Horrible and depressing. These two words sum up River today. Three games lost in a row: Boca Juniors, Argentinos Juniors, and Lanus, respectively. I can’t even mention that there is a ‘worst part’ because each section of the team is playing in a miserable level. Visiting Lanus on Sunday night, River needed to win and accumulate points to maintain hopes of remaining in the first division. Unfortunately, the pressure of scoring, the pressure of winning, and the pressure of the fans was not enough.
It took 10 minutes for the visiting fans to show their discontent towards the Millonarios. The defense looked confused and could not maintain its structure against a similarly weak Lanus offense. Each attack by Lanus’s forwards forced defender, Gustavo Cabral, to look like an amateur. He was out of focus and weak when approaching his rival. This attitude spread like wildfire among the team, causing the team to collapse rapidly. I also cannot stress enough how bad our forwards are! They do not score when the opportunity is given to them, and waste so many chances when an attack can be performed. River is basically a depressed, soulless team without any type of motivation to move forward. Coach Astrada is, unfortunately, becoming the scapegoat in this whole mess.
Many are to blame for River’s present but all fingers point to the last presidency who led the club to its current poor performance on the pitch. Week after week, fans have to endure pathetic performances from those who are ‘professionals’ in Argentina’s most popular club. Things are looking bad, ladies and gentlemen, and come June major renovations will have to be made. Let us hope club president, Daniel Passarella, lives up to his campaign promise of “turning things around.”