River spent the week preparing for Defensa y Justicia while news off the pitch centered on where the next few games will be played.
Luciano Abecasis has been ruled out for a month with a knee injury. His place in the starting lineup will be taken by Luciano Vella who will be making his debut for River.
River has come to terms with San Lorenzo to play their remaining 4 neutral site home games there. The fee, which is said to be around US$20,000, is much lower than what Huracan was charging River to use the Tomas Duco. River still have one home game to play behind closed doors, which will be Saturday against Defensa y Justicia, at San Lorenzo.
The smaller clubs of the B Nacional see a match against River as a way to clean up their financial troubles and many teams are pouncing on this opportunity. Such is the case for Deportivo Merlo who has announced they will host River at Independiente’s Libertadores de America. Merlo will make 18,000 tickets available to River supporters, while Merlo will have 10,000 available. It should be noted that Merlo’s home stadium only holds 5,000.
The Argentine press highlighted the fact that relegation has only strengthened support for the club who in August added more than 4 times as many new members than in July. Also they made note that River’s games on TV are #1 in the ratings each week.
Lat e in the week Fernando Cavenaghi and Alejandro Dominguez both trained apart from the rest of the squad as they had picked up minor injuries. They are both expected to be ready for the game Saturday.
Several players have gone on record over the past few weeks regarding the unity of the squad. This week it was Jonathan Maidana who highlighted the team’s togetherness and positive attitude, from both players and coaches. Meanwhile, last week’s standout player Martin Aguirre described the feeling of putting on the River shirt as “unbelievable”. Carlos Sanchez also was quoted as saying that nothing comes close to the support he has seen from River fans since his arrival.
Alejandro Dominguez also has a positive outlook on River’s current form, saying that slowly but surely the team is getting back on track and more importantly, rebuilding respect for the red and white jersey.
