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), with which the Argentines say goodbye to the United States with three victories and without conceding goals.
Franco Alfonso, one of the youth players called up for this preseason tour, showed very interesting details and gave the level to be considered in River’s professional squad. The newcomer Nacho Fernández as well as Pablo Solari also added very positively. And they repeated as scorers who scored against Millionaires: Emanuel Mammana and Miguel Borja.
River started again wanting to take the initiative but left many spaces behind. Vasco da Gama knew how to interpret it and hurt the contras. The first of the game was for Vasco. Pedro Raúl drew a run from almost the middle of the field, leaving Mammana behind and showing Milton Casco’s mistake on the flank, but when facing Franco Armani he was not precise.
He also had a very clear Erick Marcus with a header completely alone at the far post with a cross that came again from Casco’s band. The headbutt stung the grass and it was easy for Armani.
The verticality of Mauricio Barbieri’s team became a problem for Martín Demichelis’s pupils, who were forced to adjust. River improved and had the first value in the 17th minute with a free kick far removed from Alfonso that a magnificent Alexander cleared with one hand. The pace of the game slowed down and this benefited the Argentines.
The first goal of the game came from strategy with an excellent cross from Fernández from the right. Mammana won high at the near post and headed the shot in to adjust to Alexander’s left on 23′.
A goal with a balsamic effect for River
The goal had a calming effect for River, which came to completely control the game. Only in his start from behind did he lose some balls that left the Argentine team in a bad position and Vasco took advantage of it, but without specifying.
Because of this, River’s defensive transition was forced to commit fouls up front and captain Enzo Pérez saw a yellow card in one of them. Nene’s volley on one occasion and Figuereido’s direct free kick that was too high on another made Armani uneasy.
Alexander was more demanding in his goal: after clearing a left-footed shot from Solari at 38′, he could not avoid the second goal. Solari won at 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 admonished Pérez and Leandro González for the scoring defender Mammana. The dynamics of the game was the same after the restart: good handling by River, speed on the wings, combinations between the interiors… but bad ball throws.
The result was never in jeopardy and the success in front of goal was once again for the Argentine team. Casco anticipated the departure of the ball from the Brazilians, making good the pressure that demanded so much during the Demichelis match. He recovered the ball and assisted Lucas Beltrán inside the area, who scored from a close shot after turning around. It is the second pre-season goal for the youth squad.
River Plate thus closes its preparation tour on North American soil and barely has one more friendly, already on Argentine soil against 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 specify and make official the arrivals 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)
Goals: 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
