River’s harsh self-criticism after the victory in Mendoza: “We shot ourselves in the foot”

Jogging, away from the elegant jacket he usually wears in every official match, Martin Demichelis He crossed the entrance to the tunnel of the World Cup stadium and did not show up at the press conference, where Mendoza’s colleagues were waiting for him. The manager chose not to make any statements when many were wondering what had happened to River, who were excited, fresh from the title and unbeaten in the League Cup. On Friday they were beaten (4 to 0) by Independiente Rivadavia, a minor rival who has lost 7 of the last 8 dates of the local tournament.

“We shot ourselves in the foot” They confessed it to the technical staff. When the fans’ questions had died down, immediately after the consecration of the Argentine Super Cup against Estudiantes, and they began to see Demichelis with different eyes after the victory against Gimnasia, the defeat opened a new window. Even if not everyone aims for the coach. Apparently in the ninety minutes of the duel played at the foot of the Cordillera, The criticism is mainly aimed at the substitute.

The river had not FrancoArmani (Argentine national team), Claudio Echeverri, Pablo Solari (Under 23 years old), Nicola Fonseca (Uruguay) e Paolo Diaz (Chile), almost all starters. And in this match too they were starters Matias Kranevitter AND Manuele Lanzini after separate tears that required a longer recovery than usual.

The man from Tucumán injured the rectus femoris in his right leg in pre-season and could only play in the eighth match against Talleres, when he came on in the second half for the final quarter of an hour. Subsequently, he played 9 minutes against Independiente Rivadavia in the La Liga Cup and 6 minutes against Independiente. With Gimnasia he was a substitute. Yesterday he showed all his difficulties in the first phase and was replaced by Tomás Leiva after 14 minutes of play.

Hitch, however, hadn’t played a minute in all of 2024 until Friday. He suffered the hamstring tear in his right leg suffered on January 23rd in the friendly match against Pachuca. It was also seen that he lacked pace, was not important in his approach, was weak in passing and almost didn’t get a shot on goal. He was replaced by Nacho Fernández.

Another returning from injury was David Martínez, who played just 18 minutes in 11 League Cup matches. He suffered a trauma to his right ankle and was not called up to Gimnasia. The naturalized Paraguayan defender provided many advantages in the background.

Even Agustín Sant’Anna and Rodrigo Villagra, the reinforcements, were not up to the task. However, the most worrying thing is that the players presented by River against Independiente Rivadavia would be starters in any Primera team: Ezequiel Centurión, Sebastián Boselli, Milton Casco, Santiago Simón, Agustín Palavecino, Franco Mastantuono and Facundo Colidio completed the picture .

Some boys entered in the second half: Agustín Ruberto (18), Daniel Zabala (21) and Leiva (19). Esequiel Barco and Rodrigo Aliendro also played.

“Why was this friendly match played?”, was the question many River fans asked themselves. Especially because the team has played a series of matches and the Copa Libertadores is approaching. Especially since the team had Monday and Tuesday off and couldn’t train on Wednesday due to the storm.

The match should have been played in November, during the previous FIFA event, but an alert from the National Meteorological Service due to the furious Zonda winds forced the organizers to cancel the match. There is a good economic agreement with StarPlus in this regard. For this we had to find a space in the calendar. Of course, no one expected it to cause such profound damage.