Hear
Racing is serious when the game opens up. This time, it was beaten 4 to 0 against Tigre. So far in the championship there are already 11 goals in three dates scored by the Academy, which enjoys of the great moment of their attackers Maravilla Martínez and Maximiliano Salas. So far in 2024, winning by a landslide has become customary for Costas: of the 14 wins they have in year nine were by three or more goals.
To visit Victoria, Gustavo Costas opted for an unprecedented attacking trident, with three left-footed players. Agustín Urzi joined the already well-known partnership between Adrián Martínez and Salas. The first goal, however, came in an unexpected way: with a bitten shot from the left leg of Gaston Martirena. It is true that the Uruguayan was left with the rebound after Maravilla could not convert in the six-yard box. And it is also true that Martirena had been the one who opened the scoring last Monday, against Argentinos. But the Academy’s enormous firepower is in its forwards.
More precisely in Salas and Martínez, the two attackers that Costas opted for as the first measure to reinforce a squad because he knew them from their cycles abroad. Maravilla and Mencho seem cut from the same cloth. The two left-handers, the two scorers who know how to use their bodies, the two football workers who scored goals throughout Latin America until they got the opportunity in a big team in Argentina. Experienced, they still play with the hunger that wearing the Racing shirt represents for them after so many years of almost anonymous fighting. The game is never over. And no ball is lost. That is the vertigo with which the Academy sometimes seems to move. That of a voracious team that goes in search of the rival goal beyond the result.
These two players understand each other perfectly, who also grow when they are confident and when the result in their favor allows them to have space to shoot diagonals. It was clear with Racing’s third goal, that pearl that Salas drew with a definition that is rarely seen.
“I give the pass to Adrián (Martínez) and throw him the diagonal; I receive it again from him and when the goalkeeper comes out I throw it one way and go look for it the other. It was a nice goal and it served for a victory that we came to look for,” Salas said after the game. It was a Pelé-like definitionwith a technical gesture with which the Brazilian star used to dazzle.
The 3-0 is a scene repeated every time the Academy plays, a team that has 50 shouts in 24 games. A very good brand that is explained above all by the tremendous performance of its number 9. Martinez He already celebrated 19 goals in 24 games. And Salas has five shouts, but in the stands and on social networks the fans also celebrate his tireless piques. Roger Martinez, who from the sensations seems not to have a good semester, says the opposite in the statistics: he scored 7 goals. There could have been two more, since he twice connected with the net but they were canceled due to offside.
If football is a state of mind, it was more than clear yesterday in Victoria, a venue that usually brings more than one headache to the Academy. Until last night’s win, of the 12 visits in the last century, Racing was only able to leave happy twice. And in more than one case he suffered a heavy defeat that left him worried. This time, it was the other way around. The thing is that Tigre has already been unable to win for ten games.. And the situation is beginning to get worse for the entire Northern Zone. Costas’ team, on the other hand, won 10 of the last 13.
The confidence exhibited by the Racing forwards was contrasted by the Matador kids, all under 24 years of age. The game finally broke down in the last play of the first stage, at 47 minutes, when the left-handed trident that Costas put in did connect. Salas sent the center from the corner, Urzi sent it to the penalty spot and Maravilla invented the goal. The 2 to 0 seemed too much of a disadvantage for the present that Tigre is experiencing. Even more so with the recent precedent that Racing experienced on the first date, with the unusual match that escaped against Belgrano after leading 4 to 1 until 32 minutes into the second half. This time, he didn’t let off the accelerator. And he sent Juan Fernando Quintero and Roger Martínez to the field, no less. Juanfer returned to the penalty goal.
Those three stumbles in a row (Argentine Cup, defeat against Bragantino and Belgrano’s comeback) were an earthquake in the light blue and white half of Avellaneda. The alarms rang. But he seems to have woken up in time. Now, they must secure first place in the Copa Sudamericana by hosting Sportivo Luqueño at home.
Conmebol yesterday announced that that match will be played in Lanúsbecause the Cylinder did not pass the inspection due to the poor condition of the playing field. This team that scores wins already knows that those wins are worth three points and that there are games that cannot be lost, because they have a greater meaning. They learned it in Quilmes, before Climbing Remedies Workshops. And now that they have set the course, they will try not to repeat the mistake.
