The
Superclásicos
are separate games, it is said.
Winning a
River-Boca
victory is usually as powerful as winning a local tournament.
Martín Demichelis
knows this perfectly
, who usually wins - with justice - the medal for the two duels won in 2023: 1-0 at the
Monumental
and 2-0 at the
Bombonera
.
But Micho, despite those resounding victories and the two titles he won last season, continues to be looked askance by a large part of the fans.
The coach born in Córdoba 43 years ago did not manage to fully get into the hearts of the people, and this Sunday he will have a new chance to get a little closer to the people and begin to tip the balance in his favor.
It is difficult to explain why River fans do not fall in love with Demichelis.
It is possible that some attitudes have influenced him, such as distancing himself from Enzo Pérez, the last idol.
He also marked the early elimination in the Copa Libertadores.
But what weighs most is the shadow of Marcelo Gallardo: the comparison is not only inevitable, but it is simple.
Photo Maxi Failla - CLARIN
“Someone had to take over after Marcelo. And I felt prepared. I had no doubts about standing in front of the group, about what to say, about how to organize the training sessions, because the demands that I experienced for four years at Bayern Munich were great training
,” Demichelis explained to
Clarín
in July 2023.
Demichelis' first semester was notable: the team won the Championship with an 11-point advantage over Talleres.
On the night of the consecration, in the 3-1 victory against Estudiantes, a song was heard in Nuñez: “Let us all turn around hand in hand with Demichelis.”
The coach was moved to tears on that day of glory.
But then the worst would come.
“The ovation was not going to change my happiness. There was a very strong change for the River fan because an extremely successful cycle ended. Marcelo, whom I also admire, became a hero. For some I was a stranger who had left the country 20 years ago. Luckily we were able to crown
,” said the coach.
In the second half, Demichelis lost control of the team.
He made unforced errors like leaking internal issues to the press.
Thus, an obvious distancing was caused between the squad and the coaching staff.
The clearest conflict was with Enzo Pérez, the footballer most loved by fans.
Added to all this is that River considerably lowered its level.
The early elimination in the Copa Libertadores against Inter de Porto Alegre was a blow that took too long to heal.
Since then, every action of Demichelis was and is looked at with a magnifying glass.
The fans don't stop letting go of his hand or supporting him.
So, in that context, the classics against Boca appear as dream opportunities.
A new victory against Xeneize would place the coach in a prominent place in history: only three coaches achieved that number of consecutive wins.
Who got it?
José María Minella, 4 joys between 1950 and 1951;
Juan Urriolabeitia, 3 between 1972 and 1973;
Héctor Rodolfo Veira, 3 between 1984-1985-1986.
Photo: ALEJANDRO PAGNI / AFP
Demichelis is clear that he will present an offensive and ambitious team against Boca.
He has not yet defined the scheme or the interpreters, but the idea will not change.
In the two previous classics, the coach opted for a 4-2-3-1.
Those who played as starters on those occasions and could repeat on Sunday are: Franco Armani, Milton Casco, Leandro González Pirez, Ignacio Fernández and Esequiel Barco.
“I imagine River as the protagonist because we are going to have the satisfaction of playing with our people and in a packed stadium. We are very optimistic about the next game, in every sense. We have to prepare the week with a lot of seriousness, a lot of professionalism and with a lot of fun, too
,” Demichelis warned after the tie against Banfield.
In this way, Boca presents itself as one more chance for Demichelis to reunite with the River fans.
And to finish burying some reproaches.
Only 7 wins for Boca in the last 30 games
PHOTO MARCELO CARROLL - CLARIN
The situation is far from what he imagined when he left Huracán and arrived in Boca, the pending dream that he was able to fulfill thanks to the call of Juan Román Riquelme.
And since Argentine football is a meat grinder, the Superclásico will be vital for Diego Martínez
.
His continuity is not at stake, of course.
However, the coach has a game ahead of him with great pressure and many issues to resolve: defining a stable cast, affirming the identity that appears diffuse, returning to the path of victory and recovering the level of some individuals such as Edinson Cavani. .
Boca drags a statistic that is not only the responsibility of Martínez, who could well talk about the “famous inheritance” by appealing to politicians' speech.
After all,
he won 7 of the last 30 games
.
A very low average considering that it is one of the most powerful clubs in Argentina.
The new coach must be evaluated by the seven matches he directed:
Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta
(Argentine Cup) and the six dates of the League Cup.
In this context,
they won three
,
tied three
and
lost one
with 7 goals for and 3 against.
Despite the short time he has been in charge of the squad, Martínez used 21 players in 6 dates.
Also, three schemes (4-1-3-2, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2).
Only four players started in all those games: Sergio Romero, Luis Advíncula, Cristian Lema, Nicolás Figal and Miguel Merentiel.
Afterwards, he rotated a lot and never repeated the formation.
And he will not be the exception at the Monumental.
Martínez has not yet obtained the
“balanced team”
of his preference.
“We are not tied to a structural scheme, but to a way of feeling it.
Make it balanced, make it orderly, have the ball for as long as your opponent does because with that you will have control of the game.
We are not interested in possession for the sake of having it, but rather that it has meaning and purpose and that we play as long as possible in the rival field, but at the same time we have to be balanced.
From day to day, we will begin to look for our own seal together with them,” he said in his first press conference, when he was presented to the blue and gold society.
Boca is the team with the most possession (57.5%) behind River (62.5%) and also the second with the highest number of successful passes per game (373).
Of course, these numbers do not indicate a great flow of play.
In short, more than half (197) were produced in their own fields.
And a big deficit is in the rival area, without a doubt.
He scored 6 goals, that is, in 77 attempts.
None from a header, none from a stopped ball.
Two were counterattacks (due to unforced errors), the rest were direct attacks.
Despite the positive streak of Miguel Merentiel, who scored 12 goals in the last 15 games, the rest is not good.
Three of Boca's six goals in the League Cup were from the Uruguayan (Sarmiento, Tigre and Central Córdoba), one was scored by Darío Benedetto (Tigre), another by Kevin Zenón (Central Córdoba) and the last by Lucas Blondel (Lanús) .
The midfielders, with the exception of the Corrientes newcomer from Unión, have little explosion in the area.
Not to mention the star center forward who doesn't quite appear, it's about Cavani, of course.
PHOTO MARCELO CARROLL - Clarín
The Uruguayan scored 3 goals in 19 games and hasn't scored in 130 days.
He failed 6 big situations.
He was injured on the second date, came back and continues with a wet gunpowder.
One of Martínez's challenges is to help him regain that performance.
Diego Godín, former teammate in the Uruguayan National Team, declared a couple of days ago: “Edi is stubborn and strong in the head.
I met him at Giorgian's (De Arrascaeta) wedding and I told him: 'stop running a little, stop helping everyone and concentrate on the area there.'"
Will he remove the thorn against River?
Martínez was almost without Cristian Medina and Ezequiel Fernández.
Neither, with Nicolás Valentini, but the ruffles are key to his scheme.
Behind, beyond the absence of Marcos Rojo, he is better covered.
Against Lanús they did not perform in all their dimension.
Finding greater dynamics in the middle also depends on his evolution.
“We play every three days, it's no excuse,” the coach said.
He is partly right.
There is almost no time for rehearsals.
Much less in Boca, which demands and without optimal results, consumes you quickly.