The Apertura is about to start and we had a record number of transfers. Boca and River led the way with what appear to be quality reinforcements that are expected to change their recent poor fortunes. Other "big" teams also appear to have improved themselves. So, will one of the "big" clubs win the Apertura, or will we see another small club take the title again?
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? should we maybe put this in the club section so more people will see it?
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? I say this year the "big clubs" dominate, with the biggest of the them all winning it. River all the way.
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? Agree but Huracan-Argentinos and Arsenal-Lanus were much better.Terrific atmosphere at Nuls-Pincha and I think you will see almost 60000 in the Monu tomorrow. To win I think Estudiantes and Velez have the most settled squads.The pinchas a superb midfield and El fortin very good at the back and midfield.Silva will have to do what he did at Banfield if they are to win. On paper Boca have the best squad but there appears to be internal problems.River have vast potential but I think us gallinas will have to have patience 8 newcomers and possibly Bolatti allied to some great pibes will take time to gel Velez is the safe choice but whichever of River or Boca who reach their potential will have a great chance
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? El nuevo Racing is going against All Boys right now. Seems like a match made to order for Racing at home, but I'd love to see All Boys pull the upset.
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? Defensively this is one of the better Boca squads in some time. Factor in Seba being back and healthy and Medel coming off a tremendous World Cup and things are already looking much better. In attack we'll need to see how much Nico Gaitan is missed. Of course once Roman starts playing I'm sure things will look more coordinated.
Re: Torneo Apertura 2010. Who will win? what a return to the primera from olimpo!!! 30 seconds in up 1-0 really enjoying the futbol this weekend. it had been far too long
Que malo es River por dios... Also Almeyda is still playing? Isn't he like 40 by now? Edit: 1-0 Funes Mori.
He's 36. I don't understand why people always go hard on el Pelado because of his age, but you never hear anybody say anything about others: he's the same age as Palermo, and just one year older than Veron. None of us expected him to perform the way he's performing when he initially returned, but it's safe to say that at the end of the day Almeyda is amongst the top performing DMF's in Primera Division. The guy does his job, give him a break. Anyway, he'll be retiring at the end of the season. He says he plans to quit soccer in December and focus on his coaching career.
Bump. Almost 3 months later, who would you guys say are the favorites of winning it all? There are still 7 games left in tournament. Estudiantes have been leading it for a while, though lately they've been slowing down a bit and haven't seemed that impressive. Velez, meanwhile, has the two top scorers of the league (Silva and Diaz with 7 each) and probably the most solid squad. Don't rule out the others, though: Newell's have been creeping up slowly to the top, and Arsenal are the surprise of the season with their 3rd place position. There has yet to be one team that clearly stands out from the rest, but the good part is that it makes it anyone's game.
I think Estudiantes too, they've been having troubles with injuries and a shortage with forwards but they've been getting around them outsmarting the opposition, plus their defense is solid, they got scored only 4 goals in 12 matches. That and overall their players have been well-behaved just last match they got their first card(ironically it was for an excessive complaint about a call that went Estudiantes' way). While on Friday they lost a chance to get a notable difference in the table with a victory, a draw at Vélez's who has been playing good isn't such a bad result, plus it's Estudiantes, looking at the history nobody's gonna blush if they play for a draw on an away match... Newell's, Godoy Cruz, Arsenal and Banfield, all play fine with different styles, but for different reasons they're somewhat incosistent, for example Newell's had a bad start, plus had to deal with cup(where they're still playing), Godoy Cruz had troubles to win at home in some matches(in fact the only two matches they lost were home matches), Arsenal is somewhat trying to reshape after some dubious performances in the recent seasons. I guess Estudiantes would be nearly unstoppable had they picked a player like former Gimnasia's Straqcualursi seeing what he's doing at Tigre.
I say let anyone but Estudiantes win. They have 15 goals, 6 of which have been penalties. Some have been legit, but in the game against Olimpo for example, they got 2 absurd penalties to win against a team just promoted... Veron's penalty against Gimnasia was a joke too Velez has played some good football this tournament, unlike Estudiantes, who I would argue has only played 1 good game (against Boca), and I think Newell's winning would be good but they will be stretched thin with the Copa
The first one against Olimpo was a joke indeed, now the second one, i am not sure. Add to that, that Newell's will play LDU Quito in the cup which is probably the strongest rival that they may have to face in the cup, in top of everything their coach is Bauza who in Argentina is attached to Rosario Central.
Logically it should be Estudiantes or Velez. But Argentine football has been anything but logical the past couple of years. Godoy Cruz, anyone?
Estudiantes lost 2-1 to Tigre, who have been one of the worst teams of the tournament. If Velez beats Lanus tomorrow, they'll catch up to el pincha with 30 points. As the weeks go by, it keeps on looking more like the title will go to either Estudiantes or Velez. I wonder if we'll end up seeing another playoff final at the end of the season?
With two matches left for everybody, the race has been closed to Estudiantes and Vélez. I still think that Estudiantes knows how to overcome their lacks, they played with Gastón Fernández as the closest thing to a forward for most of the tournament, I believe they could've made good use of a player like Stracqualursi, probably if they had somebody like him they would be the champion by now(Of course due his past it was unlikely they'd get him precisely and after his irresponsible celebration in the match against Tigre it's never happening). However i'm liking Vélez's game more than Estudiantes', though occasionally Vélez's suffers of relaxing on unfinished matches, today was exactly the contrary, though they had to deal with it against Tigre and All Boys for example. Now looking at the remaining matches of both teams, it'd seem that Vélez's path may be a bit easier than Estudiantes'.