Argentine football gives away all kinds of surprises. It is also capable of consecrating champion to a team that a handful of days ago relegated. Just as almost nothing ago I cried for the loss of the category, now Patronage he smiles because he has just captured his first star. There are the players in the red and black jerseys shouting “dale champion” and raising their hands Argentine Cup.
So, 2023 will find Patronato playing the Copa Libertadores while competing in the Second Division. In addition, next year he will cross it with Boca (league champion) in the final of the Argentine Super Cup that could be played in Abu Dhabi.
This Entre Ríos team formatted by Facundo Sava, a coach who always comes down with a healthy, offensive proposal, never resigned his personality. He always believed in his game. He always searched. And so he faced the final against Talleres.
There weren’t too many scoring situations. The development was too closed. Zero to zero was not broken and it seemed that everything was heading towards penalties. However, in the 77th minute, a carom was drawn that meant 1-0 and the title. Tiago Banega went to lock a ball by throwing himself to the ground, outside the area, quite far from the Cordovan goal. The ball rose and flew over goalkeeper Alan Aguerre, entering almost at an angle. An unusual goal.
“We were hungry to be champions. People don’t know a lot of things. This team traveled by bus everywhere. We went nowhere by plane. And to think that sometimes we had to hear that we were tired when we played often”, explained Carlos Quintana, central marker and one of the referents of the Board of Trustees.
“It’s good to be champions like that, without going to penalties,” remarked Facundo Altamirano, the goalkeeper who became key with his shots in the series of penalties (he saved 9 of the last 21 kicks) in which the Board eliminated nothing less than River in the quarterfinals and Boca in the semifinals. Before the two giants, he had left Deportivo Morón, Colón and Gimnasia on the way.
An injustice that current players paid
Patronato had rounded off a very good season, with 40 points and a 10th place among 28 in the Argentine league. Despite that production, he ended up going downhill because of the averages. These players paid for the previous two seasons, in which many weren’t even part of the roster. An injustice, after all, with the current protagonists.
Of course, there was the Argentine Cup. And there Patronato had conviction and temperance. He moved forward and forward. Until he found himself enjoying a historic night, his first title. The province of Entre Ríos had never enjoyed its own champion. Now you have it.
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