Three of the ‘Big Five’ were in action on Sunday and enjoyed mixed fortunes on another interesting day in the Primera. Indepediente celebrated a triumphant return to the top flight with a 3-0 win over Atlético Rafaela in Avellaneda giving their long-suffering fans a reason to celebrate and a cause for optimism. Boca Juniors were defeated in La Bombonera by Newell’s Old Boys and later described by Diego Maradona as “the worst version since the time of Rattín.” Interestingly, defeat was handed to them by Tévez, not Carlos of course, but Newell’s 18-year-old debutant, Mauricio Tévez. Finally, River Plate looked to have begun their title defence with a win against Gimnasia, when Teó Gutiérrez headed them in front in injury time. However, there was time for Pablo Vegetti to volley a close range equaliser and spoil Marcelo Gallardo’s first match as River boss.

Independiente  3 – 0  Atlético Rafaela

On the evidence of yesterday’s match in the Estadio Libertadores de América, Indepediente could be an exciting team to watch this season. Their young defence are still adapting to Jorge Almiron’s 3-5-2 formation and leave plenty of room for the opposition but the new-look attack of Claudio Riaño and Juan Martín Lucero looked promising.
An opening 45 minutes in which both sides could have scored, with shots cleared off both goal lines and Lucero clattering the crossbar was eventually sparked to life in the final minute of action and a moment of magic from Federico Mancuello. His Cruyff-turn away from the defence allowed him to bear down on the Rafaela penalty box and then fire a low drive into the bottom corner to send the Libertadores into rapture.
The second half followed a similar pattern but it was El Rojo who had the cutting edge. Substitute, Francisco Pizzini cut in from the left and his shot was too powerful for Esteban Conde. With 15 minutes remaining, the result was put beyond doubt when at last the combination of Riaño and Lucero worked an opening and allowed the 22-year-old and Nacional B top scorer last season to tap in his first goal for Independiente.
Lucero could have had three or four on another day but it didn’t matter. Independiente were able to celebrate after what has been an awful couple of years. This one match is by no means the start of anything new but with an average age of 23 in the match day squad there is some reason for optimism.

Boca Juniors  0 – 1  Newell’s Old Boys

Life after Juan Román Riquelme for Boca did not start well and Carlos Bianchi will be concerned at the lack of creativity in his side after a dreary and deserved defeat to Newell’s.
Newell’s themselves did not look like world beaters but had more than enough to see off Bianchi’s current Boca side. Marcos Cáceres’ horrific looking elbow injury was the major talking point in the first half until the final minute when 18-year-old, Mauricio Tévez drilled in a long range drive to give the visitors the lead.
A second half in La Bombonera with Boca trailing, one may have expected a siege on the Newell’s goal but devoid of any creativity, Boca floundered.
Diego Maradona has not held back in his criticism of this side, calling them the “worst version of Boca since Antonio Rattín”, who managed Boca briefly in 1980. Carlos Bianchi and Fernando Gago were the focus of Maradona’s ire but certainly his complaint that Boca could not make three passes in a row was a valid one.

Gimnasia La Plata  1 – 1  River Plate

Marcelo Gallardo is in charge of a very different River side to the one that won the Torneo Final just a matter of months ago. Last night in La Plata just four players started from the Champions side in May and it appears it might take a little bit of time for Gallardo to mould this current side into his own image.
With Teó Gutiérrez on the bench, whilst trying to get a move to Europe, Gallardo was forced to pick an inexperienced attack of Lucas Boyé and Sebastian Druissi.
The match had failed to really get going and when a flood-light failure occured with minutes remaining, it really appeared to just drawing out the inevitable goalless draw.
However, after the restart, the game sprang to life. Gutiérrez arrived off the bench and headed River in front but the lengthy period of stoppage time allowed Gimnasia to react.
A corner from the right was headed down and Pablo Vegetti was well placed to stab the ball into the roof of the net.