The first day of the 2023 Professional Soccer League will continue this Saturday with four games. River will seek to start the era of Martín Demichelis as the team’s coach on the right foot when it visits Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero, starting at 9:30 p.m. (TNT Sports), with arbitration by Facundo Tello. While San Lorenzo will open the day against Arsenal, 5:30 p.m. in Bajo Flores (ESPN Premium), with arbitration by Diego Abal; Independiente will visit Talleres at Mario Kempes at 7:00 p.m., with refereeing by Hernán Mastrángelo; and at the same time, Estudiantes will receive Tigre at the Uno de La Plata stadium (TNT Sports) with arbitration by Fernando Espinoza.
Demichelis on Gallardo’s bench
River will have several new faces, but, at the same time, they are old acquaintances: Demichelis returns to the club that saw him born but as a coach and will have the tough mission of leading the team after the successful cycle of Marcelo Gallardo.
In addition, among the brilliant names that came to Núñez’s team, the only one who would be from the game is Ignacio Fernández, who returned from Brazilian soccer and will wear the number ten shirt after the departure of Juan Fernando Quintero.
For its part, Central Córdoba with Leonardo Madelón as brand new technical director will have the tough mission of achieving positive results to flee to the relegation places after saving themselves last season with an outstanding final sprint.
The Red wants to be the protagonist again
Independiente, with the aim of being the protagonist again, will visit Talleres de Córdoba at Kempes, a team that will seek to forget the poor campaign of the previous edition.
For Red it will also be the premiere of its brand new coach, Leandro Stillitano, who added eleven reinforcements to face the contest, of which nine were included in the squad.
The new team that the coach will bring to the field of play will feature the presence of goalkeeper Rodrigo Rey –a figure in Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata– and a new attack front, in which the striker will have his debut in the highest category Matías Giménez, who comes from San Martín de San Juan and left good signs in the summer friendlies.
For his part, Talleres, with the confirmation of Javier Gandolfi as coach after being interim and taking his team to the final of the Argentine Cup -they lost to Patronato-, will bet on the players he used in the last matches, while the newcomers will wait among the substitutes.
San Lorenzo starts his illusion
In Bajo Flores, San Lorenzo will host Arsenal de Sarandí with the aim of starting the path that will allow it to end a drought of 10 local titles. Rubén Darío Insua warned in the previous one that his team “must win a title in 2023”, for this reason he will try to start his path in the Professional League in the best way. However, for this match he will not be able to count on his starting goalkeeper, Augusto Batalla, and a possible contractual conflict with one of his figures.
Batalla suffered a minor distension, but the recovery terms were not favourable, he was ruled out and, given this scenario, his place will be taken by the brand new reinforcement Facundo Altamirano. In addition, Federico Gattoni did not renew his relationship and could be marginalized as he analyzes an offer from Sevilla in Spain. In case the central defender is not included, his place would be Gastón Campi or Rafael Pérez.
For its part, Arsenal, which will have as a novelty the debut of its coach, Carlos Ruiz, who rearmed his team with several reinforcements since he suffered several casualties in the recent transfer market and will try to start adding points to immediately escape the positions of decline.
Estudiantes and Tigre play in Uno
Estudiantes de la Plata, with the debut of coach Abel Balbo, will be at home against the always dangerous Tigre, who continues to be led by Diego Martínez. Both teams qualified for the 2023 Copa Sudamericana, although the expectation of the La Plata team was higher and sought, without success, the pass to a new Copa Libertadores.
El Pincha played in the 2022 Libertadores and was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Athletico Paranaense from Brazil, and in the LPF he was 18th. He started the year with Ricardo Zielinski, later replaced by Pablo Quatrocchi and before the end of the year he signed with Abel Balbo for all of 2023. The 56-year-old former center forward has just led Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero, which he placed in 16th. position in the League with 27 points, the result of 10 wins, 13 losses and four draws.