Estudiantes de La Plata

2025 está en camino a meter una final más.

Está en semifinales, que juega contra Estudiantes.

Y Arraskaeta es una leyenda.

No te digo que es la máxima, pero es una de las, debe ser una de las top cinco-

So they're taking the weekend off when Argentina don't have a game and then go...

Okay, well, in Group B, Estudiantes de la Plata top on 31 points.

Sorry, that's Group A, that's the Apertura.

In Group B, Argentinos Juniors and Rosario Central both have 18 points, they're first and second.

Belgrano, Huracán and Sarmiento all have 16.

River have 13 and are ahead of ninth-placed Atletico Tucumán on goal differences.

Speaking of Estudiantes de la Plata, obviously we will talk about them a bit more, but they're going to struggle to qualify themselves from group play.

They're six points behind eighth-placed Newells.

It is dominant across South America.

I think it's three of four in Copa Lib this semifinal coming up are Brazilian clubs, and then Estudiantes being the fourth.

Boca and River have not won a Copa Lib in a decade, and it has for the most part been all Brazilian teams in the final against each other.

Mm-hmm.

And there's a real opening here over the next three to five years for MLS teams to get a higher quality of player or a more established player earlier in their careers because of this.

The second knock-on I think of this will be, it might be a little bit of a resurgence for Argentine clubs who c- have no ability to compete against Brazilian teams.

If that's the case, it might open up more players from the Argentine league to come to Major League Soccer, because if top forwards are coming back to River and Boca and San Lorenzo and Estudiantes and all of that, the players right behind them, now they need playing time.

So is it Matias Galarza coming on loan? Is it players at U22 initiative that come to MLS a little bit earlier? There's a real opportunity here for MLS, and you look at some of these teams.

Now, in the closing tournament, we once again have the teams split into two different groups.

Uh, Instituto are top of Group A, which puts them ahead of Vela Sarsfield, Defensa, Gimnasia, Boca Juniors, Independiente, Lanus, Newell's Old Boys, Union, San Lorenzo, Estudiantes, Deportivo, Platense, and Talleres.

And then Central Cordoba are bottom there.

And in the second group, uh, Argentinos Junior are top, level in points with Rosario.

Um, the other Gimnasia, uh, it's bizarre that they have multiple clubs named the same thing.

So Gimnasia i-i and Esgrima, um, there's one in Mendoza and one in La Plata.

There's also an Estudiantes in both.

Or sorry, there's two Estudiantes.

It's seventh versus, uh, 11th incidentally.

And the second leg of the daily double is gonna come in the Lanus vs Estudiantes game.

Lanus at plus 114 to beat Estudiantes at plus 270.

This is eighth versus 11th in zone A.

Three points between the two.

Lanus have won their last three games to nil.

Both teams are in profit for both teams to score no in the Clausura.

Estudiantes, incidentally, eight of their nine games have been both teams to score no, including all four of their away fixtures.

Uh, you might remember that at the end of the previous round, I said, "Look, there's a real, real danger of a complete Brazilian clean sweep in the Libertadores." Now, Brazil has won the last seven versions of the Libertadores.

Five of those seven have been all Brazilian finals, and I said, "Look, there's a real danger, never happened before, of all four semi-finalists being Brazilian." The big hope for the rest of the continent is Estudiantes of Argentina against Corinthians.

And what do we have? We have a lineup of Estudiantes of Argentina and three Brazilians.

But before I start congratulating myself, you know what? It could have been the exact opposite.

It could have been Corinthians of Brazil and three non-Brazilians in the semifinal because the margin in these games was so tight.

Uh, in many cases, I think much more drama than football.

Um, but you know, football, as a great mate of mine always says, football doesn't have to be good to be good, and it certainly was compulsive viewing over the last few days.

So we'll go through it, starting with that one, Estudiantes against Corinthians.