Argentine Superliga roundup week 5: The weekend of bore draws and Arsenal shock Banfield

It was the last round before the vital international break. Argentina need a win in the Bombonera against Peru to stay in the race for World Cup qualification. This definitely wasn’t the most exciting round of the season but let’s get into the action.

Union de Santa Fe continued their fine start to the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Olimpo. Soldano opened the scoring after half time and has lifted his tally up to 4 goals now. Definitely a player to look out for! This game was followed up by three consecutive stalemates. Defensa y Justicia vs Huracan, Atletico Tucuman vs Belgrano and San Lorenzo vs Colon all ended in a 0-0 draw. I was afraid we wouldn’t see another goal this weekend. Luckily for us, Estudiantes were able to find the net pretty quickly. Colombian forward Otero opened the scoring after 2 minutes. Luguercio added another two minutes later and Fernandez finished the game off in the 17th minute. Temperley weren’t able to recover from their poor start and lost the game 0-3.

37-year old Jose Sand proved to be vital for Lanus as he netted a hat trick in a 1-3 win over Gimnasia La Plata. Nicolas Mazzola did something back for the La Plata side but it was too little too late. Argentinos Jrs. hosted Racing Club in the Diego Armando Maradona stadium and it looked like we would get another bore draw. However, the hosts opened the scoring in the 88th minute and added another in stoppage time via Pisculichi. Argentinos jrs. finally received their first three points of the season. It’s bright in La Paternal (the neighbourhood of Argentinos jrs.), on the contrary to Avellaneda where the clouds are a lot darker. Racing have only won one of their last eight games now.

Patronato won their last three consecutive games but weren’t able to bring any points back home after their visit to Cordoba. Talleres were too strong at home and probably should have scored more than once but luckily for them, it was enough. A narrow 1-0 victory for the hosts. Rosario Central opened the scoring just before the halftime whistle via Zampedri but came back to Rosario empty-handed. Parot got himself sent off in the 59th minute and two quick goals followed for San Martin. Central ended the match with 9 men as Tobio got a red card as well. A late penalty from Ardente proved to be the last action of the game. A 3-1 win for San Martin.

It wasn’t an easy game for Independiente against Velez Sarsfield but a goal from Meza in the second half separated both sides. A narrow 1-0 victory for the hosts. Velez have fallen back a bit now. They haven’t won any of their last three games now. Boca Juniors came were clear favourites as they hosted Chacarita in the Bombonera. They got off to a fine start as Benedetto assisted Pavón who made no mistake. We were only 3 minutes in by then and it looked like Boca were going to score a lot more this evening. However, they didn’t. They even could have lost this game! Edwin Cardona got himself sent off after 16 minutes following two quick yellow cards. The Colombian isn’t known for his strong mentality and really let his team down this game. Boca struggled a lot to create chances after their sending off and will have to thank Chacarita for not taking advantage. The visitors weren’t really able to create clear-cut chances and therefore Boca were able to see the game out. The night wasn’t as easy as expected but Boca make no mistake and stay top of the Superliga with 5 wins out of 5.

Boca even extended the gap with River Plate following River Plate’s 1-1 draw with Tigre. River Plate took the lead early on via a penalty from Scocco. Straqualursi, yes that one, missed a penalty 10 minutes later for the hosts. However, Tigre managed to equalise in the 35th minute and River Plate weren’t able to get back into the lead despite seeing most of the ball. Another disappointing draw for River, who are already 4 points behind Boca.

Banfield hosted Arsenal on Monday and it was hard to see past a Banfield victory here. However, Arsenal managed to pull a shock victory. Banfield opened the scoring in the 12th minute via Alvarez. Arsenal were denied a clear penalty and were a man down before halftime after Contreras got himself sent off. It looked like an uphill battle for the visitors from here on. However, Milo equalised with a header in the 65th minute. They even snatched a winner late on with a good counter attack. Ferreyra’s winner in the 87th minute gave Arsenal their much needed and first three points of the season! What better to way to end this round-up off than with another bore draw. We didn’t see any goals unfortunately in Rosario where Newell’s hosted Godoy Cruz. We only saw 23 goals this weekend in 14 games. It can only get better from here!