The good: Martin Palermo. The “Titan” scored his 218th goal with Boca Juniors and tied the record established by Roberto Eugenio Cherro. One more goal will make him the all time leading scorer for the club and one of the top in Argentine history. He once said that a movie would be made about his life, and I have no doubt that will happen. Stay tuned for a special article on Martin Palermo

The bad: Chacarita Juniors still struggles to find luck. They lost a game that they were controlling and are once again in direct relegation, Gimnasia, defeated a direct rival and are playing the promotion. But all can change.



The surprise: River Plate defeated San Lorenzo 1-0; it is the second victory of the season, the first after 5 games. The last victory was against Chacarita Juniors in week 2.

Yes its big news, River Plate was able to win at home against San Lorenzo in a match that will be easily forgotten. River needed the 3 points; they needed to win at home in a stadium that was sold out. And they did, but the team once again didn’t play well. And it was not until the final quarter of the game that 20 year old Affranchino scored the goal to make a stadium go wild. He was the unexpected hero of the night. On the other side, San Lorenzo not only suffered yet another defeat but they lost one of their main pieces, Gaston Aguirre. After the game the medical staff said that the defender will miss the rest of the season due a rupture on the Achilles tendon. River will visit Independiente on Sunday, in a match that will be crucial for both sides.


In the south, Banfield defeated Colon 3-1 with two amazing goals scored by Ruben Ramirez and once again proved why it is the reigning champion. Two weeks ago during the “Mad About Futbol Show” we had a discussion about small teams like Banfield and Lanus, and their participation in the local tournament and in the Libertadores, and well I have to admit that I judged them wrong. I predicted that Banfield would stumble after the first few games due to the amount of consecutive games and the small number of players in the roster. If there is one word that can describe this team is efficiency. Banfield is a team with more strengths than weaknesses, the solidness of Cristian Luchetti, the creativity of Walter Erviti, the flare of James Rodriguez and the goal scoring ability of Sebastian Fernandez , that is what makes Banfield one of the local sensations. And today it was not the exception, Ruben Ramirez scored two beautiful goals, the first one and individual play that he created and finished with a precise pass into the bottom left corner of the goal, the second a volley over the goalkeeper. The other goals were scored by Cristian Garcia and Esteban Fuertes.

Arguably the best match this week was played between Boca Juniors and Velez Sarsfield.

Velez opened the scoreboard with a header from former River Plate midfielder Victor Zapata. Minutes later, Boca Juniors was awarded a penalty kick that Martin Palermo took and German Montoya stopped, at this point fans were starting to believe that their chances of seeing Martin Palermo score his 218th goal were vanished. Just a few minutes later, Sebastian Dominguez failed to clear the ball correctly and allowed Fabian Monzon to take a violent shot and tie the game 1-1. It wasn’t until the 39th minute that Palermo scored the third goal of the game, putting Boca one ahead in the scoreboard and allowing Palermo to tie Roberto Eugenio Cherro. Boca began to dominate the game and got ahead one more time with a beautiful goal by Nicolas Gaitan, at this point we could say the game was sentenced (3-1). But once again, Boca displayed those particular defensive flaws and allowed Velez to not only tie the game with two goals (Silva) but to get ahead in the 29th minute with a goal by Juan Manuel Martinez. In the 44th minute, Chilean International Gary Medel, who was in doubt before the game; put the final goal to tie the game 4-4. Once again Velez shows why they are the best team in Argentina, and why Boca is struggling in the last positions of the league table with 8 points, just 4 away from Atletico Tucuman (last).

Estudiantes, without Juan Sebastian Veron and Clemente Rodriguez fell 1-0 to Argentinos Juniors, with a goal by former Estudiantes striker Jose Luis Calderon.

Other results:

Rosario Central 2 – 3 Arsenal
Racing 1 – 1 Huracan
Godoy Cruz 2 -1 Lanus
Tigre 0 - 1 Independiente
Atletico Tucuman 1 – 1 Newell’s

Godoy Cruz is in first place, River defeated San Lorenzo and Palermo broke another record. What a week in the Argentine league