Racing Club crush Colon to go top
Reuters - Monday 14 March 2011, 02:27
BUENOS AIRES - Colombia striker Teofilo
Gutierrez scored twice as Racing Club crushed Colon 4-0 away to
go top of the Argentine Clausura championship on Sunday.
Racing, who have won four of their five matches, have 12
points, two more than San Lorenzo, who beat Boca Juniors 1-0 on
Saturday, Banfield and Olimpo.
Champions Estudiantes, who won the Apertura title in
December, are fifth with nine points after losing 1-0 at home to
Godoy Cruz in the Ciudad de La Plata stadium, their second
defeat.
Gutierrez took his tally to five goals in three matches,
while Racing scored four for the second match in a row.
Forwards Pablo Luguercio and Gabriel Hauche (pictured) also found the
net for Racing who have made light of the loss for the rest of
season of Colombian Giovanni Moreno, their most gifted player,
with a knee ligament injury.
"We try to have fun and put the ball on the ground,"
Gutierrez, signed last month before the start of the Clausura,
told reporters.
"This is thanks to the hard work we put in all week. We
respect our rivals but we know we're strong."
Boca and River Plate, the two greatest rivals in Argentina,
had a black weekend.
River conceded their first goals in five matches going down
to their first defeat, 2-1 at home to Velez Sarsfield in the
Monumental stadium where Uruguayan striker Santiago Silva scored
both their goals.
Young goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola, who had kept a clean
sheet in his first four first division matches, handed Velez the
first goal on a plate when he mistimed his kick at a back-pass
and Silva had merely to push the ball into the unguarded net in
the 34th minute.
River hit back with a penalty three minutes after the
interval converted by striker Mariano Pavone but six minutes
from time burly Silva, nicknamed Tank, netted another loose ball
in a goalmouth melee.
The victory put Velez level with River in joint sixth place
with eight points apiece.
Boca are four points behind them after going down to their
third defeat, 1-0 away to San Lorenzo.
Boca played poorly and missed the spark of creativity from
Juan Roman Riquelme, who was still unavailable through injury.
Coach Julio Cesar Falcioni, upset with his team's finishing
but adamant he would not quit, told reporters: "We didn't come
here (to Boca) for the money. We came to do things properly and
we're not leaving without succeeding."