SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO (Special Envoy).- “Racing and Estudiantes are two of the best teams in the country, Their prize is to get to the final game and see who is better.” The idea of what the Clausura final will be does not correspond to either an external analyst or a fan. It is from Eduardo Dominguezthe Pincha coach who, due to the changes in football, was on the verge of being eliminated without participating in the playoffs and dreams of returning to the Olympic Games this Saturday.
“The only thing that matters to me is being able to become champions, we have to keep that in mind,” he emphasized. Gustavo Costas, The coach who brought that winning greed to a racing team, making epic an ever-possible scenario and fame a concrete possibility.
For both Costas, a volcano of passion unleashed on the sidelines in every game, and for Domínguez, who always takes the necessary pause before uttering forceful phrases without raising his tone, winning the Argentine championship would mean more than they thought until a few months ago, when the Copa Libertadores kept them both up at night.
If it hadn’t been for the hands Agustin Rossi, Estudiantes, who saved two penalties in the quarter-finals, would have met Racing in the semi-finals of the continent’s top competition. And if Rossi hadn’t had brilliant reflexes in Avellaneda, Racing might today be able to play in the Club World Cup, where Flamengo is the protagonist.
The dream scenarios of Costas and Domínguez, leaders who use different profiles to earn the loyalty of the players they lead, are now being rewritten and point to an image that only one of the two can make a reality: winning the national cup at the Madre de Ciudades Stadium.
In the distant and now classic venue of the decisive matches of national football, two teams with outstanding players and titles that support the hopes of their fans will try to win football physically and mentally. Racing, Argentina’s strongest representative in international tournaments in the last two years. Estudiantes, the one who competed in domestic Olympic rounds in the 2023 and 24 seasons.
But since “glory is not a cakewalk,” as Osvaldo Zubeldía told his boys from multiple champion Estudiantes in the late 1960s, Domínguez’s side were walking the fine line of being on the brink of elimination in the regular phase. Although he lost to the Argentinos in the last game, in La Plata, he failed due to a series of results that brought him to a turning point: playing for Rosario Central.
The title arbitrarily awarded to the Canalla paradoxically triggered a reaction that spilled over onto the pitch. With their backs to the team that was surprisingly crowned league champions, Estudiantes began the path that today sees them conquering another championship. The subsequent sanction for this collective gesture of rejecting an extra-regulatory title strengthened a team that was faltering after saying goodbye to the Libertadores.
Racing, on the other hand, turned the international setback into spiritual nourishment and showed an impressive ability to chase the local title. And before selling dearly the defeat in the series with Flamengo, he had also achieved a series of positive results that allowed him to keep the chance to face Flamengo kill-kill.
Costas Academy has gone 12 games without defeat (eight wins and four draws). with only three goals conceded and 10 goals conceded. Facundo Cambeses, against whom only River managed to score twice in the round of 16, is proof of how much the coach’s decision influenced him to change course in difficult moments. It was not easy to remove Gabriel Arias, a reference and winner of six titles since his arrival at the club. Costas, who admitted to having suffered from this determination, did so and Cambeses justified the change.
Nazareno Colombo, who had always resisted and grumbled until the start of this season, received Costas’ blessing and also supported the team leader’s self-confidence with a very high level in electrifying games. The Clausura finalist Racing is going through adjustment difficulties and name changes that have had no impact on the mood. Because the academy is still instinctive.
But the final brings an additional challenge: trying to beat Estudiantes de Domínguez for the first time. Of the four meetings they had between 2024 and 25, León celebrated three times, while the remaining game last year ended in a goalless draw. At the end of last season, when Racing had just won the Sudamericana, Pincha ruined the party at Cilindro, where they won 5-4. In both the Apertura and the Clausura he won victories in La Plata (2:0) and Avellaneda (1:0).
The last of these three consecutive victories for Estudiantes against the Academy was signed Guido Carrillo, who was suspended for four dates and will return to the starting eleven. This goal he scored in El Cilindro was special for him, who asked to postpone the operation for a nasal septum injury and to pass the bill after a mistake by Agustín García Basso. The Racing defender, who was at a very low level at the time, has regained his best version and will try to take revenge today.
The statistics not only make Domínguez happy against Costas, Since 2021, as Colón coach, he has been League Cup champion, beating Juan Antonio Pizzis Racing 3-0 in San Juan, without an audience due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Students, Cabal Land, as they simply call it TraditionsThe last stage also gives her courage: she has already been consecrated twice in the Madre de Cities.
Last year, Pincha – who this Saturday will present for the first time a sponsor on the sleeves of his jersey, “Mercado Libre”, the company founded by Marcos Galperin that will accompany him throughout 2026 – completed two Olympic rounds against Vélez: the first was on penalties in the League Cup, while in the second they prevailed 3-0 and won the Champions Trophy. Domínguez, who has already collected three titles with the La Plata team, remembered a hero of the house on Monday Alejandro Sabella. The fifth anniversary of the death of the last coach to give Estudiantes the Copa Libertadores coincided with the semi-final victory against Gimnasia in El Bosque that paralyzed the city.
“We know the weight and legacy that Alejandro left on the institution. We are lucky enough to go to the country (from City Bell, where the team trains) every day and read what he said all the time. And it’s nice to do it. Because saying and not doing is nothing. And he taught, “More of us, less of me.” beard the meaning of Pachorra.
For Gustavo Costas, football son of Alfio Basile, the premise is simple: “In racing you have to become a champion, you have to strive for the highest and you can’t be afraid.” This is proven by his team, which strives for victory with heart and soul in all situations until their last breath. He reached the final by beating Boca at La Bombonera, where Adrián unblocked himself Wonder Martínez, the scorer of the cycle, who already has the Sudamericana 2024 and the Recopa 2025 on display.
“We will win with a goal of 1-0 Wonder“Santiago Sosa had predicted it before the game, the stronghold, playing with a mask due to the broken cheek that sidelined him for a month, and returned with the same determination as always. Sosa, who missed the classic with Boca because he was sent off against Tigre, shone in the agonizing 3-2 against River, his former club, in the round of 16. With his return, Costas regains a cold mind and a hot heart, to occupy the midfield and also the defense.
On the back line, Gastón Martirena is available again (he was also sent off against Matador), but Facundo Mura would continue on the right. The reason for this was to keep an eye on Edwuin Cetré, the sharp and dangerous winger who scored the goal for Tiago Palacios in the win against Gimnasia. Replacing the central defenders on the bench is Marcos Rojo, American champion with Estudiantes, who was brought to the attention of the audience after a second misstep.
Juan Sebastián Verón, suspended from his role as leader, will question his own logic habit of the final: he will be in one of the stands of the Provincial Stadium, where Pablo Toviggino, Claudio Tapia’s right-hand man, is a very strong man.
In Santiago del Estero, which begins to host a parade of light blue and white t-shirts and other t-shirts painted red in its streets, there will be a match with powerful stories and gifts that invite you to imagine an impressive duel. Racing and Estudiantes, in front of an audience, hand in hand for what was so often theirs and is usually theirs even in these times: fame.
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