River Plate
, decimated by departures, injuries and national call-ups, receives
Argentinos Juniors
this Sunday for the first date of Group A of the
Professional League Cup
, in which it will seek to recover its best version after the decline in performance suffered by the last team. semester of last year.
The match is played at the Monumental stadium from 7:00 p.m. and is refereed by Darío Herrera, assisted by the VAR by Ariel Penel and broadcast by
TNT Sports
.
How do they get there
River is going through a transition period at the beginning of 2024 due to a strong reduction in the squad after the loss of some references who were fundamental in past campaigns, to which were added injuries - some of them serious - and summonses for the Pre-Olympic. South American held in Venezuela.
Martín Demichelis' squad no longer has two emblems like
Enzo Pérez
, who left the club due to a tense relationship with the coach, and the Uruguayan
Nicolás De la Cruz
, transferred to Flamengo in Brazil.
Other players with history in the club, who represented good alternatives for the coach, also left for different reasons, such as the cases of Jonatan Maidana, Emanuel Mammana, Bruno Zuculini, Robert Rojas, Matías Suárez and Salomón Rondón,
This current River, which was only joined by Uruguayan midfielder Nicolás Fonsea, is more earthly compared to the 2023 version, which could not capitalize on the abundance of resources when it was early eliminated from the Copa Libertadores and the Argentine Cup.
With the same objectives ahead, especially crowning a new championship in America, River is looking for three new players upon closing the transfer book: midfielder Rodrigo
Villagra
(Talleres de Córdoba), Uruguayan striker
Luciano Rodríguez
(Liverpool de Montevideo) and the full-back
Agustín Sant'Anna
(Defense and Justice does not want to give him up).
The urgency came after the imponderables left by the traumatic preseason in the United States.
During its course,
Gonzalo "Pity" Martínez
(torn ligaments),
Manuel Lanzini
(tear) and
Santiago Simón
(luxofracture of the first metacarpal in the right hand) were injured.
In addition, the young diamond
Claudio Echeverri
, recently sold to Manchester City but in River until the end of the year, was called up in a hurry for the Pre-Olympic and joined an Argentine squad that already had the presence of
Pablo Solari
in the search for classification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
At the local level, with the Argentine Cup, the League Cup and the Professional League, which will be played in the second semester, what River has is enough to be in the fight for titles, but at the international level it offers doubts.
Argentinos Juniors
also suffered an exodus of figures, but was reinforced with some good players.
Pablo Guede
's team
today has
Sebastián Prieto
(Tigre), goalkeeper
Diego Rodríguez
(Godoy Cruz),
Erik Godoy
(Belgrano),
Nicolás Oroz
and
Maxi Romero
(Racing).
Gone are
Gabriel Avalos
,
Marco Di Césare
, goalkeepers
Federico Lanzilota
and
Alexis Martín Arias
,
Francisco González Metilli
and
Miguel Torrén
.
In the Monumental, the La Paternal team will also not have two very important values such as
Federico Redondo
and the scorer
Luciano Gondou
, who are also affected by the U-23.
= Probable formations =
River Plate:
Franco Armani;
Andrés Herrera, Leandro González Pirez, Paulo Díaz and Enzo Díaz;
Matias Kranevitter and Rodrigo Aliendro, Ignacio Fernández, Facundo Colidio and Esequiel Barco;
Miguel Borja.
DT: Martín Demichelis.
Argentinos Juniors:
Diego Rodríguez;
Thiago Santamaría, Jonathan Galván, Tobías Palacio and Román Vega;
Alan Rodríguez, Franco Moyano and Alan Lescano;
Nicolás Oroz;
Leonardo Heredia and Maximiliano Romero.
DT: Pablo Guede.
Referee:
Darío Herrera.
VAR:
Ariel Penel.
Stadium:
River Plate.
Start time:
7:00 p.m.
TV:
TNT Sports