San Lorenzo beat Sarmiento with a goal from Gattoni and remained at the top of the standings

You don’t need a big performance. Nor, that luminosity that purists so demand. Since Rubén Darío Insua is the coach of San Lorenzo, he hardly needs a shot on the net to get the three points. It happened last night to Junín, but it’s a constant in his cycle: Of the 13 matches won in the 31 dates of his cycle, 10 were by the slight difference. For 1 to 0, as against Sarmiento, or for 2 to 1. And right at the end of 2022, with the qualification for the Copa Sudamericana on the last day, 2023 began. El Ciclón won three of the four matches in the professional league and there are already seven wins out of the last eight games.

And at least fans can stop worrying for a bit about the institutional pain he experienced last year, beyond the fact that they are waiting for an early definition of the election date to be able to change a board in crisis. Is it possible to get excited about a good sporting past?

The idea is And in these times in which the discourse of “playing well” or “playing well” relaunched by Juan Román Riquelme was dusted off, it must be said that San Lorenzo does not display virtuosity, but it is not a thing that matters either for him. The Insua team is pragmatic. Bet on the order, sacrifice yourself and try to be strong. They don’t despise the ball, but neither are they a group that flaunts possession; without going any further, he ranks 17th among teams with the highest percentage of ball possession with an average of 50%.

Yes, no one will be able to say that it doesn’t sound good. Aboard a 5-2-3 with wingers who are usually midfielders and don’t always pass. Malcom Braida does it from the left, but it is much deeper when he launches Gonzalo Luján and Iván Leguizamón, as happened in the second half.

Insua was right with the changes. The match requires more vigor on the wingers, where Sarmiento struggles to contain because he too usually plays with two midfielders. And the Galician moved the bank in time. Luján and Leguizamón came on in place of Nahuel Barrios and Ezequiel Cerutti. He set up midfield with Jalil Elías to accompany Carlos Sánchez into the position vacated by Perrito, but the solution was immediate.

Two minutes later, Luján sends in a cross, Andrés Vombergar (wearing a swim cap after being cut in the first half after a clearance by Cerutti) lowers it, Adam Bareiro heads, Sebastián Meza partially covered and Federico Gattoni appears in a position “9” to take advantage of the rebound of Sarmiento’s “1” and shake with his left foot.

With the changes, Insua unlocked an equal match in which much more was played than was played and in which Sarmiento had the clearest situations: one against one that Luciano Gondou, in full opposition, defined badly in the game started and a shot by Javier Toledo, after a lateral, covered by Augusto Batalla.

We also find a good answer in the goalkeeper at the time of San Lorenzo. The one-on-one covering for Lisandro López in a replay Toledo managed, following a Sánchez loss at center, was fantastic. From that play comes a corner from Quiroga that Elías saves on the line. It would have been an Olympic goal. And he finally held off with a scare for Rafa Pérez, who was sent off by Herrera until the referee was warned via VAR that he had made a mistake.

San Lorenzo wins, who likes it, and dreams.