River Plate striker Gabriel Funes Mori (AP Photo)

The Argentine league is off and running and there was a dose of excitement throughout the weekend as they began using the Jabulani. 

With the exception of Gimnasia-San Lorenzo and Godoy Cruz-Boca, every other match had a one-goal difference.  Some teams showed their stuff as was the case with Vélez Sarsfield who also won with ease.  Others like recently promoted All Boys played well, but lost to Banfield 2-1.

The teams showed their intentions to play and rust, amid extremely cold conditions.   But the most impressive side this weekend was Vélez Sarsfield as they dominated an Independiente side that was being penciled in as a contender for the title this semester.

River Plate was disappointing in their home debut against Tigre and they were looking to avenge their 5-1 loss to the boys from the Delta in their Clausura finale.  For well over 90 minutes they battled and had problems cracking the Tigre backline.  It would take another brilliant play by Ariel Ortega and former Dallas FC youth player Gabriel Funes Mori headed the ball home.  There was a dose of controversy as Tigre coach Ricardo Caruso Lombardi  was sent off after he was arguing about the fact that Ortega supposedly fouled a player en route to the game-winner. 

Boca Juniors would debut on the road and would fall behind early on in Mendoza against Godoy Cruz, but Lucas Viatri would equalize in the 21st minute.  This match was probably one of the more exciting ones of the weekend.  Omar Asad once again had to be looked at as a coach that fielded yet another competitive squad and looks to be in the running or will at least make lots of the noise in the Apertura.

Claudio Borghi's side looked rusty at first but after the Viatri goal the team did a good job to gel and create opportunities in the end.  In the final minutes, Boca suffered and Godoy Cruz had chances hit off the post and miss by inches.