Dedicated to glory. Or from the San Telmo Prosecutor’s Office to the Abu Dhabi megastadio. To the hyperbolic journey of Patronage There is one last season to complete: the match that will be played tonight at 20:30 laboratories in the Malvinas Argentinas de Mendoza. the end of Argentine Cup can grant him his first national title, qualification for the Copa Libertadores and a ticket to play another crown against Boca in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. And it is also an opportunity to end with a big smile a year that saw victories against four of the big five, but also a relegation and a black night, in which four players ended up in punishment.
Those who observe the empty portion of the glass will point out that Entre Ríos’ team will return to next year First National after seven seasons in the top category of Argentine football. Those who prefer to look at the other fraction of the container will highlight the excellent campaign that a cast with very modest resources has had in recent months, which allowed them to reach the Copa Argentina final and finish 10th in the ranking. Professional Leaguealthough it does not prevent the descent.
The architect of this team was facundo sava, who arrived in Paraná on 7 March to replace Iván Delfino. At that point, the Holy they had collected only one point in the first five games of the year, they were the last in the League Cup group and the penultimate in the average rankings. “I already have the experience of starting from the bottom and I like it. It is different to fight upstairs than downstairs, but this situation motivates me ”, assured that day the former coach of San Martín de San Juan, Unión, Racing and Tigre, who in the previous season had brought Quilmes to play. the final of the Ridotto of the First Nacional for the second promotion against Barracas Central (lost on penalties).
Sava took command of a short squad, without big numbers and who at the beginning of the year had lost some of his most important players such as Paraguayan defender Rolando García Guerreño, Uruguayan striker Sebastián Sosa Sánchez and goalkeeper and captain Matías Ibáñez. Gabriel Gudiño’s departure would be added to the Huracán in June. On the other hand, men arrived who, without a very shiny plate, contributed a lot to the team like Carlos Quintana, Nicolás Castro, Axel Rodríguez, Jonás Acevedo and Marcelo Estigarribia.
In the first segment of Sava’s leadership the results were far from optimal, beyond the fact that the team began to show an improvement in the game. Three wins and six defeats did not help to leave the last place in zone A of the League Cup, led by Racing. For this reason, on 4 June, against Vélez al Presbítero Bartolomé Grella, he started the Professional League at the bottom of the media and 11 points from salvationwhich in those days seemed like a chimera.
At the start of the second race of the year, the numbers were more friendly. A couple of wins against Aldosives Y Central Cordobadirect rivals in the battle for permanence and other triumphs against Independent Y Tiger They invited hope. then it came the fateful night of June 26thin which the referee Jorge Baliño and the managers of the VAR, Diego Abal and Diego Ceballos, unfortunately took on a leading role in the match against Barracas Central at the All Boys stadium.
After a couple of much discussed interventions of the video assistance system, when the Template played with ten men for the dismissal of Nicolás Castro and after Facundo Altamirano saved a Pablo Mouche penalty, a header by Colombian Sebastián Rincón in injury time scored the 2-1 in favor of the Beautiful. It was the spark that ignited the prairie. As soon as Baliño marked the end, a phenomenal brawl broke out between the players of the Entre Ríos team and the municipal police officers, who clashed hand-to-hand on the pitch. “It makes me want to cry, to go home and never make it again in my life,” Sava shot while his players were still fighting with the men in uniform.
Following the skirmish, the team was delayed for three hours in the Islas Malvinas guest locker room (which was in the dark due to lack of electricity) and, subsequently, five of its members were arrested: Axel Rodríguez, Justo Giani, Matías Pardo, Juan Barinaga and goalkeeper coach Damián González. The order was given by Celsa Ramírez, head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office specializing in mass events and sports shows in the city of Buenos Aires, for injuries, attack and resistance to authority.
The four players and González they spent the night in police vehicles, while the rest of the team returned to Paraná, and during the morning of the following day they issued a statement at the Prosecutor’s Office 35, in San Telmo, before returning to the capital of Entre Ríos. There they and their teammates received the support not only of the fans (there was a flag in front of the hotel where they were gathered), but also of Governor Gustavo Bordet, who visited them at the La Capillita property. “It hurts a lot when there is an expropriation like the one that took place on the last date. In football you can win or lose, but sometimes there are things that go beyond football “, complained the president of the province.
Just five days after the battle of Floresta, the Template beat Boca 3-0 in the Grella. One of the goals was scored by Axel Rodríguez, one of those charged by the din. “We’ve been through a bad period, but with this victory everything is behind us. We are very united “, highlighted the former Olympus striker.” I am very proud of these players, “said Sava.” There were a lot of individual and group talks. In the first days we had to be attentive to the feelings we had to live. . We had to give in to anguish, sadness. It was a very difficult moment. And it was a special week for me, in sport and personally, “added the coach, who is also a social psychologist.
That victory against Boca was the second in the league against a great, after the one obtained against Independiente. Two weeks later, it would be the Saint Lawrence by Ruben Darío Insua who will capitulate in Paraná: goals from Lucas Kruspzky, Marcelo Estigarribia and Justo Giani give the team a 3-2 victory. And in the Grella would also fall, at the beginning of October, the then leader of the classification, Atletico Tucumán.
In any case, neither those four victories nor the other seven that Entre Ríos’ team obtained in the Professional League (moreover, they recorded seven draws and nine defeats) were not enough to avoid relegation, condemned on Friday 14 October with two missing dates for the end of the tournament, due to Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Central Córdoba. Too heavy the slab of the bad campaigns of 2020 and 2021, in which he added 23 and 37 points respectively, against 50 this year.
Simultaneously with that fight against the calculator, the Holy He took a trip to the Copa Argentina which began in silence and ended with a roar. He made his debut with a 2-0 win over Deportivo Morón in Santa Fe for the 32nd final, then beat Colón on penalties at Coloso Marcelo Bielsa in Rosario and then, in Resistencia, left Gimnasia in the sewer, which he beat 2 a 1. So it was installed in the quarter-finals.
then they came the two collisions against the giants of Argentine football. First it was River’s turn at the Carlos Augusto Mercado Luna stadium in La Rioja. Then, in Boca in the San Juan del Bicentenario. The two triumphs were consumed on penalties and Facundo Altamirano was the hero in both. Against Marcelo Gallardo’s team, the former Banfield goalkeeper stopped Matías Suárez’s last shot; against those led by Hugo Ibarra, he deflected the shots of Óscar Romero, Alan Varela and Sebastián Villa. In the second round, against Colón, he had saved one against Luis Miguel Rodríguez in the 90 minutes and another against Rodrigo Aliendro in the definition from 11 meters.
The Red and black he will find his last obstacle on Sunday in Mendoza. Before the Workshops will try to break the record of the teams that eliminated Boca and River in the same tournament and could not be consecrated. He happened to Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in the 2018 Argentine Cup, in which they fell in the final against Rosario Central. More than a century ago, the Estudiantes de Caseros did it in the 1913 Cup of Honor: they beat the Millionaire in the round of 16 and from 5 to 4 a Xeneize in the semifinals, but in the final they lost 5-1 to Racing. Outside the borders and for the Copa Libertadores, Independiente del Valle (2016) and Atlético Mineiro (2021) have suffered the same fate.
If he wins, he Template Not only will it become the second club indirectly affiliated with the AFA to win a tournament recognized by the parent company of vernacular football (San Martín de Tucumán won the Republic Cup in 1945), but it will also get a place in the Libertadores Cup 2023. In that case, you will have to play it in the First National, as Tigre did in 2020.
But not only: a victory at Malvinas Argentinas will classify the club founded 108 years ago by Bartolomé Grella for the Argentina Super Cup, in which the Argentine Cup winner will face Boca (as champion of the Professional League) in Abu Dhabi in January next year. Yes, the downgraded Board of Trustees is 90 minutes away from moving to the Middle East.
Source: Clarin
