The Argentine championships could adopt a saying about their greatest paradox: "In the country of scorers, games without goals." If football were a simple three rule operation, in the land of Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero - and Diego Maradona and Alfredo Di Stéfano - there should be plenty of goals, screams and celebrations, but the reality is less festive . Compared to the most important competitions in Europe and the rest of America, the Super League is the tournament that becomes the least. The networks of the Argentine arches are almost decorative.
Four dates from the end of the Super League, and with River and Boca fighting for the title, the 2019/20 season records an average of 2.22 goals per game, an average lower than 3.24 of the German Bundesliga (exactly one goal less per game), the 3.08 of the Netherlands Eredivisie, the 2.92 of the Italian Serie A, the 2.83 of the Belgian First Division, the 2.77 of the Premier League of England, the 2.53 of the League of Spain, the 2.51 of the Ligue 1 of France and the 2.47 of the First League of Portugal, numbers of the current European season.
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"The first reason is that the best mid-court players forward are out," Arsenal coach Sergio Rondina theorizes, the second top scorer team in the Super League behind River, the pointer. "Those who make a difference in One by one, the most unbalanced, they go very fast and without them it becomes difficult to open the defensive locks that the rivals pose. You have to do it based on collective play, but sometimes they close so much that it doesn't reach, ”he says.
"When all the figures played here," adds Alejandro Fabbri, Argentine football historian, author of numerous books, "the goals exploded. But for a while there are very few figures left without being sold abroad, and that affects the level of the tournament. Of the strikers active in the Super League, the only two who scored more than 100 goals are Santiago Silva (today in Argentinos Juniors) and José Sand (Lanús), who are now 39 years old and close to retirement. ” In that tuning, the scorer of the last championship was Lisandro López, 36-year-old Racing striker.
Except in Argentina, tournaments in America are played per calendar year, but already at the start of 2020 they show higher records than those of the Super League. In Mexico, the first five dates of the Liga MX 2020 show an average of 2.91 goals and the initial four days of Colombia's First A average 2.41. Pending the start of its 2020 edition, the average term of Brasileirao 2019 was 2.31 per game, while, also in 2019, the Clausura of Peru reached 2.50, the Chilean First Division totaled 2.88 and the US MLS closed at 3.04.
Goals leaked by dripper in the Super League, the current 2.24 per game, is not an isolated average but according to the last seasons: in the 2016/17 season it was 2.28, in the following it fell to 2.26 and in 2018/19 it sank to 2.21. Goals are born in Argentina (and in Brazil) but are shouted elsewhere.
It is clear that Argentina not only sells cereals to the world: also goals. Its football trade balance is much more exporting than importing and in 2018 it was the second country, behind Brazil, which transferred more players abroad: 891, especially to Chile, Mexico, Spain and Italy. According to the census of the specialized website Argentinos Por El Mundo, in December 2019 there were 2,965 Argentine soccer players spread around the world between the male and female leagues. "Many teams in the Super League, even the most economically powerful, are made up of Ascension players," adds Fabbri as the main consequence of such an exile.
That Messi is the top scorer of the current Spanish League is an anecdote compared to the 622 goals he has been in Barcelona. Agüero accumulates 353 between his time at Atlético de Madrid and Manchester City and since January he is the top foreign scorer in the history of the Premier League. And if Gonzalo Higuaín is closing a notable career - still at the highest level, in Juventus -, Lautaro Martínez is starting it at Inter.
Take care of zero
"It also happens that here you live everything tremendously and in each game your work is at stake," adds Rondina, whose Arsenal scored 31 goals in 19 Super League dates, five less than the River pointer, and ranks sixth. "Sometimes the matches are closed simply so as not to lose and survive another time. Very hard defenses are built, solid blocks, ”he admits.
Between the escape of stars and the conservative approaches to survive some more dates, the goals stayed in the way long ago. Of the last decade in the Super League, only two teams averaged more than two goals per game: the Newell's led by Gerardo Martino in 2013 (40 celebrations on 19 dates, 2.10 on average) and the Boca de Guillermo Barros Schelotto in 2016 / 17 (62 goals in 30 presentations, 2.06 on average).
In the current Super League, two teams convert goals in the same match only in 43% of the matches, in contrast to 60% of the matches in Germany and Italy, in which the two clubs score. 64% of the Super League games end with a maximum of two goals: 0-0, 1-0, 1-1 or 2-0.
And if the 2.24 goals sound little, the rest of the Argentine tournaments have even lower records. In the current 2019/20 season, none of the 137 teams participating in the AFA tournaments - between First and Ascent - reach two goals on average. In the First B, the Third Division, Admiral Brown did not even need to convert a goal by date to win the Clausura 2019 tournament: champion with 16 shouts was consecrated in 17 presentations. The runner-up, Villa San Carlos, scored 17, one per game. Goals in the ascent should be celebrated as a miracle.
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