The fourth pre-season friendly in the ‘Demichelis era’ resulted in another win for River Plate in Orlando before the Vasco da Gama Brazilian (3-0), where the Argentines bid farewell to the United States with three victories and no goals conceded.
Franco Alfonso, one of the youth players called up for this preseason tour, showed very interesting details and gave River’s professional squad a level to be reckoned with. Newcomer Nacho Fernández as well as Pablo Solari also added very positively. And they repeated as scorers who scored against the Millionaires: Emanuel Mammana and Miguel Borja.
River started again wanting to take the initiative but leaving plenty of space. Vasco da Gama knew how to interpret it and hurt the opponents. The first of the game was for Vasco. Pedro Raúl ran from almost the middle of the field, left Mammana and showed Milton Casco’s mistake on the flank, but when faced with Franco Armani he was inaccurate.
He also had the brilliant Erick Marcus with a header completely alone at the far post with a cross coming back from Casco’s side. A headbutt pierced the grass and made it easy for Armani.
The verticality of Mauricio Barbieri’s team became a problem for Martín Demichelis’ students, who were forced to adjust. River improved and had the first try in the 17th minute with a free kick that went wide of Alfonso which was cleared with one hand by a superb Alexander. The pace of the game slowed down and the Argentines took advantage of it.
The first goal of the game came from the approach with a great cross from Fernández from the right. Mammana won high at the near post and headed the shot to adjust to Alexander’s left on 23′.
A goal with a balsamic effect for River
The goal had a calming effect for River, who came to completely control the game. With his only start from the back he lost a few balls which left the Argentine team in a bad position and Vasco took advantage of it, but did not specify.
Because of this, River’s defensive transition up front was forced to commit fouls and captain Enzo Pérez saw a yellow card for one of them. Nene’s volley on one occasion and Figuereido’s direct free kick too high on another troubled Armani.
Alexander was more demanding in his goal: after clearing a left-footed shot from Solari in the 38′, he was unable to avoid the second goal. Solari won in 45′ from the end line to give Borja the second goal, which the Colombian only had to push in front of the goal.
At half-time 2-0, Demichelis introduced two changes: Zuculini for the advised Pérez and Leandro González for scoring defender Mammana. The dynamics of the game were the same after the restart: good handling by River, speed on the wings, combinations between interiors… but bad ball throws.
The result was never in danger and the victory in front of the goal was again for the Argentine team. Casco looked forward to taking the ball away from the Brazilians, increasing the pressure that demanded too much of the Demichelis match. He recovered the ball and assisted Lucas Beltrán inside the area, who scored from a close range shot after taking a turn. It was the second goal of the pre-season for the youth squad.
So River Plate closes its preparatory tour on the soil of North America and almost without another friendly, which is on the soil of Argentina against the Racing Club of Uruguay.
The official debut in the Argentine league will be on January 28 against Central Córdoba. Until then, the interest of the millionaire cadre is to see if they manage to identify and make official the arrival of Enzo Díaz and Salomón Rondón.
DATA SHEET
3 – River Plate: Armani; Herrera (Rojas, min. 89), Maidana (Peña, min. 89), Mammana (González, min. 46), Casco (Gómez, min. 89); Aliendro (Paradela, min. 64), Pérez (Zuculini, min. 46), Alfonso (Barco, min. 64); Solari (Castro, min. 82), Borja (Beltrán, min. 64) and Fernández (Simón, min. 82)
0 – Vasco da Gama: Alexander; Rodríguez, Miranda (Ulisses, min. 79), Leo (Conçeiçao, min. 79), Piton (Edimar, min. 79); Zé Gabriel, Figueiredo (Jair, min. 57); Marcus (Orellano, min. 57), Nene, Pec (Eguinaldo, min. 68); Pedro Raúl (Vinicius, min. 79)
The objectives: Emmanuel Mammana (min. 23), Miguel Borja (min. 45) and Lucas Beltrán (min. 87)
Referee: Jonathan Billinski (USA). He showed yellow cards to Nacho Fernández (min. 28), Franco Alfonso (min. 33), Enzo Pérez (min. 38), Jonathan Maidana (min. 78) and Jose Paradela (min. 89) by River Plate. In addition to Matheus Miranda (min. 33), Lucas Piton (min. 58), Zé Gabriel (min. 69) and Ulisses (min. 80) in Vasco da Gama’s box
Incidents: Friendly preparation match, played at Exploria Stadium in Orlando in front of nearly 6,000 spectators
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
