The (possible) return of the Prodigal Son, and Riquelme to be charged?

Having fallen slightly behind over the weekend, it’s worth mentioning briefly here now that discussions were going on on Sunday between José María Aguilar and Ramón Díaz to solve River’s current crisis by bringing back the most successful manager in the club’s history. His contractual situation with América de México is the sticking point at present. Meanwhile, Clarín are reporting that Juan Román Riquelme may be charged with inciting disorder…

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Apertura ‘08: Round 17 goals

At the time of writing, TN haven’t got round to putting this week’s Show de Goles onto their blog yet, so instead, I’m embedding it directly into this page. Read on to see the goals, and the normal running order, as well as a couple of links to the TN videos of goals from the Torneos Argentinos in the round just gone, which have been put on their site.

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Apertura ‘08: Round 17 scores and scorers (so far)

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Boca Juniors edge closer to the title but Tigre, after ensuring River Plate remain bottom, are still right on their heels. Gimnasia La Plata climbed to the top of the Promedio relegation zone and dragged Colón towards it, should the sides below them have a run at some point. The other relegation clash, in Jujuy between the other Gimnasia and San Martín de Tucumán, was a draw which saw those two sides swap places.

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Edging closer

Two matches now remaining, and Boca Juniors are keeping their noses just in front in the championship race. On Sunday they completed their clásico against Racing in La Bombonera - unlike Huracán against San Lorenzo in the same stadium the day before - and the result gave them another three points to once more overtake Tigre. The 2-1 win came after the challengers had taken temporary leadership of the Apertura table with a convincing 3-1 win over outgoing champions River Plate at El Monumental de Victoria.

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Apertura ‘08: Round 17 fixtures

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It’s getting closer to the end now. There’s a clásico which will prove important at both ends of the table(s) in La Bombonera on Sunday, which will be the second derby of the weekend in the stadium: Huracán aren’t allowed to use the Tomás Ducó after all following the death of Rodrigo Silva on Sunday (even though he was actually shot four weeks ago…). Other title contenders: Lanús host Arsenal, and Tigre are at home to a River side apparently determined to win even though around a third of their fans want them to lose this one - so as to try and throw a spanner in the works of Boca’s championship hopes.

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The Gonzalo Acro case: where is Spartacus?

I did it. No, honestly. It was all me. Why is nobody listening?!

Barra bravas are the subject of the week in Argentina. The intrigue surrounding the murder of Gonzalo Acro has taken another twist, after a video recorded by one of the suspects, previously still on the run, and released by Olé on their website on Wednesday, arrived in court (though the paper themselves don’t expect it to be permissable as evidence). In the video, Ariel Luna confesses to firing the bullet that killed Acro - and says the Schlenker brothers, Alan and William, currently in jail for masterminding the killing, in fact had nothing to do with it. Not everyone believes him.

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2008 Copa Sudamericana final first leg: Estudiantes 0 - 1 Internacional

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Estudiantes tried and tried in La Plata but couldn’t get past their opponents’ back line - or rather their goalkeeper - and will have to overcome a 1-0 deficit in Porto Alegre next Wednesday. Alex scored the only goal of the match from the penalty spot for an Internacional side who were reduced to ten men for over an hour when former Independiente and Boca Juniors man Pablo Guiñazú was sent off. This way for the goal…

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Argentines Abroad - a very quick one

It’s a little bit late this week, on account of my having spent Monday night working on a piece for Soccernet, but there’s one player who deserves mention on his own, so here’s a very brief Argentines Abroad roundup from the week in which Guillermo Barros Schelotto was named the Most Valuable Player in the 2008 Major League Soccer season, and subsequently led his team to championship glory.

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Would everybody please stop getting shot (or stabbed)?

This week, I’ve written for ESPN Soccernet on the murder of Daniel López in Colón’s stadium during their match against Banfield on Saturday, along with the death, early on Sunday morning, of Rodrigo Silva, the Huracán barra who was shot three-and-a-half weeks ago by members of San Lorenzo’s firm. There’s also a look at the potential for light at the end of the tunnel courtesy of Pablo Alvarez’s novel approach to running a barra brava at Independiente.

‘Daniel was a Colón fan, and was in the Colón end of the stadium. He was a regular at the ground. So, the Anglophone observer, from a world where sport fandom doesn’t tend to carry quite the same dangers, might rightly ask why he was stabbed by a fellow fan of his own team?’

Read it here.

Apertura ‘08: Round 16 goals

The goals from the sixteenth round of the Torneo Apertura 2008 are online now and you can watch them on the TN Sportblog - here’s the link. If you don’t know which teams are wearing which shirts, or if you just like reading lists of team names, then read on for the full running order of this clip.

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