Glory, Prode and resurrections of Racing de Córdoba, River’s rival for the Argentine Cup

He was born in Córdoba in the shadow of the others, almost 100 years ago. In December it will be 99 in the afternoon when a group of young people declared themselves willing to found a club and debated between two motions to name it: Rosario federal coup AND Athletics club, according to the fanaticism of the promoters. Then the seven consecutive titles between 1913 and 1919 which transformed the Avellaneda club into The Academy and the result of the vote was not unanimous, but not even close.

Since its baptism, geolocation has been attached to the name. Except in the Mediterranean province it is immediately clear: it is Racing of Córdoba or New Italy. In the shadows ever since, he’s been working on his own flash and along the way has everything to tell him his story and the present, who has him as a rival to River Of Argentina cup.

Putting one and the other’s 11 hand in hand can confuse the goals. It’s true, the surnames of the Racing players are not on everyone’s lips. The technical director is Charles Bossio, prominent figure of the Cordoba Academy, well-known face of the team. But that’s not why River’s rivals are one of those teams who have their 15 minutes of fame when they get an important one in the Argentine Cup. No, the rides have their sign on the street. To tumble or with aplomb, but the course is right.

There was a time when it was nothing new to see Racing in the big competition. The 80s were a golden age for the Cordovan club. The starting point was 1978: that year it was one of the teams that played the National From AFA. His participation was “worthy”, as described by the club on its website, but he was eliminated in the first round. There was very little left at the Academy to light up its best stage.

The Nacional of the 80s was the brand of fire, the irruption on the great stages of Argentine football. There was no longer just one Racing: the one from Córdoba got through the first round, eliminated Diego Maradona’s Argentinos Juniors in the quarterfinals -first 1-1 and then 3-1- and danced against Ricardo Bochini’s Independiente – at the Chateau Carreras for 4 to 0 and although he lost in the rematch for 5 to 3, the 7-5 on aggregate took him to the final. The feat was not possible, they lost the first leg against Rosario Central 5 to 1 and although they came back from the second leg, they did not finish 2 to 0 to be champions.

The consecration comes a year later, in Korea, where he wins the President’s Cup which that country organized between 1971 and 1999. The Cordovan institution was the only one in Argentina to lift this trophy which mixed teams and clubs and which also won, among others, PSV-Eindhoven AND St. Paul. Upon his return, he again made it through the Nacional group zone and earned the right to also participate in the Metropolitan. In this way the club dedicated itself to the tournament organized by the AFA and left the Cordovan League aside.

Settled in First Division, The rides were otherwise bumpy. In 1983 he wrote an unexpected chapter in his early stage: he beat his namesake 4-3 in the Cilindro de Avellaneda and that result doomed the original Academy to relegation. It was the only “achievement” of that year.

At that time football could also be an economic vehicle for those on the other side of the fence: the sports prediction game better known as Prode had a good incentive to play every fixture. If it was vacant, the prize was more succulent. The first week of May 1984, there was $1.7 million for anyone who won all 13 games. The Cordoba team decided to play a run-off: the captain called the game and, by show of hands, the group decided where to put the cross: local, away or draw.

The date began to develop, and the team’s successes were promising. So much so that before their match they had 12 hits. If they beat Iron, added the two points for the victory, but above all the 13 of the Prode. They say there wasn’t a technical interview, but a tailored speech Pietro Marchetta so that those dollars that were at stake did not run away.

And they won. The 2-1 arrived on time and the euphoria with which the players celebrated was excessive: not even in the stands was there much clamor. But the campus ballot wasn’t the only one with the matches needed to keep the money. The nearly two million dollars were distributed among just under 100 bettors, and the portion remaining in Racing was divided among 40 people. It was like one of those draws with the flavor of defeat.

A year later, great football was restructured: the National and Metropolitan championships disappeared, the First Division began to play in round-trip tournaments and the pace of Racing fluctuated. He avoided scraping relegation after the 87/88 season, in the following one he saved his skin in the last round, but in 1990 he definitively dropped after losing a play-off for parity in the average coefficient with Chaco forever. The Chaco team beat them 5-0 on the Boca field.

And it began to sink. In Nacional B even those reduced by the second promotion failed to classify in his first two seasons and in the third he was relegated again. He returned to the Cordovan Football League where he started, without putting together any successes. But 1998 was the first resurrection: three promotions in the same year to return to the Primera lobby. From the championship, to Argentino B to be champion and access the final round of Argentino A, which allowed him to be promoted to B Nacional. The momentum from the triple promotion was enough for them to survive in the Second Division, but another restructuring of the AFA increased the number of relegations and Racing were one of seven to leave the category in the new millennium.

The direction that supposed the recovery of its status arrived, but nothing. Years of ups and downs followed. But the worst was yet to come. Intervened by Justice in 2004, Racing faced the federal b without being able to gain a foothold in any category. And again the background. In 2019, Racing only played in the Cordovan League tournament but was an undefeated champion. The second time from the ashes was coming. The next step was the regional tournament, interrupted by the pandemic, and again a federal a, but there wasn’t room for another of his epic appearances. He has lost both chances for promotion. The return to National premiere It came in 2022, when the tournament had the only vacancy at stake, which he beat Villa Mitra in the final on penalties.

After almost a decade, Racing returned to the second category of the AFA. And there he was, with his lights, resuming that old habit of measuring himself against the greats of Buenos Aires as he tries to build his return to the First Division. Even if there is a long way to go, he is found in the bottom rung of the positions that classify the reduced for the second promotion. Meanwhile he will try in the Argentine Cup, to pull one of those shots out of the galley that he knew how to give.