River’s plan to avoid the effects of the height of La Paz, where his dream of the quinta Libertadores will begin

Even if first there is the match against Unionthis Friday at the Monumental stadium to defend its status as leader of the Professional League, The head of River is already in the Copa Libertadores. That’s the team Martin Demichelis The maximum continental event will start next Tuesday and will travel, nothing more and nothing less, than to La Paz, Bolivia. With all that that implies.

It’s that he won’t just have to play against The strongestbut also before 3,600 meters above sea level, an additional factor that favors locals and complicates visitors. So beyond football planning, also in terms of strategy and tactics travel logistics are organized with care.

And in this sense Demichelis and his technical staff have already defined what will the hike through Bolivia be like, which is not much different than what most schools do. The River delegation will arrive at the Hernando Siles stadium just before the game and will stop in another city, in the plain.

River will only arrive in La Paz on Tuesday, the same day as the match, but will travel to Bolivia on Monday, after morning training and lunch at the Ezeiza RiverCamp. You will leave for Santa Cruz de la Sierra and stay one night. With these logistics, the intention is avoid the negative effects of altitude as much as possible and spend a few hours in La Paz. The idea is to arrive at noon on a Tuesday. The match will start at 18:00 local time and 19:00 in Argentina.

Although the trainer of The Strongest himself, the Spaniard Ismael Riscalvoassuming that the away teams are adapting better and better to the height and that the massive goals of the Bolivian teams no longer occur as frequently, they do not trust Núñez and have a definite strategy to look for the three points that allow them to cut a series of more than half a century without victories in La Paz.

The last time was in 1970, when they defeated Universitario 2-0. He was close to breaking the streak in the previous visit, which was in 2016, against The Strongest. They won 1-0 with a goal from Rodrigo Mora, but equalized late in the game.

Of course, there is no foolproof formula.. Although, in 2020, the Argentina national team He spent two nights in La Paz so that players can increase their oxygen saturation level. And it wasn’t bad for him as he won 2-1. In any case, River’s decision fits the logic used by most delegations.

In the face of that game, and also that of Unión, Demichelis already has the return of three of the four called up players, who are back in excellent form: Franco Armani, Paulo Díaz and Robert Rojas returned this Wednesday, respectively from the teams of Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, and Salomón Rondón He will do it this Thursday from Venezuela.