River Plate are currently struggling to complete the transfer of Colombian striker Teo Gutierrez, but the team registered a moral boosting 1-0 victory over Rosario Central during the weekend. The 1-0 home win comes days after the team was defeated 1-0 by Gimnasia La Plata in the opening game of the season. After the two matches, River Plate sit with four points on the board from a maximum possible six. Teenager Federico Andrada, who came on as a substitute, scored the winning goal for the home team. Rosario Central were only recently promoted to the top division.
This was only the third appearance in the top division for Andrada. River Plate were not exactly confidence inspiring in the match. It took them 79 min to finally break the deadlock and the goal was also not from open play. Andrada scored with a great header from a corner to give his team all three points. However, things were not all rosy for the Argentine club as they lost Fabbro to a red card just minutes later. The last weekend’s defeat against Gimnasia La Plata, who were also only recently promoted, raised a lot of speculation on the future of Ramon Diaz.
However, he was able to celebrate in the well-earned victory after the match.
“This is River and you’ve got to play well. The public put pressure on us but we also have a lot of courage… We needed the points and went looking for them. Teo is desperate to play (for River), he keeps telling everyone that,” said the River Plate manager after the encounter about the game and also the transfer of Gutierrez.
Gutierrez is still waiting for clearance to complete the transfer to River Plate. So far, only San Lorenzo have managed to win all their league matches in the new season.