The River Plate Trip (Part II)

This is Part II of III of our trip to Buenos Aires and visit with River Plate. Click here to read Part I.
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On Saturday morning, we get to watch the first team practice inside the stadium as they prepare for Sunday’s game. The practice is similar to how FCD trains the day before the game. Short session, working on set pieces, and a run-through of the lineup and formation. Some guys work on the side with the fitness coaches. When training ends, a few guys stay to take PKs and shots on goal.

We meet Diego Simeone, the head coach. He looks like he should still be playing. Dan and Hitch give him an FCD jersey – we are the visitors, so the blue-white jersey is presented. Keep reading Part II...

Back inside the bowels of the stadium, we visit the home locker room. Pretty basic – not like ours. The weight room is about the same size as PHP’s, only it faces the field. The trainer’s room – one bench. The equipment room, a little bigger than ours, but similar system. The players. lockers – not really lockers, as you see in the photo.

The team is staying in the stadium today – as they do before every home or away game. They call it ‘concentration.’ On the third floor of the stadium is a dorm for the team and coaches. The players lounge includes a foosball table, ping-pong table, and pool table, as well as couches and flat-screen TV. A door leads to a deck space within the stadium stands, facing the field, that has a built-in-grill for their ‘asados.’

The dorm’s rooms are basic – they fit three players to a room by adding an extra bed. Again, nothing flashy, but as they tells us, they are here to rest and sleep and concentrate of the next day’s game.

The lounge has photos of past players and stadium events. The Rolling Stones played here to a massive crowd, and were given River jerseys. Later this year, a large concert is planned for the same day as a game, so River will move their ‘home’ soccer game to Velez Sarsfield’s stadium.

We learn they try to bring in 10 or so concerts and non-soccer events per year. A year ago, they held a Rally Car race here, building a full track raised above the playing surface – the first team played three days later – a proud day for their staff as they pulled off such a turn-around. The Argentina National team will host Paraguay here on Sept. 5 for a World Cup qualifier.

The equipment managers – Pichi and Chochi – are happy to hear that Pablo Ricchetti and Dario Sala are with us. They have fond memories of both, and are glad to hear both are doing well at Dallas. Pichi explains the story of River’s third jersey, which is purple and without the common red sash. In 1949, Italian club Torino was involved in a plane crash where the entire team perished. So, River Plate went to Italy to play a benefit match versus Torino youth players and other Italian pros, for the families of the deceased. Torino’s jersey was purple. Last year, River brought back the kits and we’re now told they look to use it twice per season to honor to that Italian club team.

We then go to the River training center by the airport, which is about 40 minutes away from the stadium. On one side of the highway we see the Argentine Federation’s Training grounds – it looks impressive. One thing we notice throughout the drives (other than the fact that the lane markers are more-or-less suggestions, and that apparently cars don’t have turn-signals – or maybe its just that they are not used), is that there are ads all over with sponsors of the National team. The blue-white jersey is a national mark, thus many billboard ads display the kits.
The grounds are simple – three well kept fields (with barbed wire above so no one enters). A mini-stadium houses the locker rooms. A large tent is the temporary weight room, though construction of a permanent weight room is now underway. A small concession stands sells snacks for the families out to watch the Youth games.

We watch the U-17s game – River dominates. Couple things on how this works. River has the first team, reserve team, and six youth divisions. Since all the players belong to River Plate, the first team coach can call in any player from the system. Some kids have found themselves one day playing on the U-17s, and the next week called up to the first team. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. When a player plays five games for the first team, he would be offered a contract. Until then, they can be placed on any of their teams. We’re not there yet in MLS...

After visits to other cool neighborhoods, we return to the hotel. We gather around the blogger’s laptop to watch the FCD vs. Crew game – on the Slingbox. We don’t need to remind everyone of that game, so we move on. Later that night, the game is show on TV here. We suffer through it again.

Sunday comes – it's game day.