Argentina Apertura Championship: Boca keep pace, River stumble in thriller

We begin covering the Argentine Apertura Division today with results from the Buenos Aires giants. But first, here's how the league is run in Argentina.

The Argentine league is broken up into two competitions each year, the Apertura and Clausura (literally Opening and Closing) championships - each featuring the 20 teams playing only one round (not home and away). Therefore, there are two champions each year in Argentina. Neither the Clausura nor the Apertura is more prestigious, they're just separated that way. You can also think of it as the winter champions in european leagues, except that this one is real. Relegation is done by averaging the results of both championships and this inevitably helps the big guns avoid the drop. Nonetheless, we're frank enough to say that we don't really care about who drops in Argentina. It's the big four or five clubs that we're really interested to watch.

Two games have been played, and Boca Juniors are keeping pace with San Lorenzo and Independiente, all joint leaders. Boca defeated Rosario Central 2-1 away from home with goals from defenders Juan Krupoviesa (pic, above) and Daniel Diaz. All three goals were scored from free kicks and there was some horrendous goalkeeping by the Rosario stopper.

Elsewhere, River Plate lost some ground in a six-goal first-half roller coaster thriller with Newell's Old Boys ending 3-3. Paraguay striker Oscar Cardozo (pic, with Ariel Ortega) scored a brace to pull Newell's from behind into a lead before River levelled just after the break.

1. Independiente P2 Pts 6
2. San Lorenzo P2 Pts 6
3. Boca Juniors P2 Pts 6
4. Estudiantes P2 Pts 6
5. Newell's Old Boys P2 Pts 4
6. River Plate P2 Pts 4

The Argentine league has been notorious of late with their unearthing of young talent. Hot on the heels of Leo Messi making it in Barca is Sergio Aguerro, the 16 year old, who has made his big game transfer to Atletico Madrid. Hot on his heels is River's winger Gonzalo Higuaín, who remains in South America hoping to win something there before he moves to Europe. Our feelers are firmly planted on these young stars so that our readers are always the first to know what's going on in latin football.

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