while Juan Kaprof added a 3rd for the hosts. 3-0. San Lorenzo picked up an impressive victory at San Martin and are now second in the Superliga table. San Lorenzo opened the scoring with a superb team goal. Two step overs were followed up by a solid finish from Blandi. Paulo Diaz extended San Lorenzo’s lead via a corner and Nicolas Blandi secured the victory in injury-time. Alvaro Fernandez did score a goal from close range but it didn’t matter. San Martin 1 x 3 San Lorenzo.

Independiente edged River via a goal from Nicolas Domingo. River were a man down early on as their goalie German Lux caught the ball out of his own box. It looked quite funny and is definitely worth looking up. River were less happy with his antics and now find themselves in 16th position and are already eliminated of the Copa Libertadores. Only the Copa Argentina can save them. They’ll face Atletico Tucuman in the final. Tigre managed to pick up their first victory of the season over Estudiantes. The visitors had a staggering 73% possession but couldn’t turn it into chances. Tigre 2 x 0 Estudiantes. Union de Santa Fe faced Chacarita on Sunday and both teams won’t be too happy with the outcome of this game. Union were looking for three points to continue their successful start to the season while Chacarita are in massive need for points to escape the relegation zone. A 0-0 draw doesn’t fill any of those criteria leaving both sides a little frustrated.

Boca Juniors lost their first game of the season this weekend as they faced Racing Club. Highly rated youngster Lautaro Martinez got things going for the visitors as he put them 0-1 up early on. Dario ‘Pipa’ Benedetto equalized on the stroke of halftime via a penalty. Augusto Solari put the visitors back in front in the 54th minute after he rounded Boca’s goalkeeper. It got even worse for Boca as their main goalscorer and striker Dario Benedetto picked up a heavy injury in the 83rd minute. Pipa ruptured his cruciate ligaments and is expected to be out for 5-6 months. A big blow for him too, as it puts his World Cup chances in danger. Boca has his replacement ready: Ramon Wanchope Abila joins them in January and will soften Pipa’s loss. Boca Juniors 1 x 2 Racing.

Rosario Central also picked up their first win of the season after Paolo Montero’s resignation. An impressive 0-1 victory over Talleres gave Central their much needed three points. Gimnasia La Plata earned a 2-0 victory over Patronato while Olimpo shared the points with Godoy Cruz, 1-1. And finally, Huracan saw off Velez Sarsfield in the last game of fecha 9. Mauro Bogado converted his chance from the spot to put Huracan in the lead. The hosts managed to hold on and find themselves in an impressive 4th position.

So there we have it! Fecha 9 is done and saw some teams pick up their first win of the season. Boca were the big losers this weekend and it will be interesting to see how they’ll cope with the absence of Dario Benedetto, who was leading the top scorer charts with 9 goals.