Soccer / Editor / 03 July 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

As the Argentinean Clausura comes to a close, Jonathan Wilson looks at how the unfashionable yet successful Huracan's approach to football, mirrors that of the national team.

This Argentinean clausura may have been one of the strangest in living memory, but it will reach an extraordinary climax on Sunday. It's not quite as tight as the triangular play-off that decided the apertura just before Christmas, but it's not far off as the top two, Huracan and Velez
Sarsfield, meet at Velez's Estadio Jose Amalfitani (Velez are [2.22]; Huracan [3.1]; the draw [3.2]).

Huracan, who have won their last five games are unbeaten in nine, need just a point to claim their first title ([1.57] to do so) since winning the Metropolitano under Cesar Luis Menotti
back in 1973.

Menotti's influence is still strong in Parque Patricios. His philosophy of fluent, enterprising football sits well with the club named after the Mayan god of the hurricane. Their present coach, Angel Cappa, served as Menotti's assistant at Barcelona, Penarol and Boca Juniors in the eighties, before working with that other great advocate of footballing adventure, Jorge Valdano, at Tenerife and Real Madrid in the nineties.

Cappa's previous record was somewhat modest but at Huracan he found an ambitious young squad that he has moulded into a mesmerising attacking unit. They have kept clean sheets in their last two games, but that is uncharacteristic: that they have conceded five goals more
than Velez in the clausura is telling, but still doesn't give the full picture of just how open they often are.

The strength of the side is the twin-playmaking axis of Javier Pastore and Matias de Federico. Pastore is 20, De Federico 19: both are supremely technically gifted, and they work devastatingly well as a pairing - De Federico the darting dribbler; Pastore the more cerebral and visionary - operating in the space created for them by big centre-forward Federico Nieto.

Velez had seemed to be running away with the title as they won four in a row in April, but three games without a victory at the beginning of May allowed the pack to close in, and they finally lost the top spot they had held almost since February last week, when they were held to
a 1-1 draw by Lanus.

They have the best defensive record in the league (although 13 conceded in 18 games is hardly stingy by European standards). Emiliano Papa, on the left, has excelled, earning a call-up to the national side, while the main goal threat comes from the experienced Uruguayan
Hernan Lopez and the 20-year-old Jonathan Cristaldo, another of the fleet of young Argentinian technicians who would speak of a glorious future if only they could find anything resembling a defence.

Exciting it undoubtedly is, and those jaded by the domination of the Big Four in England must look in wonder at a league so competitive that none of the three teams who finished joint top of the season's opening half were in contention by the final week of the second (if
Argentina had a western European-style season, and you added the two halves together Lanus would have been champions by some distance - but then, Boca and San Lorenzo may not have looked quite so disinterested in the latter stages).

But there are those who wonder whether it is good for Argentinian football. Estudiantes beat Nacional of Uruguay last night to reach the Copa Libertadores final (they are [2.04] to beat either Cruzeiro [1.15] or Gremio [3.1] in the final - the second leg of that semi is played
tonight, with Cruzeiro holding a 3-1 first-leg lead], but in general this was a deeply disappointing year for Argentinian clubs. The national side flounders in World Cup qualification (although they
remain at just [7.0] to win the finals next summer), for all the quality of its attacking midfielders - and their strength is reflected in Huracan's. For breathtaking as Leo Messi, Kun Aguero and Carlos Tevez can be, their ability is meaningless without a defensve platform.

Aregntinian league football is brilliant to watch because it is attacking and unpredictable, packed with creators and forwards. What it seems not to be producing at the moment, though, is good goalkeepers or good defenders.

Just look at the national team, where Diego Maradona has been unable to settle on a goalkeeper, and where Gabriel Heinze and Javier Zanetti, both well past their peaks, continue to be first choices at the back. The corollary of that is that the good strikers who are produced are not rigorously tested until they move on to Europe.

Still, none of that will matter on Sunday evening as Argentina enjoys another grand finale.