While the Apertura focused on Platense and Huracán’s bid to end long trophy droughts, this time in the semis we have a straight grande shootout.
Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia is undoubtedly one of the most fortunate souls in the world of professional football. No matter how much his AFA sticks its nose where it’s not wanted, how many baffling decisions emanate from its offices – to borrow one of Diego Maradona’s most celebrated phrases – the ball is not tainted. However much the cynics would have loved to see the likes of Barracas Central, Central Córdoba and Riestra fighting for silverware, thus confirming their wilder conspiracies, the football gods instead got together to give us two truly unmissable clashes in the Clausura semi-finals this weekend.
Before we get started on the main business, though, we do not intend to let Chiqui off the hook. Tapia’s interventions in the national game over the past fortnight have been inexplicable, from the ad hoc crowning of Rosario Central with a title that did not exist prior to that shady morning meeting to an absurdly draconian punishment handed down to Estudiantes de la Plata for turning their backs on those said ‘champions’ prior to dumping them out of the Clausura, including a six-month ban for president Juan Sebastián Verón. And the insistence of certain senior AFA figures in doubling down with insults and veiled threats in the face of accusations of bias or favouring certain teams is a childish reflex which only brings the organisation into disrepute.
Additionally, it has to be said: 30 teams in the top flight in the travesty, although, we must also point out, no Liga Profesional de Fútbol club president seems in a hurry to fix lest their own team find itself in danger. This current format and scheduling is also deeply unbalanced with half of the league not facing each other for the entirety of the season. That fact makes it near-impossible to state with any accuracy who in fact is the best team currently in Argentina: to take one simple example, Rosario Central, who garnered more points than anyone in the top tier, did not once play Boca Juniors, Argentinos Juniors or Racing Club, three of the five best performers over the course of the year, while they did face relegated Godoy Cruz and San Martín a combined four times. But even with that in mind you have to hand it to Tapia: the play-offs rarely fail to disappoint in excitement or narrative.
While the Apertura focused on Platense and Huracán’s bid to end long trophy droughts, this time in the semis we have a straight grande shootout. Boca and Racing meet on Sunday at the Bombonera to resume a rivalry that in the last five years has included two Libertadores last-eight ties and that unforgettable battle for the 2022 league title that went right down to the final day. Boca are on a run of six straight wins and appear fired on by the memory of late coach Miguel Ángel Russo, and will be big favourites in front of their own fans. But Gustavo Costas’ men never back down from a fight, following up an agonising 3-2 win over River in the last-16 by downing Tigre on penalties, a game which they finished with nine men on the field after Gastón Martirena and Santiago Sosa both saw red. Racing have an incredible record in elimination games under Costas and nobody at the Bombonera will be taking them lightly.
A big game, for sure, but somehow not the biggest at the weekend. That title goes to Gimnasia-Estudiantes, the most important Clásico Platense in living memory and a must-watch on this public holiday Monday afternoon. Gimnasia finished seventh in Group B but fought through with hugely impressive wins away to Unión and Tapia’s own Barracas Central, and will be in front of their own support for the first time in the play-offs at the wonderfully snug and old-fashioned Estadio Juan Carlos Zorrillo. The Pincha followed up their victory over supposedly invincible Central by downing Central Córdoba and cocking a thumb at AFA treasurer Pablo Toviggino, leader of the social media offensive against Verón and his team.
You simply could not script it better, as almost despite itself and its authorities Argentine football serves up yet another scintillating end to its broken Liga Profesional.
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