River Plate starts strong beating Tiro Federal (31 Jan 2006 06:54 GMT)
River Plate made a great start to Argentina's first-division tournament by battering Tiro Federal 5-0 on Sunday.
River would have been even happier after learning archrival Boca Juniors fell 2-1 to Gimnasia de Jujuy in the Clausura opening round.
River scored all but one of its goals in the first half: Rodolfo Montenegro opened in the third minute and teammate Jairo Patino doubled the lead in the 13th minute.
Jonathan Santana headed in River's third score off a corner by Rodolfo Montenegro, who claimed the fourth. Ernesto Farias finished River's goalfest in the 63rd minute with a header past Tiro goalkeeper Jorge Vivaldo.
"We played very well," said new River coach Daniel Passarella. "I don't know if the other side played badly or not, but our boys are very motivated."
Boca got off to a lacklustre start despite being last season's Apertura champion.
After a scoreless first half, Boca went up 1-0 just two minutes after the break off a header by star striker Martin Palermo, thanks to a centring pass from Juan Krupoviesa.
But then Gimnasia roared to life as Israel Damonte scored in the 57th minute after fielding a ground-ripping centring pass from Marcelo Quinteros, and Hector Silver scored the winner in the 63rd minute from a corner.
Also, Independiente and Lanus battled to a scoreless draw.
In other games, it was Velez Sarsfield 1, San Lorenzo 1; Estudiantes 4, Instituto Cordoba 1; Arsenal 1, Argentinos Juniors 1; Olimpo Bahia Blanca 0, Rosario Central 0; Colon 1, Gimnasia y Esgrima 0; Newell's Old Boys 2, Quilmes 0; and, Banfield 3, Racing Club 0.
source : SLAM! Sports