The night is cold in Liniers, but the Professional League resumes and we all expect a bit of heat. The fans who are at home, behind the television, perhaps with a stove at hand, do not need to be ignited by passion, of course. But they want a fiery victory that will raise the temperature to the table of positions right now, from this first date. And those of us who arrived at the Amalfitani stadium, warmly dressed, awaited a little sacred fire. However, football is below zero. There were almost no shots on goal, inaccuracies were unnecessary, the ordinary game abounded. Yes, Vélez and Racing finished frozen with emotions.
It is true that the heads of both are focused on the knockout stages of the Libertadores. Also, that the first match of the championship fell right in the middle of the heads-up cup and the situation warranted for the technicians to keep their best values and try some variants. Nevertheless, there were higher expectations.
In this context, Vélez bet on eight players who are usually substitutes. Among them, Ricky Alvarez, who returned after an authentic decade won in Europe reformulated as an interior steering wheel. Last night, he started from the center circle in a double five with Gerónimo Poblete. And he handled the medium. With some crossed balls, front changes and free throws. However, his teammates lacked pepper to season Gabriel Arias’ area. There was some overflow of Lenny Lobato on the left. Also, a pair of diagonals from Luca Orellano, a left-hander turned to the right. And a break in the waist of Cristian Tarragona, pure dribbling, who met with a remarkable cross of Eugenio Mena. And not much else.
Racing returned to show a good time of the insipid football that prevailed during the cycle of Juan Antonio Pizzi. He went from a very acceptable game against San Pablo, in which he planted the flag in Morumbí, to the exasperating slowness in the transfer, little change of pace and featherweight in the goal zone. With many relays, aboard a 4-2-3-1 that became a 4-1-4-1 in the retreat, he only had some light when Darío Cvitanich, turned into a kind of hook, opened the field to the climbs of Iván Pillud. The rest were very imprecise. Maxi Lovera and Matías Rojas lost many balls, forcing Aníbal Moreno and Leonel Miranda to redouble their efforts.
Pizzi insists with Rojas, who wears the “10” that two magical left-handed Rubén (Paz and Capria) honored, but he is unable to own the ball. This time, he started on the right. If the technician’s idea was for him to explode with his best inward profile, it didn’t work. And except for his punch, very useful for some stopped ball, he did not gravitate. And Javier Correa was very isolated.
Vélez and Racing did not kick on goal in the first forty-five minutes. And something better was expected for the second half. Illusive those who believed that it could improve. Not even with Mena launched in attack, almost as a winger, Pizzi managed to give his team offensive hope. Only in the last stretch of the game, when he took out Moreno and Correa and sent the kid Maggi and Ignacio Piatti to the field, did the Academy have more resources up front. Tomás Chancalay, Cvitanich’s replacement, was already on the playing field, worn out in a role that he does not feel, inadmissible at 36 years old. He ended up exhausted going back to help with the recovery.
Alvarez, the best of Vélez, also got tired and Mauricio Pellegrino ordered the entry of Santiago Cáseres in the middle. Lobato also left and Lucas Janson entered. There was a time of dominance, with some crossed ball of Nazareno Romero and the threatening aerial game of Tarragona. But in the last ten Racing had two very clear chances. A shot by Piatti, after a great play in which Rojas, Chancalay and Pillud participated, and another by Rojas who passed very close to Hoyos’ left post.
Racing finished better, but left a few questions. Why didn’t Lisandro López, the idol who repented and returned from the United States, not even have five minutes? What will be the true face of the team, that of San Pablo or that of last night? Answers that Pizzi and his work must give, always under the magnifying glass.
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