Rubén Darío Insúa, DT of San Lorenzo, acknowledged this Tuesday that striker Lucas Pratto was “out” of the budget that the club has to strengthen the team for the second semester, with the Copa Sudamericana as the main objective.
“Pratto was a player that interested me but it is out of the budget of San Lorenzo. I don’t know if the pass is down, but it’s far away,” said “Melena” during contact with the press at the Ciudad Deportiva del Ciclón.
“He has offers abroad, according to what they told me. I understand that and we cannot compete with salaries in dollars,” he lamented.
Pratto, more striker than scorer
Pratto, 35, terminated his contract with Vélez recently and it sounded loud in Boedo since the Cyclone also recently lost one of its scorers, Andrés Vombergar (he went free to football in the United Arab Emirates).
Anyway, the Bear has not been standing out precisely for his scoring facet. So far in 2023, he has scored three goals in 21 games (0.14 average) for Fortín, accumulating just 9 in 75 games (0.12) since his return to Liniers. Of course, Pratto has plenty of resume, nothing less than the Top 10 all-time scorers of the Libertadores (9th with 28 goals).
A Cyclone in need of goals
San Lorenzo is carrying out a campaign by the hand of Insúawho, given the lack of incorporations since his arrival, managed to reconvert several players who had not been performing, such as the cases of Perrito Barrios, Jalil Elías or Malcom Braida, today one of the best of Argentine soccer.
Although solid as rarely seen in the background -they scored goals in just 10 of the 29 games of the year- it costs the Cyclone on the other side of the field: 31 goals in favor in 2023, with 11 games without scoring. His goalscorer this year is Paraguayan Adam Bareiro with 6 cries (3 from penalties), followed by the outgoing Vombergar with 5 (2 from penalties). Then Blandi and the Puppy appear, both with 3.
Objective: South American Cup
The Cyclone is located at the top of the Professional League table (nine points behind River) and achieved the “miracle” in the Sudamericana on the last date of the group stage with a 4-1 win over Estudiantes de Mérida which, added to the defeat of Palestino 2-1 with Fortaleza, qualified it for repechage.
Insúa’s team will be facing Independent Medellinbest third of the Copa Libertadores, the days Wednesday July 12 in Colombia and Wednesday July 19 in Bajo Flores looking to access the round of 16 (both games will be at 9:00 p.m.).
It is worth remembering that San Lorenzo inaugurated the Sudamericana winning the first edition held in 2002 with Insúa himself as DT and figures like Sebastián Saja, Pablo Michelini, Pipi Romagnoli, Beto Acosta and Rodrigo Astudillo, scorer of that team.
He also won the predecessor competition of the South American, the Mercosur Cup, in 2001 with Engineer Pellegrini in command and several names of those mentioned. This was the first international title for San Lorenzo, which in 2014 would finally win the Libertadores at the hands of Patón Bauza.