Clausura 2008 Kicks Off in Argentina

With the Cope de Verano (now called Torneos de Verano) over and done with, Argentinean football got serious again this weekend with the Clausura 2008 kick off. It’s a fascinating year for Argentinean football because last season saw the big boys fall (very) short and the little fellas step into the spotlight. Lanús got everyone talking, wining the title to claim their first ever shiny bit of silverware, while the similarly small in stature Arsenal (not that one) won the Copa Sudamericana.

So the interesting thing will be whether the smaller clubs like Lanús can stay competitive this year or whether the traditional powers will bite back.

Boca Juniors have appointed Carlos Ischia (former assistant to Carlos Bianchi) as the new head coach, despite his so far so-so record as a head coach. But he will have the talents of Juan Roman Riquelme to call on, as well as recent signing Lucas Castromán, recently returned from Club América in Mexico. On the downside, Boca sold young pass-master Ever Banega to Valencia, probably to help stuff Riquelme’s pockets with cash. So 2008 could go either way for Boca, but if it goes badly then don’t bet on Ischia lasting too long.

River Plate have installed a certain Diego Simeone (pictured) as head coach, and he got off to a good start by winning the summer tournament. With recent Uruguayan signing Sebastián Abreu ready to score goals, and with Ariel Ortega’s post alcohol problem comeback looking pretty good (until the next problem) Los Millonarios should do a lot better than last season’s bottom half finish.

There’ll be plenty of other big names in action during the Clausura 2008. Estudiantes held on to Seba Veron, despite all the rumours linking him with DC United. So expect the world’s most talented Ali G lookalike to be pulling strings and pinging passes all over various rival midfields this year. Equally interesting, Andrés D’Alessandro has returned to Argentina after a rough recent couple of years in Europe. The (very) creative midfielder will be lining up for San Lorenzo.

Alongside all these famous names there are probably all kinds of young talent that I’ve never even heard of, and I genuinely look forward to seeing them in action.

We’ll try and do a better job of covering Argentinean football here on The Offside, because it’s definitely a great league to watch. But there are millions (maybe billions) out there who know way more then me about all things Argentina. So for some in-depth blogging allow me to recommend our own Argentina Offside, the ever lively Argentina World Cup Blog (which will be covering domestic Argentinean footy as well as the albiceleste) and also the ever-readable Hasta El Gol Siempre.

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Category: South America