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Week 1 Roundup: Free football for all on TV By Joel Richards (joel@theenganche.com) Perhaps
waiting an extra week really
was worth it after all. The brave new world of fútbol para
todos (football
for everyone) offers the armchair supporter unrivalled levels of
temptation to
spend all day in boxer shorts, put the cleaning off till Monday, turn
off the
mobile and tune into the 900 minutes of live top flight football on TV.
All 10
matches were televised on the state broadcaster, most games were shown
by two
channels at the same time. The news channels broadcast goals
milliseconds after
they happened. All of this left the 1000+ program old Fútbol
de Primera looking
like a rabbit caught in the headlights with neither the presenter, nor
the
journalists, nor the program’s director too clear on just how
they are going to
put together a 90 minute program with content that everyone has already
seen. All in
all, everybody seems to agree
that things went reasonably smoothly for the first week of the
AFA/Kirchner deal,
even if it took just three minutes of the new season to see that the
government
wouldn’t get it all their way. Gimnasia may be the presidenta
Cristina
de Kirchner’s team, but despite their heroic relegation survival
just a couple
of months ago, the Lobo were
losing to Godoy Cruz just three minutes into the
new season. Federico Higuaín’s brilliant freekick sealed
things in La
Plata for the men from Mendoza. The Big
Five had a mixed time of it,
with only one grande managing to take all three points on day
one.
Simeone’s San Lorenzo started off with a 3-1 win over newly
promoted Atlético
Tucumán, Bergessio’s elbow in the first goal and an
unawarded penalty for the
Tucuamanos adding the predictable controversy. The
Avellaneda duo both lost 1-0 to opposition from Rosario–
Racing to Central and Independiente at ‘home’ (they played
at Lanús) to
Newell’s. Boca and
River, meanwhile, both found
themselves two nil down at half time. Basile brought on Guillermo
Marino after the break,
and he scored twice in six minutes to level for the Xeneize. The
expected third
never came though, and Boca will welcome back Riquelme from suspension
next
week. The same
can’t be said of River, who
had both their key players - Gallardo and Ortega – on the
pitch, but were
still down after one minute to Banfield, courtesy of Silva, and two
down after
half an hour. The millionaires rarely threatened to make a game of it. The
Champions of America, Estudiantes,
comfortably beat Arsenal 2-0 away, while the only clásico of the
weekend went
Tigre’s way, the Matador hitting the woodwork twice before
finishing off newly
promoted Chacarita with a brace from Leandro Lázzaro. As for last season’s champions and runners up, Vélez were pushed hard by Cólon in Santa Fe but Jonathan Cristaldo hit the winner seven minutes from time. Huracán gave first division debuts to four players in a new look side and predictably failed to replicate last season’s performance. Lanús proved too much for the Globo and took all three points, thanks to two goals from new boy Santiago Salcedo. Results
(click links to see goals)
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