Argentine soccer has reached uncharted territory after victories by Boca Juniors, San Lorenzo and Tigres on the last weekend of the regular season set-up an improbable three-way tie atop the Apertura Standings.
Boca Juniors cruised to a 3-2 victory against Colon, San Lorenzo squeezed out a 1-0 win against Argentinos Junior and Tigre held on for a 1-0 victory against Banfield.
The result is a three-team mini-tournament to determine the league champions, with each team playing the other once on Dec. 17, 20 and 23. Match-ups have yet to be determined.
What do you think of the three-way tie? Which team do you see finishing as champion?
Share your thoughts below.
northzax, i think you didn’t get itright. the tournament isn’t a play-off, but as these teams were tied at the end of it, only they will play a small play-off.
Ives, would you be kind enough to include a post with what TV coverage will be available for this playoff? It would be greatly appreciated. I”m glad this is in the mix for December sports.
Go Boca!!!
Is it just me or does that guy look like Tony Danza
P.S. If you want to watch Argentine Soccer (and other great latin american soccer) then I would suggest getting Fox Sports Espanol (FSE). You can get is as a spanish language package with many service providers which is relatively cheap (cheaper than getting a sports package)that also gives you Gol TV, TYC, ESPN Deportes which carry Champions league, Spanish league, Italian league, EPL games. But also you will get Copa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores and games from the Argentine league on 2 different channels. Plus, on FSE every monday (you may have to tape it because it comes on at 3 p.m. MST) is a great show called Futbol de Primera, which shows highlights from all the weeks Argentine 1st division games. Its actually more than highlights since they take 2 of the best games and show the best 20 minutes of each game, and they also tend to show more than just goals of each game, but what play ran up to the goal. It’s a 2 hour show and its in Spanish, but I don’t think that matters. I guarantee every week there is at least 2 goals they show that are just amazing.
Here are the relegation standings as they stand now.
http://www.argentinesoccer.com/relegation.cfm?championship=ap08
However, relegation doesn’t happen until after the clausura, so a lot can change. As you see, the formula takes into account several years and there are teams that are exempt.
I would love to see Tigre win it all, another small club makes it to the top!
It should be a great playoff. Anybody but Boca!
The relegation standings are based on a formula of performance over several campaigns (not just apertura and clausura unless you’re a newly promoted team). River isn’t close to being demoted, in fact I’m pretty sure if you win either a clausura or apertura title (which they did) you are exempt from demotion for a period of time.
@JB: yeah, the Boca-Estudiantes play-off was incredible. Sure beat the hell out of the goal difference tiebreaker.
@JB: yeah, the Boca-Estudiantes play-off was incredible. Sure beat the hell out of the goal difference tiebreaker.
playoffs? what kind of bush-league soccer country uses playoffs? why would they do something so blatantly commercial and non-soccerish? Argentines really don’t understand soccer, obviously. they won’t be taken seriously as a soccer country until they get rid of this mickey-mouse playoff system.
Seems like everyone has a plan incase of a 3-way tie….well except for the Big 12..
Astounding alliteration in the title, Ives.
I can’t wait to see how this turns out.
Oh man, that Boca-Estudiantes play-off is one of my best soccer memories. Hope there’s a way to see these here in the states.
woops i meant tigre haha
as a river fan, ill be rooting for river. just dont want san lorenzo or boca getting their hands on another title
Oh, I can only imagine the whining if this had happened here…
they tally up apertura and clasura points, so no they aren’t relegated.
The way the Argentinian league is set up, demotion depends on the average points for the last three seasons. Or something like that. So I don’t think River would have gone down.
So, River went down, I assume?
Methinks San Lorenzo will bring it to Boca and Tigres and walk away with a championship!
These games are gonna be great. A couple years ago when estudiantes and boca tied their playoff game was awesome, i expect these to be similar. Boca will probably find some way to win this.
What I love about this is that all of the teams kept winning to force this tie, the complete opposite of the NY-DC lose-off for the last play-off spot.
Props also to Lanus, who finished 4th 2 pts off despite doing all they could to win down the stretch.
so what happens if they all go 1-1?
I love this format and wish FSC or one of the other soccer channels could do a better job of packaging and presenting this league. It has everything you could want.
LET’S GO BOCA!
makes me wish i had better viewing access to the argentine league.