Snak

Copa Libertadores Wrap: Atletico Paranaense claim key win

Atletico Paranaense won away at Universitario in the Copa Libertadores on Thursday, to create a backlog in Group 1.

http://www.youtube.com/w…XUQpY1HlkhI


Three teams are level on six points in the group after Peru´s Universitario failed to pick up their first points of the stage as they suffered a 1-0 defeat.

Paranaense matched The Strongest and Velez Sarsfield with their second win of the group, courtesy of an own goal from Nestor Duarte in the 67th minute.

Duarte failed to deal with a cross in from the right, as the ball deflected off his chest and into the hosts´ net in Lima, although Paranaense striker Ederson was looming ominously behind him had he not played at the ball.

Despite two wins from three matches, Atletico Paranaense sit third in the group, due to their inferior goal difference.

Arsenal are clear second in Group 8 after the Argentine club accounted for Penarol 1-0 at home.

http://www.youtube.com/w…KtYs8ieObb0

Julio Furch put the Avellaneda hosts ahead on four minutes, and the goal would be all they required to seal the points.

Arsenal sit second on seven points behind leaders Santos Laguna, while Uruguay´s Penarol are bottom of the group with one point from three matches.

In further bad news for Penarol, Dario Rodriguez was sent off late for the visitors, leaving them with a selection conundrum for their next continental fixture.

O´Higgins coughed up a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Cerro Porteno.

http://www.youtube.com/w…jekizR4-kWQ

The Chilean hosts were sitting pretty after goals to Alejandro Lopez and Luis Figueroa, but the Paraguayan visitors pulled a goal back on 55 minutes through Rodolfo Gamarra.

Cerro were then aided by a red card handed to O´Higgins´ Braulio Leal just after the hour-mark, and the visitors left Chile with a point when Julio Dos Santos struck 12 minutes from time.

O´Higgins remain second in Group 3 on five points, one ahead of third-placed Cerro.

Newell´s Old Boys moved second in Group 6, after holding Gremio to a 0-0 draw in Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/w…2E2o5qG_gCY

The Argentine outfit now sit second on four points, three behind leaders Gremio and goal difference ahead of third side Atletico Nacional.

Sabella: Romero is my number one

Sergio Romero will be Argentina´s first-choice goalkeeper at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, coach Alejandro Sabella has revealed.

Romero has been a regular for his country in the past, but will enter the tournament short on competitive football.

The 27-year-old has made just four appearances for Monaco this season, none of which have come in Ligue 1.

But, despite that, Sabella says the former AZ and Sampdoria man will be his goalkeeper in Brazil, ahead of the likes of Mariano Andujar and Agustin Orion.

"Romero had a good match and I consider him an excellent goalkeeper who unfortunately is not getting continuity at his club," Sabella told Radio La Red.

"Apart from the odd injury he has always been in my team ... the position (at the World Cup) is his."

Argentina will take on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria in Group F at this year´s World Cup.

Lowered standards push Barcelona to the brink

Anyone who has taken any kind of evangelical joy from the quality of football which FC Barcelona have been playing since autumn 2008 will have been distressed, perhaps traumatized, by what they watched on Saturday.

The fact the Spanish champions lost to Real Valladolid is relevant to who wins the title this season, relevant to whether the Pucela avoid relegation or not ... but it is not the main issue for Barça.

There were large chunks of the match when Barça´s players were regularly unable to pass accurately to each other; not a whiff of the type of basketball-style, rapid circulation where the ball whizzes between one, two, three or four players in the matter of seconds until either the danger they are under dissipates or the defensive blockage they face is shredded.

Barça players, unable to pass accurately.

Then, just as stark, some of the poor passing might be explained by the fact that time after time the man in possession looked up and saw 10 men in the same jerseys as his, totally static. Flat-footed, watching the man with the ball and waiting for him to do something.

It was the absolute and complete antithesis of the football instituted under Pep Guardiola. The antithesis of everything which the Cantera (youth system) guys at Barcelona have been taught all their working lives.

Games can be lost. Under Guardiola there were odd, sometimes embarrassing, losses to Wisla Krakow, Numancia and Mallorca, plus Espanyol and Osasuna at the Camp Nou. But at no time was the team statuesque. Not once did they misplace as many passes or get flustered enough to boot the ball away as often as was the case at the Estadio Jose Zorilla on Saturday. Not once.

My intention isn´t to impose my opinion on the current situation at the Camp Nou; rather, to revert to the guidebook which Guardiola left us.

The flat, "we are trying as hard as we can but there´s nothing in the tank" football which was in evidence against Valladolid was probably worse than anything since Barça lost five and drew four out of 12 games back in the spring of 2008.

That being the case, it´s worth flushing out two fundamentals which, having been introduced by Guardiola shortly after, almost immediately transformed that squad into a tough, athletic, confident and ultimately treble-winning team.

Because his arrival was made so dramatic by the immediate announcement that Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto´o were not in his plans and could leave, many missed or have since forgotten his promise that "my team will run and run and run."

There were two sides to that. Guardiola believed that the squad wasn´t sufficiently fit or athletic. For the elite, pressurized and world-dominating football he wanted them to play, he felt they were sluggish. It was also fundamental to the young Catalan that without constant running, his team wouldn´t be able to press aggressively and wouldn´t be able to overlap, use the third man move and keep on offering passing options for the man with the ball.

During summer training that year in St. Andrews, Scotland, he ran their legs off. None of them had worked that hard before. Xavi famously recounted that when he, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol arrived fresh from winning Euro 2008, he instantly told his colleagues: "This is a train we´d better get aboard right now or it´ll pass us by."

Just in case anyone thinks that "that was then, this is now," I´d point out that in the first training session Guardiola organized at Bayern in summer 2013 he warned all of his players, junior and senior, that "anyone who doesn´t run won´t be in my team."

A second facet of the Guardiola era was the intensity. OK, he wanted the energy, the enthusiasm, the lust for victory to be contagious and self-generating. But if he was a Svengali, he was a sergeant major, too -- make no mistake.

Can you believe, now, that he would instruct Tito Vilanova to phone his stars on a random basis, just to check that on a working night they were at least home, if not in bed, by midnight at the latest?

Take a second and imagine the conversation. "Hi, Leo ... it´s Tito. Sorry, did I wake you ...?"

This intensity meant that every second -- I mean every single second -- of every training session was watched and enforced hawkishly. Verbally, mentally, physically ... emotionally, if appropriate, Guardiola would be right on the shoulder of every single one of his senior footballers.

The result, for the four years before he burned out, was football to dream of. Nothing to do with being a Culé, nothing to do with club colours. Objectively, to the majority of neutrals, this football was the visual equivalent of the choral sections of Beethoven´s "Ode to Joy."

What´s the moral behind all this? Guardiola inherited a talented squad which was flopping -- almost as badly as the current one did on Saturday evening. Albeit the club cleared out and also signed well that summer, his basic remedy was to demand that they work harder athletically and mentally from day one ... ad infinitum.

During this season there have been previous signs -- Ajax away, Osasuna away, Real Sociedad away in the league. Not to mention the depleted state in which Barcelona reached last season´s annihilation by Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinal.

But Saturday was a new dip, a new low for the brand of football which Barcelona have been purveying.

Finding another Pep Guardiola to instantly succeed the real one was always going to be an impossible ask. Players are permitted to age; it´s not unknown for a board of directors to mishandle a couple of transfer windows. Moreover, it´s not easy for a club when their chosen coach is twice hit with a life-threatening form of cancer.

Institutionally Barcelona have been less well-run, at least football-wise, since 2009 than at any time since 2003. The latter two years of Joan Laporta´s mandate were hedonistic and Sandro Rosell stands accused of helping burn out and discourage Guardiola, unnecessarily driving a wedge between the club and its guru, Johan Cruyff, and appointing a football director in Andoni Zubizarreta whose work pales in comparison to that of his predecessor.

All these things contribute, incrementally, to the type of display that threatens Barcelona´s title defence. Since defeating Elche in the first Liga match of 2014, Tata Martino´s side has taken 14 out of a possible 27 points -- mid-table form at best.

Sadly, part of the decline at Barcelona has included the fact Guardiola blocked almost all media access to training (although he´s been forced to amend that rule slightly at Bayern) and over the past two years, the daily news conferences with a Barça player have dwindled to something of a trickle.

When they speak to you, one-on-one, these are still some of the most interesting, smart and honest players around. But the responsibility of opening up to the media on most working days and, still more integrally important, attending the post-match media mixed zones are extremely helpful thermometers of how things are going.

When some players are uncomfortable that the sessions aren´t intense enough ... you glean it. When a player is sure that he should be playing in place of a rival for that position, you glean it. Sometimes he even says it out loud. When players soft-shoe-shuffle questions about intensity, attitude and the degree to which they are working at maximum level -- you glean it.

The club´s press staff still work hard to get the players to meet their media obligations but there was, once, a board-driven policy that healthy, regular communication between this thriving, open-faced club and the media was a positive and reputation-enhancing strategy.

That´s changed. The more inward-facing a squad becomes, the more likely it is that bad habits, relaxation and lack of intensity will flourish.

What we saw on Saturday, two cornerstones of the entire Barcelona philosophy crumbled, tells a story that the daily work at this club simply isn´t intense enough. Even though he´s paid to take responsibility and ultimately will be held culpable if he doesn´t produce solutions, I´ve a tad of sympathy for Tata Martino.

He´s come from afar, from an utterly different football culture and has helped "lesser" names (Newell´s Old Boys and Paraguay) to demonstrate that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts. He´s been finding his way at the Camp Nou, mistakes and successes mixed. And there have been some of the latter, make no mistake.

Yet I think that his two biggest challenges, should he remain, are re-instituting the type of physical preparation and on-going training which allow this club to reproduce the work rate on and off the ball which characterized the recent golden era, and to find a way to increase the intensity which was once a daily trademark.

Aside from the multitude of other issues which plague a club beset by what is an incredibly difficult challenge in "real" life and business, not just in football, "managing change" -- whether the likable Martino can properly rise to those two challenges should be the absolute markers as to whether he is or is not the right man for this very, very big job.

More than a club

Particularly since the rise to ascendancy of FC Barcelona I´m often asked about the club´s corporate statement, "Mes Que Un Club."

More than a club. When it was instituted in the late 1960s, it stood for something important and cultural. There were the smallest hints of societal change, the dictator´s grip was slightly less harsh and Franco had about eight years to live.

It was a declaration of identity and not only important but daring at the time.

With the golden era promoted by the teachings of Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola, Joan Laporta, Ferran Soriano and embellished by all-time great footballers like Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov, Xavi and Leo Messi (1992-2011), the phrase began to be given new life.

From 2003 the Camp Nou board were fresh, intelligent, young and visionary. A key example is that they were happy to invest money in Unicef so that the club might sport that organisation´s logo on their shirts.

Latterly, as the club has become less visionary, more marketing led and has slid from top gear to neutral in football terms it has sometimes felt that those either tired of Barcelona´s footballing excellence or of how some of us in the media might be perceived to have portrayed them in Mary Poppins, "practically perfect" light are happy now to get out the big stick and swipe at them in a "tall poppy" style retribution.

Thus my attention was caught by a Spanish government minister, Miguel Cardenal, choosing to write an open letter in Spain´s most important "broadsheet" newspaper, El Pais.

Cardenal´s argument seemed to be that FC Barcelona, as a sports club not just as a football club, had been for years achieving things which were centrally important to Spanish culture, Spanish sport and the country´s sense of identity, ambition and purpose.

He noted that this Catalan organisation had produced world champions in a variety of different sports -- basketball, football sala (futsal) and handball, not to mention several of the La Masia trained footballers who were instrumental in winning the World Cup with La Roja.

To give you a taste of the tone of his letter, I´ll reproduce here two passages.

Cardenal wrote:

"FC Barcelona is not only a key asset of the Spain Brand, it is also a reference for sports clubs, committed to home-grown talent as a defining feature. Their academy system has also produced many of our best athletes. Barça resolutely believes in equality and so their women´s teams are also excellent and the club includes sections for athletes with disabilities. Its academy has a commitment to integration and they welcome children arriving in Catalonia from all corners of the world. A few months ago the club was awarded the National Sports Award for best organisation in Spain in 2012, distinguished for its contribution of so many athletes to the London Games.

That is why I cannot accept the excesses which are currently being committed. I would not be doing honour to the responsibility entrusted to me if I remained silent whilst a pillar of our sport and one which has brought us so much is harassed and accused."

These are unusual words for a minister to use, unilaterally, in public. His point of view is that the gulf-stream of media analysis about FC Barcelona as a club is currently aggressive and, to paraphrase him, agenda-driven.

Cardenal uses a stark phrase. "Hopefully, this media kangaroo court trial, which is so damaging to the image of one of our country´s most prestigious institutions, our sport and for Spain´s most admired institutions of our country will come to an end. I ask that everyone, in line with our responsibilities, to contribute to this for the benefit of Spanish sport, which owes so much to this club."

Neither as secretary of state for sport, nor as an expert in sports law, does Cardenal offer judgement on the Neymar case other than to preach "innocent until proven guilty," to note that FC Barcelona are fully up to date with their tax liabilities (extremely rare in La Liga) and are possibly the football world´s biggest taxpayers.

Not being politically agile I don´t know whether, with a mooted referendum on political independence to come later this year in Catalunya, this was a governmental initiative to gain favour in the region of which Barcelona is capital. Nor do I know whether Cardenal´s very unusual action will cost him anything career-wise.

But it strikes me that he´s hit one note exactly right. Whatever workaday problems there are right now and however much it tires some people out to have a dominant sportsman, sportswoman or sports club, we have unquestionably been in a time of absolute excellence and it has benefitted the nation -- not just Catalunya.

He´s also right to say that the mature thing to do is appreciate it now, rather than as some rose-tinted retrospective in 20 years´ time.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto: "Fuimos más que el Cali"

http://www.youtube.com/w…wg8eGKwiIoc

BUENOS AIRES -- El entrenador de Lanús, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, consideró que su equipo fue más que Deportivo Cali, pese a que el elenco colombiano terminó como el ganador por 2-1 del duelo que disputaron en la noche del jueves en Colombia por el grupo 3 de la Copa Libertadores.

"Trataremos de ganar los dos partidos de local y llegar a definir en Chile", afirmó el conductor del elenco granate que, tras el revés cosechado en el estadio Pascual Guerrero, quedó con apenas un punto en tres partidos y con chances acotadas de acceder a los octavos de final del certamen continental.

Lanús comenzó ganando a los 19 minutos del primer tiempo con un tanto de Lautaro Acosta, aunque luego en el complemento, a los 17, sufrió primero el empate de John Viáfara y a los 28 el gol de penal de Carlos Lizarazo que terminó por inclinar la balanza para el lado del conjunto colombiano.

"Mondragón fue figura, ellos patearon sólo dos veces. Fuimos a buscarlo y fuimos más que ellos", consideró Barros Schelotto luego del partido.

Lanús, que sufrió en el final del partido la expulsión de su arquero Agustín Marchesín, tendrá ahora dos exámenes seguidos como local en la Copa Libertadores, ya que se recibirá el próximo jueves a Deportivo Cali y una semana después hará lo propio con Cerro Porteño de Paraguay, mientras que cerrará su participación en el Grupo 3 con O´Higgins de Chile en condición de visitante.

Por lo pronto, el lunes a las 19.10 chocará en su estadio ante Quilmes por la octava fecha del torneo final, certamen en el que está a cuatro unidades del líder, Colón de Santa Fe.

Ramón Díaz: "La presión la tenés jugando de local o de visitante"

BUENOS AIRES -- Ramón Díaz remarcó que River "la presión la tenés, juegues de local y de visitante", previo al duelo con All Boys, en busca de cortar la mala racha fuera del Monumental. No obstante, aclaró que no le preocupa las dimensiones de la cancha, si no la propuesta de su equipo.

"Vamos a proponer ir a buscar los tres puntos, es lo que queremos y necesitamos", aseguró el DT en el inicio de su conferencia de prensa. "Vamos a ir a buscar los tres puntos. Estamos en un buen momento, conseguimos 7 puntos de 9 y estamos arriba", reforzó su idea.

Y ante la dificultad que pueda ocasionar jugar en una cancha más chica que la del Monumental, el riojano contestó que "pasa por la propuesta y los objetivos". Y agregó: "No me preocupa tanto la cancha, si no la propuesta".

"Hay que ser profundo, agresivo", remarcó.

El DT Millonario confirmó el equipo con el regreso de Cristian Ledesma, en lugar de Matías Kranevitter. Y destacó sobre lo que aporta cada uno de los mediocampistas: "Ledesma nos da experiencia en el juego. Kranevitter está creciendo al lado de un gran jugador".

"Kranevitter tiene un futuro enorme; está dando el máximo para poder jugar".

En tanto, también respondió sobre la ausencia de Leonardo Ponzio entre los titulares: "Son momentos, tenemos un equipo súpercompetitivo. Que siga entrenando y trabajando. Le doy el ejemplo de (Ariel) Rojas".

"Ponzio es un gran profesional", concluyó el tema.

Por otro lado se refirió a la falta de potencia ofensiva: "Ojalá las situaciones que tengamos las podamos resolver".

"Estuvimos charlando con Lanzini, Teo y Cavenaghi de que tenemos que tener más movilidad, ser más profundos".

"Lanzini, Teo y Cavenaghi son jugadores importantes, de mucha calidad".

"Queremos un equipo que presione siempre arriba".

Sobre el cambio de sistema, de línea de tres a cuatro en el fondo, Ramón Díaz aclaró que "casi siempre quedamos con línea de tres porque (Leonel) Vangioni pasó al ataque".

Respecto a la importancia del duelo con All Boys para la lucha por el título, cree que "no define nada" y no siente mayor presión por ganar por la mala racha de visitante. "La presión la tenés jugando de local o de visitante. Pero estamos en un buen momento", explicó el DT.

"Sabemos que el campeonato es difícil para todos. Es domingo a domingo".

"Los jugadores están trabajando con mucho empeño y dedicación", destacó.

"Quedan muchos partidos lindos para jugar. Todavía falta para definir los candidatos".

"Los equipos grandes siempre tienen más exigencias que los demás", aceptó Ramón.

Sobre el juego del rival, lo diferenció de Tigre: "All Boys está siempre bien ordenado y tiene buena pelota parada".

"Va a ser un partido abierto. El que juegue mejor y tenga más calidad se va a llevar los tres puntos".

"Nos proponemos jugar como trabajamos durante la semana, y así ganar el partido", concluyó.

Los once confirmados para el domingo son: Marcelo Barovero; Gabriel Mercado, Jonatan Maidana, Eder Álvarez Balanta y Leonel Vangioni; Carlos Carbonero, Cristian Ledesma, Ariel Rojas; Teófilo Gutiérrez, Manuel Lanzini y Fernando Cavenaghi.

River: ensayo de fútbol con equipo definido

BUENOS AIRES -- Al igual que en el entrenamiento del jueves, durante la mañana del viernes, Ramón Díaz programó una nueva práctica de fútbol y definió los once para el partido que River disputará ante All Boys, el próximo domingo.

Con el regreso de Cristian Ledesma por Matías Kranevitter como única modificación y con Leonel Vangioni recuperado tras un leve golpe en el pie, River pondrá en cancha los mismos once que habían vencido a San Lorenzo, hace dos semanas.

De esta esta manera, de no mediar inconvenientes, los once titulares serán: Marcelo Barovero; Gabriel Mercado, Jonatan Maidana, Éder Álvarez Balanta, Leonel Vangioni; Carlos Carbonero, Cristian Ledesma, Ariel Rojas; Manuel Lanzini; Teófilo Gutiérrez, Fernando Cavenaghi.

Los once mencionados enfrentaron durante el ensayo a un equipo suplente que tuvo a: Leonardo Chichizola; Gastón Pezzella, Ramiro, Funes Mori, Bruno Urribarri; Augusto Solari, Leonardo Ponzio, Matías Kranevitter, Osmar Ferreyra; Jonathan Fabbro; Daniel Villalva, Giovanni Simeone.

River visitará a All Boys desde las 21:30 hs. del domingo, con el arbitraje de Carlos Maglio. El equipo de Ramón Díaz intentará volver a ganar de visitante tras más de cinco meses, ya que no gana fuera del Monumental desde el 29 de septiembre ante Lanús.

San Lorenzo: ante Colón, con tres cambios

BUENOS AIRES -- San Lorenzo no tiene descanso y por eso, a menos de 48 horas del partido ante Unión Española por Copa Libertadores, Edgarzo Bauza definió los once que buscarán bajar a Colón, el líder del Torneo Final.

Con respecto a los que igualaron ante el conjunto chileno se producirán tres variantes. Ingresarán Fabricio Fontanini, Enzo Kalinski y Nicolás Blandi en lugar de Carlos Valdés, Juan Mercier y Mauro Matos. Este último no sufrió ninguna lesión ósea en su pie e integrará el banco de suplentes.

En definitiva, los once titulares serán: Sebastián Torrico; Julio Buffarini, Fabricio Fontanini, Santiago Gentiletti, Emmanuel Más; Ángel Correa, Néstor Ortigoza, Enzo Kalinski, Ignacio Piatti; Leandro Romagnoli; Nicolás Blandi.

Además, completarán la nómina de concentrados: Cristian Álvarez, Walter Kannemann, Gonzalo Prósperi, Carlos Valdés, Juan Ignacio Cavallaro, Fernando Elizari, Leandro Navarro, Juan Mercier, Matos Matos y Héctor Villalba. Tres de los mencionados quedarán fuera del banco de suplentes.

San Lorenzo recibirá a Colón desde las 20:30 hs. del sábado, con el arbitraje de Fernando Rapalini. El "Ciclón" lleva 11 partidos invicto jugando en condición de local, con ocho triunfos y tres empates. Su última derrota allí fue en la fecha 3 de Torneo Inicial, ante Argentinos.

Brazilian club whose fans racially abused referee ordered to play five matches away from home

Esportivo, from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, have been fined about USD$13,000 and ordered to play five matches away from their home stadium after some of its supporters allegedly called the referee a "monkey" and told him to "return to the jungle" in a match on March 5.

Some expected that Esportivo would be banned from this year´s regional tournament but the tribunal decided late on Thursday only to keep the team from playing at its stadium in the city of Bento Goncalves in its next five home matches.

The referee in question, Marcio Chagas da Silva, was in Brasília at the invitation of president Dilma Rousseff at the time of the trial.

The Brazilian premiere invited the official along with Cruzeiro midfielder Tinga and Santos midfielder Arouca, both of whom have been the targets of racist taunts in the last month. Arouca was not able to meet with the president due to club commitments.

Rousseff has publicly condemned the racist incidents, saying "sports can never serve as a stage for prejudice" as recent incidents have made front-page news in South America’s biggest country.

Players and fans carried banners with anti-racism messages in several matches last weekend and more are planned in upcoming matches.

San Lorenzo: Néstor Ortigoza plantea "salir de contragolpe" ante Colón

BUENOS AIRES -- Néstor Ortigoza, mediocampista de San Lorenzo, consideró el viernes que el equipo necesita "manejar la pelota" para obtener un buen resultado el sábado contra Colón, líder del torneo Final, al que enfrentará por la octava fecha.

"Nos enfrentamos contra el primero, pero va a ser un partido difícil. Tenemos que manejar la pelota, estar juntos, esperarlos que vengan y nosotros salir de contragolpe", opinó Ortigoza, que volverá entre los titulares de San Lorenzo después de cumplir dos fechas de suspensión tras la expulsión en el encuentro con River.

Para el paraguayo, el encuentro del sábado a las 20.30, ante Colón de Santa Fe, como local es difícil pero accesible. "Nosotros vamos por el buen camino, aunque todavía falta mucho", expresó en una rueda de prensa.

San Lorenzo, que el miércoles último igualó 1-1 con Unión Española de Chile, tiene varias "cosas a corregir", aseguró Ortigoza.

"No podemos cometer tantos errores. No tenemos que cambiar tanto de un tiempo a otro, sino seguir con la misma intensidad. A veces hacemos un gol y nos replegamos para poder salir de contragolpe", analizó.

De todas formas, en referencia a la Copa Libertadores, donde el jueves 20 volverán a jugar con Unión Española, Ortigoza sostuvo: "Estamos todos con el mismo puntaje, pero dependemos de nosotros. Estamos obligados a ganar de visitante, porque somos un equipo grande, pero siendo inteligentes".

Racing: descartados Cahais y Villar

BUENOS AIRES -- La visita de Racing a Rosario se acerca y por eso, durante una hora y media, Reinaldo Merlo programó un ensayo con el objetivo de definir el equipo que jugará desde el inicio el próximo domingo.

Con Matías Cahais y Diego Villar descartados y con Francisco Cerro desgarrado, serán tres las variantes respecto a los once que cayeron ante Boca.

José Luis Gómez, Pablo Alvarado y Luis Ibáñez ocuparán los lugares de Ismael Quílez, Matías Cahais y Francisco Cerro. Justamente, el defensor proveniente de San Lorenzo tendrá su debut como jugador de Racing.

El equipo titular que paró Merlo y jugará ante Newell´s tendrá a: Sebastián Saja; José Luis Gómez, Esteban Saveljich, Pablo Alvarado, Claudio Corvalán; Bruno Zuculini, Gastón Campi, Luis Ibáñez; Rodrigo De Paul; Gabriel Hauche y Valentín Viola.

Mientras tanto, el equipo suplente tuvo a: Nelson Ibáñez, Mauro Bazán, Yonathan Cabral, Esteban Espíndola, Alejandro García, Luciano Aued, Leonardo Rolheiser, Mauro Camoranesi; Guillermo Hauche, Roger Martínez y Luciano Vietto.

Vieto abandonó la práctica por una molestia en la cara posterior del muslo derecho , siendo reemplazado por Juan Carlos Melillo. Si bien no iba a ser titular, su presencia en el banco de suplentes el domingo está en duda.

Racing visitará a Newell´s desde las 17:00 hs. del domingo, con el arbitraje de Darío Herrera. Será el partido número 16 del tercer ciclo de Reinaldo Merlo en Racing, habiendo conseguidos cinco triunfos, tres empates y siete derrotas.