“363 nights dreaming of this day” was the legend of a flag hanging on a stadium stand Monumental. The television broadcast recorded it seconds after focusing on the tears of Matias Almeydathe then technician of River. The millionaires had just put an end to the worst nightmare in their history and they reflected it in the most diverse ways. The traumatic adventure in the Second Division was over. The giant returned to First and began a fabulous stage, perhaps the most brilliant in his immense history. It happened just 10 years ago today.
It was not an easy road. The relief just came on the last date of the championship of the National First B. That June 23, 2012, River beat Almirante Brown 2-0 with a brace of David Trezeguet and captured the title. He parked at 73 points (20 wins, 13 draws and 5 losses), above Quilmes’ 72, Instituto’s 70 and Rosario Central’s 69.
The flag and the cry of Almeida They are valid as symbols. El Pelado had been one of the players who had gone down a year earlier. Two days after that brutal dagger, pierced by pain, Almeida met with the president Daniel Passarella and told him that he wanted to be the coach of River on the ascent. It was. And he put together a team with soccer players identified with the diagonal red band.
With the descent barely consummated, also the friends Fernando Cavenaghi and Alexander Dominguez immediately made themselves available to return to River. Back, Jonatan Maidana became strong and Ramiro Funes Mori never trembled. The Uruguayan was key Carlos Sanchez. surfaced Lucas Ocampos as a flag of freshness. The other Funes Mori, Rodrigo, the forward, contributed decisive goals.
At the end of 2011, for the second half of the championship, there were two stellar additions. A star landed: the world champion Trezeguet, another self-confessed millionaire fan who had witnessed the relegation match from the Belgrano stalls. and returned Leonardo Ponzio.
Despite the great difference in individual hierarchy that River he took them all out, it was difficult for him to ascend. In every part of the country that he visited, a red and white party was set up. However, under heavy pressure, on fields that he had never imagined visiting and against rivals he had never played against, the team was often caught by irregularities and gave up points. That’s why he was champion with just enough.
“If we won 1-0 it was because we had played badly, if we won 7-1 it was because we had played against no one,” explained Almeyda later, who asked his soccer players not even to go out to eat with their children in such a sensitive climate. families.
That coronation that generates discussions in the fans of River, that return to the First Division that some millionaire fans swear they did not celebrate, marked a before and after in the history of the club. That June 23, 2012 meant a break. River closed the darkest stage of his football life and opened the brightest.
Several players of that promotion team became icons of a River who came back from maximum pain with bestial force. maidana y Pontius became symbols of the Golden Age led by Marcelo Gallardo. With fewer Olympic laps, they also continued to make a mark Cavenaghi, Ramiro Funes Mori and Sanchez.
back in first, River became a specialist in beating Boca. In addition, it was promoted at the international level reaching its maximum peak with the final of the Libertadores 2018 won over Boca in Madrid. The reconstruction began just ten years ago, that day of the crying of Almeidathat day that River he had dreamed for 363 nights.
This is how Mundo Deportivo explained the return of River to the First Division
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