Let's use this thread to discuss the overall state of the league. Rule changes and overall quality of our domestic futbol. Anything that it very club specific please leave to club specific threads and sub forums.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. Nice idea. This could be the place for general statistics (league standings, top scorers, and so forth) as well as analysis of the matches, players and the league overall.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. I guess the first match we can talk about is the River v Boca Torneo de Verano. I didn't get to see it but reports coming in are that Palermo played his heart out!
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. Yea Palermo did ok, but the bostero media is taking a bit too far, as usual. I mean its really sickening, the story of the game was boca was solid, not spectacular, and their goalie made some incredible saves. i'll give boca some credit, but the game could have been another story if not for garcia overall, i see the main contenders as estududiantes and velez, followed by the big clubs minus independiente who doesn't have much IMO. If Velez and Estudiantes concentrate on the copa, i see the winner coming from racing, river, san lorenzo, and bosta as they will be solid defensively with falcioni's style. lanus looks very strong too with some key refuerzos
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. You don't give Independiente any credit? I really liked them with Turco as their coach. He's produced Colon some solid results over the last 3 years. They were contenders in pretty much very tournament since he took over. Club biases aside, I'm liking him more and more with each passing tournament.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. LOL! Reminds me of River last summer. You are right that Garcia played very well, but you also have to also admit that if it wasn't for Carrizo, Boca would have scored a few more goals.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. They'll probably try to concentrate in La Copa, especially given the weight of their past history.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. I'd love to see Independiente go far in the Copa but I really want Velez to take it all. We just picked up Guille Franco and I'm still trying to figure out why???
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. Yea Carrizo did have one great save from palermo... i wasn't on these boards last year during the summer tournaments but i was sure as hell happy when we won, its just one of those things, bragging rights for the next few weeks, as soon as the clausura kicks off, no one will remember/care about the summer matches
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. Regarding the summer tournament, I've always wondered why it wasn't worth more. Why weren't the lower level teams included and the whole tournament made more compelling, maybe calling it the Copa Argentina. Also including the 2nd Division teams. I know something similar to this was tried in the past.
Re: Primera A League Discussion Thread. Because it's just a way to make a little money in preseason, nothing more. Still nice to beat River though.
Most of the media always tends to overhype a team that does good on these summer friendlies even if most of the time they fail to win anything afterwards it isn't just with Boca. Also it'd seem that both Vélez and Estudiantes are aiming at the Libertadores, which doesn't mean that they'll make it far but, may leave the race for the championship free for somebody else, i too think Lanús will have a good shot, they lost Blanco, who wasn't doing much for them lately, and they got back Valeri, plus Carranza who seems to fit in clubs like Lanús. Yeah, but we'll have to get in it first, we'll see if we get past Deportivo Quito(which we should), the group we'd get in looks difficult. On occassion there're tournaments that involve first division clubs and second division ones like that Cuadrangular de Tandil last year or that Cordoba tournament which had Vélez and Belgrano, but also some argentine clubs arrange their own tournaments with foreign sides like Newell's is doing, or they get invited to tournaments in other south american countries, like Vélez this year in the Montevideo Cup, or Arsenal playing friendlies in Peru, on the "big clubs" tournaments they made the addition of Estudiantes a couple of years ago and in Mendoza's one they got Godoy Cruz in. Others just arrange formal or informal friendlies, against other first division clubs or just from lower divisions. Note that the "Argentine Cup" may not be dead just yet, weeks ago Grondona hinted that they're working to get something together, i wonder if at this time of the year there would be Argentine Cup matches involving first division sides. Hmm... I don't know if they make that much money anymore, note that more than once teams just field subtitutes(which seems to piss off organizers) so they can get past these matches quickly for some teams it's more of an annoyance to play these.
Independiente actually made two interesting signings. The one of De Federico (who I think will be back to his old form) and Ivan Velez (a Colombian wingback with whom I was impressed in the few instances I have seen him; is rated highly by Colombians). I don't think Cristaldo's sale will affect Velez much if both of Martinez and Tanque remain injury-free. For the good of football, I hope Estudiantes don't win it again. Most excited to see River and Racing. River because of Lamela and other youngsters. Racing because of a few quality individuals, mainly Gio Moreno, Hauche, Yacob and Toranzo. Wouldn't mind a nice run by Godoy Cruz either. They were fun to watch the past campaign.
If 'domestic' based fans could add their input to their views on emerging players this becomes a very useful thread for Argentina fans abroad. It is rather difficult to observe directly what is going on in the domestic league and such inputs would be most welcome. Great idea for a thread NYC_COSMOS.
As much as I would love to take credit for the idea, it was really River Gaucho's idea. I just opened the thread and sent out emails.
As I understand it, this will be the final "short" season, right? Going forward, will the schedule be exactly mirroring European leagues?
As it stands the tournament already mirrors the European schedule, albeit with a few differences. The tournament is divided in two. First part is called Apertura (The Opening) and the second part is called Clausura (The Closing). Unfortunately, for some, the short tournaments will continue. I was on the fence about this but I like the two tournaments a season style. It's holds more attraction and gives mid table teams more chances to compete for the title.
Thanks, you two. I was actually for the idea of a combined tournament, as I feel that would yield a more "legitimate" champion, for lack of a better word. I do see the appeal of dividing it up though. So, as it stands now, The two champs get automatic entries into the Libertadores? And the other spots are determined by the aggregate standings from the past 3 seasons, is it? How about the Sudamericana? Remember, this is a "Primera for Dummies" discussion...lol. So please bear with me and correct me.
There are multiple ways to look at it, but I am happy the short tournaments are staying. This gives new hope to fans as we live and die with our teams. The whole idea of "more legitimate" champion isn't really a big deal, people just want to win. in 2004, i was back in BsAs on summer vacation from school here, and my uncle took me to el monumental and we won the clausura thanks to a goal from Gallardo against Atletico Rafaela. People (boca fans and journalists who support boca) said it was a "devalued" championship because we had lost to boca in the copa, but not one person cared, trust me. it was just as big a party as any other title river ever won As for Libertadores and Sudamericana qualification, its not done over a 3 year average, its done over the span of 2 tournamens. So for example, the teams that qualified for the 2011 Copa Libertadores were the 2 champions (Estudiantes and Argentinos) the next two teams with the highest point totals from 2010 (Velez and Godoy Cruz) and then Independiente got the last spot as the 2010 Copa Sudamericana champion, which was interesting because they stole the spot from Racing, their archrival, who had the 3rd highest point total in 2010 and would have been the 5th spot had independiente not won the copa sudamericana. The 2011 Sudamericana will be decided by the total point from the 2010 Apertura and the 2011 Clausura. So as of now, just look at the standings from the last tournament to see who would qualify.
In reality, it isn't confirmed wether short tournaments will continue or not, there's nothing official just rumours, however Grondona has said himself they're trying to get an Argentine Cup which makes me believe that may put an end to short tournaments on the first division. There's also a rumour that the cup qualifying may change back to just the season table for everything, some have suggested that it's because the scheduling of the international cups would change, though the schedule change for the cups to me that sounds like the least likely thing of all and that doesn't depend on AFA either way. Personally i could care less about an Argentine Cup but returning to long tournaments would be an improvement, like it would for south american football in general revamp the schedules of the cups. By the way, it seems Lanús is going for Sand, may he be in shape for argentine football? If he is then i guess Lanús is truely a candidate for the title.
Is this new information? I read about a month ago that the Presidents of the clubs had decided on not changing the format. They were all worried about the transfer window and ticket sales.
It's said that the presidents of the clubs in general are for keeping short tournaments, but it seems sooner or later they may have to vote for it or against it. I don't see how they would be worried about the transfer window, nor the ticket sales, specially the latter considering that even if at some point ticket sales would be reduced late on the season for some teams, it still doesn't make a huge difference and either way it happens for some clubs near the end of the Aperturas and the Clausuras. Note, it's all rumours there's no concrete information regarding a possible change(or not) back to long tournaments or keep the short ones.
I don't know why you guys are excited about Lanus. They bought Valeri, a straight swap to the departing Blanco. Now Sand is certainly a nice addition, but certainly not the one to elevate them to the next level.