River Plate wants to make history and get the chance to win their first Uruguayan league title on Sunday, December 15, 2013 (12:00 PM Pacific) in Montevideo, when they’ll visit Defensor Sporting at Luis Franzini Stadium. River arrives to this stage sharing the top position along with Nacional, which will host Fénix at Parque Central, both with 30 points, one more than Danubio. Danubio will visit Sud-América; the Torneo Apertura 2013 Uruguayam champion will be one of these three teams, and may win the title on Sunday (there is also the possibility of a tie-break match, if two teams end at the top of the table with the same amount of points).
The Torneo Apertura champion will have to face the Torneo Clausura champion, and also the team which finishes at the first position in the all-season table (Apertura and Clausura), to define the champion of the season 2013/2014, in the end of the first semester of 2014.
Defensor, one of the most important teams in Uruguay, after Nacional and Peñarol, hasn’t had a good tournament: losing seven of fourteen games and winning only four; they stand in the 10th position out of 16 teams. Los violetas will have to make three substitutions in defense: the central defender Mario Riso (saw his fifth yellow card last match against Wanderers), and lateral defenders Ramón Arias (red card vs Wanderers) and Lucas Morales (injured) won’t be on the lineup.
The Defensor coach, Fernando Curuchet, will play with a 4-4-2 (as in the latest matches) with Martín Campaña; Federico Gino, Andrés Fleurquin, Matías Malvino,Gastón Silva; Giorgian De Arrascaeta. Mauro Aramberri, Juan Amado, Felipe Gedoz; Nicolás Olivera, Ignacio Risso.
Meanwhile, River Plate will look for the victory that will allow them to win a half-year tournament for the first time (they shared the first position with Peñarol in Clausura 2008, but they lost the tie-break match).
The River Plate midfielder, Bruno Montelongo, spoke about the match between Nacional and Fénix: “we have to concentrate in our match; we will have a difficult game visiting Defensor. We can’t play thinking about the match between Nacional and Fénix; we have to think about getting the result we need, that is a victory. It is worth nothing to speculate, it can only have the fatal effect of distracting us”.
The River Plate coach, Guillermo Almada, confirmed the same lineup that defeated Racing playing away by 0-3 in the last match, a 4-4-2 with: Damián Frascarelli; Luis Torrecilla, Cristian González, Flavio Córdoba, Lucas Olaza; Gabriel Marques, Hamilton Pereira, Bruno Montelongo, Martín Alaniz; Michel Santos, Alexander Rosso.
Defensor Sporting vs River Plate Prediction
Undoubtedly, River Plate are the favorites to win the match. They are in great form and they’ll look for the victory from the very first minute of the match. If they don’t get impatient and keep calm, they’ll surely win the game. My prediction is a 0-2 victory for River Plate.
