Sportivo Flores Norte1 - 0Unión Once

Sportivo Flores Norte rounded off a hard day’s work at the Florencio Sola with a victory they deserved more for attitude than for the scoreline. Unión Once arrived looking to cause problems and, to a fair extent, managed it: they maintained an organised shape for the full ninety minutes, gave away no space and forced the home side to settle the fixture through accuracy rather than explosiveness. Both teams set out with the same system, two lines of four and midfielders spread across the width, which pointed to a tight match. And so it proved. The 1-0 result is fair overall, though in a match where chances were scarce, the margin could easily have been even narrower.

Edu Villagra, the 36-year-old veteran who remains the compass of the home midfield, produced an organised display without too many flashes of brilliance. At 36, after a career built on hard graft, he is still useful but no longer has the bite of earlier years. He picked up a yellow card that limited his aggression in the second half. For the visitors, Omar Sarmiento did his job from central midfield with that kind of quiet but effective football, winning the ball and moving it on without any desire to be the main man. His 6.6 rating reflects exactly what was seen: a player who understands his role, nothing more, nothing less.

The home defence worked on the basis of two young but solid centre-backs. Andrés Falcón, just twenty-one, continues to show that the move from Patagonia was well worth it. With 7.7, he was precisely the sort of defender who wins his duels without fuss, without drama. Ethan Rainoldi, four years older than his teammate but with the same certainty in his actions, made up a reliable partnership. Santiago Ferreyra, the 32-year-old visiting centre-back, tried to bring experience from the back but found little room to shine in a match where both sides were tight-fisted with the ball.

The goal that decided the story had no drama in its making. Vidal Filippa, the right winger for Flores Norte with 7.4, was the man who made the difference on the line. He comes from the south like Falcón, with that Patagonian austerity of those who grow up in cities where football is survival. His work was that of a wide man who understands that the modern game demands defensive sacrifice as well as attacking judgement. The details inside the visiting box ended up costing them the 1-0, though strictly speaking the live account of the goal cannot be specified because the specific information on the move did not arrive with the details of the play. What is certain is that Unión Once’s defence, with Ferreyra and his age-related limitations, found no way to stop what was coming.

Adolfo Bengoetxea in the home goal had barely anything to do, though that should not be read as an absence. A 21-year-old goalkeeper who continues to turn up in matches like this is a goalkeeper who is in the right place. Unión Once did not create clear chances, which speaks well of the home defence’s organisation. It was a match Sportivo Flores Norte won because they better understood the codes of a tight fixture and because, in Primera I GBA Norte, that remains very much the norm.

In the last 2 meetings between Sportivo Flores Norte and Unión Once: 2 wins for Sportivo Flores Norte, 0 draws and 0 for Unión Once.

• Sportivo Flores Norte 5-2 Unión Once
• Unión Once 0-1 Sportivo Flores Norte

Full Sportivo Flores Norte vs Unión Once head-to-head →

Sportivo Flores Norte (4-4-2): Adolfo Bengoetxea, Manuel Saavedra, Ethan Rainoldi, Andrés Falcón, Iván Camargo, Axel Aldunate, Brian Ferrari, Edu Villagra, Vidal Filippa, Valentín Silva, Tito Bettega.

Unión Once (4-4-2): Tito Montenegro, Sebastian Vicente, Santiago Ferreyra, Valentino Zoppi, Juan Hoyos, Jeremías Zambon, Omar Sarmiento, Mirko Bonelli, Osvaldo Pedraza, Ariel Zorzi, Javier Biagini.

In Primera I - GBA Norte, Sportivo Flores Norte are in position 10 with 39 points; Unión Once are in position 7 with 42 points. See the full table

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Sportivo Flores Norte, with 1,695 fans. Home ground: Estadio Sportivo Flores Norte.

Unión Once, with 1,609 fans. Home ground: Estadio Unión Once.

Next match for Sportivo Flores Norte: vs su proximo rival — Sunday 1 November at 00:45 GMT

Next match for Unión Once: vs su proximo rival — Sunday 1 November at 00:45 GMT