River
closed the tour of the United States with a victory.
They defeated Pachuca of Mexico
1-0
with a goal from
Miguel Borja
.
In any case, Martín Demichelis
' team
, in a strange scenario, did not play a good game.
Although the coach used the match to give his players more training and test tactical issues, ahead of the official debut, which will be on Sunday the 28th against Argentinos at the Monumental for the League Cup.
It was difficult to give
seriousness
to the friendly.
It's just that the setting didn't help.
River faced Pachuca in a strange context for a soccer match.
Firstly, due to the intense cold that affects the northern country and that has Dallas suffering below-zero temperatures.
But it was not the only extra-sports situation that attracted attention at the Toyota Stadium (previously called Pizza HutPark), inaugurated in 2005 and which serves as home, for example, to
FC Dallas
, of the MLS.
The striking thing about this venue was the paint chosen to decorate the areas.
In addition to the markings of the
American football
yardage , the word
Montana
with a brown background on one side and a logo in the central circle, the most curious thing was to see that one of the areas
was painted with the colors blue and yellow
, in a squared pattern. , as if it were a chess board.
Furthermore, the stadium was practically
empty
.
The reason for this strange decoration had to do with the
Friscobowl
, a college football final, which was played a few days ago and featured the
Montana Grizzlies
and the
South Dakota Jack Rabbits
teams , who wear an auriazul shirt, and ended up winning the aforementioned tournament.
At the same time, the playing field was hard and dry, which represented a risk of injuries:
Manu Lanzini had to leave at halftime due to a blow
.
Miguel Borja and the goal shout for River in Dallas.
Photo: Capture TV.
Aside from the grotesque painting of the grass, there were moments of football.
And although River had a hard time taking control of the development of the match, it struck at the right moment.
Six minutes into the second half,
Matías Kranevitter
kicked the ball forward as if it were an American football shot, and Borja captured it and crossed the ball.
Before and after the Colombian's goal, River suffered in defense.
Franco Armani
had four good interventions to keep the clean sheet, which transformed him into a figure of the match.
And there were a couple of bad finishes by the Pachuca players.
In the Mexican team there was an outstanding performance by
Salomón Rondón
, who originated several of the risky plays for his team.
The Venezuelan seemed the most involved of the 22 players, at times.
And his level of intensity was exposed when he crossed paths with Nacho Fernández and Kranevitter.
Spicy cross between Rondón, Kranevitter and Nacho Fernández!
📺 The friendly in Dallas, live on #StarPlusLA pic.twitter.com/t8j6On3zT0
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) January 20, 2024
In River, meanwhile, which started with its current starting team, in a 4-3-1-2 scheme (just like against Rayados), in addition to Armani, there was a good job from Kranevitter and also from Barco, who stood out well and led several dangerous attacks.
In the second half, Demichelis again made several changes to give minutes to most of the players.
Among them, the kid Mastantuono, who did a couple of luxuries with the ball.