Saamiiento de La Banda and 9 de Julio Rafaela met in the Winners Stage of the Torneo Federal A on Saturday, and the visitors took all three points with a 4-1 victory. The match ended at 19:00 local time, and the result shifted things in the table for both sides. To be fair, the visitors had been building momentum before this one.
The opening goal came in the twenty-fifth minute when Leandro Larrea found the net, and Ronaldo Abondetto doubled the lead just eight minutes later. By then the hosts were already playing catch-up, and Nicolas Delssole made it three before the break. Two yellow cards arrived at 45+1, which meant the first half ended on a tense note.
N. Troncoso added a fourth in the sixtieth minute, and the eighth goal of the match appeared in the eighty-eighth. A yellow card for one of the visitors came at sixty-eight, bringing their tally to three bookings in total. And here's the thing — eight goals in one game without a single red card tells you about the tempo.
The statistics show possession split evenly at fifty per cent for each side, but the shot numbers tell a different story. Saamiiento managed only one shot on target while 9 de Julio registered four. The hosts had twelve corners compared to four for the visitors, but that didn't translate into chances.
We had tipped Saamiiento for a win at fifty-eight per cent confidence on paper, but the match went another way. What broke the prediction was the visitors' ability to punish them from open play rather than relying on set pieces. The hosts switched off at the back when it mattered.
After this result, 9 de Julio sit fifth with eight points from five games, while Saamiiento remain seventh on five points. The visitors extended their unbeaten run to eight matches across all competitions, and the hosts extended their winless streak to four. Neither side has much room for error now.