Vietto & Cuello Goals: Match Report & Highlights

For this it was Luciano Vietto a San Lorenzo. To have revenge in a big way. To feel important again. To shout a goal again. In his debut as a starter in San Lorenzo, The former Racing player woke everyone up early and shouted the fastest goal of the Apertura Tournament after 25 seconds to open what ended up being a difficult 2-0 victory for Ciclón against Estudiantes de Río Cuarto that still could not win in First Division.

Lightning crossed the San Lorenzo playing fieldstarted the Estudiantes defense and illuminated the smiles of the Boedo team a handful of seconds after the initial whistle. Alexis Cuello, true to his essence, went down to fight for a ball at midfield level. He won it. The ball flowed to the rise of Mathias De Ritis on the right wing and was transformed into a pass into the middle.

Vietto traveled aboard Lightning McQueen to accelerate fully and occupy the space that Cuello had left. He stepped into the area and scored against a post with his unskilled left foot. So, one day, Vietto felt relevant again. All the visitors stood as if they were nailed to the grass with stakes. Nobody saw it coming.

El Ciclón scored the fastest goal of the championship (it surpassed Rafael Profini’s for Unión against Gimnasia de Mendoza, at 4 minutes). And it was the fastest goal for the Boedo club from 1990 until now. The others: Héctor Villalba at 13 seconds against Rosario Central in 2015, Fernando Belluschi at 14 seconds against Atlético de Rafaela in 2016 and José Chatruc at 22 seconds against Boca in 2002.

The afternoon seemed to be painted blue and red with that furious start. But Damián Ayude’s team, far from taking advantage of the early advantage and taking absolute control of the match, left time and space for their rival to handle the ball for several stretches of a first half that, in short, ended up being even and without any more dangerous arrivals in both goals.

The postponement of this meeting from Thursday to Sunday allowed Ayude to be able to count on Jhohan Romaña again since he had a couple more days to fully recover from a strain. But the San Lorenzo coach made more changes to the formation, with the inclusion of several reinforcements, such as the debut of Vietto as a starter.

The operation did not flow. The search for Ayude continues in that regard. That is why in the complement he removed an unproductive Gregorio Rodríguez and put Matías Reali. On the other side, Iván Delfino made three variations in one go and modified the system: he abandoned the line of five defenders and went to four men.

The modifications worked more for the Cordobans, who miraculously did not tie at the dawn of the second half. That’s why the “move, Boedo, move” exploded before 10 minutes from all four sides.

The entries of Leiva, Talpone and Valiente gave another boost to Río Cuarto’s Pincha. And the local team, for its part, is lacking the character of last year, the one that helped it get into the Copa Sudamericana even though the club was catching fire.

Orlando Gill had to fly like Superman to take out a header from Juan Antonini that went over his head after a corner kick. But the newly promoted lacked depth and hierarchy to tie it. And when you forgive a big team, you pay for it.

Cuello fought it, won it, built a wall with the kid Facundo Gulli and defined a cross. The Ciclón finished it off and breathed a sigh of relief, who were not having a good time but returned to victory thanks to the finishing power of their forwards.