Newell’s - River preview

By: Jeremy | February 16th, 2008

This is a little taste of what is waiting River this Sunday at the Coloso.

It looks like Newell’s will be making two changes from the line-up that defeated San Lorenzo in last week’s opener. Diego Scotti gets his first start in place of Matias Donnet (who is serving a one match suspension for the red card he received last week) and Juan Quiroga starts in place of Leonel Vangioni. Word has it that Hector Steinart received ample practice time in place of Alejandro Da Silva and the offense appeared more fluid. It wouldn’t totally surprise me to see Steinart paired with Salcedo in the attack.

Coming into the game, Newell’s and Paraguayan keeper Justo Villar (pictured) have kept a clean sheet for four consecutive games now and will certainly be looking to extend the streak against a talented River Plate offense. Ariel Ortega, Sebastian Abreu, and Radamel Falcao certainly know how to finish, so la lepra’s streak will certainly be severely tested. As Caruso said, if you make a mistake they will punish you.

For River, it has been a tale of two games this year. A fairly impressive win in the season opener, followed by a big egg laying in the Libertadores. Defensively they looked very out of sync against and will certainly be looking to find the back of the net. I read that they will be going with Abreu up front this week, a change from the Copa defeat, to try and provide more fire power against Newell’s. Which only makes sense since he just joined the club in time for the trip to Peru and was a huge off-season acquisition.

I definitely think NOB will be playing a defensive game, most likely a 4-4-2 to try and stop River’s (sometimes) potent attack. Scoring will most probably be left to the counter attack. Look for Quiroga and Cabrera to quickly push the ball up the sides looking for the forwards on the break.

Caruso told Rosario3 that he plans on putting Spolli on Abreu and marking Ortega with more of a zone defense to try and slow down the attack.

One last note, Simeone has chosen to try and counter Newell’s aerial attack by starting the taller Danilo Gerlo in place of Paulo Ferrari.

I’ll try and get a post match recap up Sunday night, but it may have to wait until Monday.