From Santos to River Plate: Glory and agony on wild night in South America

Roughly 2,050 kilometres separate the city of Córdoba, Argentina, and Santos, the municipality located in São Paulo state, Brazil. Travelling by air is recommended but it is possible by land. From Córdoba you travel up through vast, picturesque swathes of land towards the northern Argentine border. You might stop off at Iguazu Falls, a breathtaking cascade of waterfalls straddling both Brazil and Argentina and a highly popular tourist destination. Swapping the intimate sensuality of tango for the captivating rhythms of samba, once in Brazil the journey up to São Paulo takes in the European-influenced gaucho heartlands of Porto Alegre, up through the chilled out beaches of surfers paradise Florianopolis and into the nation’s heavily populous industrial metropolis.

Usually, both Santos and Córdoba operate in the shadows of their more dominant neighbours São Paulo and Buenos Aires. But on a night of high drama reminiscent of a rowdy bunch of final year drama students acting out a Shakespeare play, South American football’s limelight was grabbed by this captivating tale of two cities.

While Brazilian football was busy reasserting its dominance on the continental stage thanks to newly crowned Copa Libertadores champions Santos, at the same time Argentinian football’s gradual decline appeared to reach a high water mark as one of the nation’s biggest clubs – the mighty River Plate – plunged into the ravine of probable relegation.

While the crown prince of Brazilian football etched his name deeper into club folklore, the ‘millionaires’ of River imploded. While supporters of South America’s newest champions sang, danced and lit flares, a section of River supporters, 2-0 down in a relegation playoff against Belgrano and overcome with anger, ran on the pitch to verbally and physically abuse their own players. While Neymar and Ganso punched the air in joy, Erik Lamela punched an opposing player. The contrasts were stark. The ascent to greatness absolute. The plunge to purgatory pitiful.

Relegation?

In Córdoba the menacing actions of a handful of fence-climbing, balaclava-clad hooligans led to a 20 minute break in play minutes into the second half. Perhaps unexpectedly, the stoppage had a positive effect on River, who improved distinctly after a period of play that suggested morale was gone and a thrashing on the cards.

The pause adversely affected Belgrano however, who froze somewhat having looked on the cusp of overpowering their more illustrious Primera Division opponents. Sports daily Olé called it ‘a pitch invasion that helped’. Despite the obvious fear in the eyes of River’s players, who looked shaken as events unfolded, Olé were right.

20 minutes later, primarily thanks to a referee who controlled the situation with admirable calm and authority, the game restarted. River threatened in spells but the game ended 2-0 thanks to goals from Cesar Mansanelli and Cesar Pereyra. This was an ugly night for everyone associated with the club. River claim to be “known around the world for their style of football” on their official website, but little was done by anybody to preserve the club’s reputation here. Depending on the outcome of investigations it would also be quite discrediting if, having totally disrupted Belgrano’s momentum at a critical moment, River were to go unpunished.

River Plate, 33-time Argentine champions and twice winners of the Copa Libertadores, now have 90 minutes to escape from the nightmare that surrounds them and avoid relegation for the first time in their 110-year history. A 2-0 win at home would be enough, but with yellow cards bringing suspension to three players including captain Matias Almeyda it will be a nerve-wracking survival Sunday for Los Millionarios. River have only scored two goals in a league game twice all season and not since March.

Triple champs

Meanwhile, over in Santos, the legacy created by Pele nearly 50 years ago was continued by the player described by many as his heir apparent Neymar, after the two-time Copa Libertadores winners became tricampeão with a 2-1 win over Penarol.

In the end it was fairly straightforward for Santos, who overcame a dogged but limited Penarol that scrapped its way to the final without ever truly dazzling. With Paulo Henrique Ganso back in the team after a prolonged absence through injury, Neymar, Arouca, Danilo and Elano Santos simply had too much for their Uruguayan opponents. Ganso brought composure, vision and a touch of class to the team while Arouca and Danilo played well and 19-year-old Neymar excelled, scoring the first with a cool finish early in the second half. Penarol pulled one back through a Durval own goal after Danilo had made it 2-0, but the visitors failed to trouble Santos’ defence sufficiently.

At the final whistle a mass brawl broke out, as if to bring symmetry to the night’s events, while Pele waltzed down from a directors’ box onto the pitch in a smart red jacket to congratulate the players. “Can Neymar ever go on to eclipse Pele?” asked one daring reporter.

“If he can score another 1,280 goals,” Pele replied with a wry smile, before walking off into the celebrations as fireworks pierced the night sky and police manoeuvred around him trying to remove home fans who had invaded the pitch to attack Penarol’s players.

The beauty and madness of South American football; all wrapped into one night in two cities some thousand miles apart.

Argentina, Argentinian Football, Belgrano, Brazil, Brazilian Football, Copa Libertadores, Football in Latin America, Penarol, River Plate, Santos