Were 363 days. She seemed like a life. An ordeal that began on June 26, 2011 with the defeat in the Promotion against Belgrano de Córdoba and lasted until the last date of the National B tournament, on June 23, 2012, when River Plate won the return to the First Division. They already passed ten years of that Monumental relief.
From Jujuy to Puerto Madryn as the extreme points of the map, the team led by Matias Almeyda traveled a total of 18,675 kilometers in 38 dates. The odyssey of ascent went through all possible states.
Almost a year of anguish and moving encouragement, of goals that reflected the difference in category and blows that further damaged the wounded pride, of a massive tour of the Argentine provinces and a pilgrimage of love that was summed up in two little songs of popular fervor: “in bad times much more” and “the stands are not enough, the tickets are not enough, we show them what River is in bad times”.
10 years after River’s return to Primera: reconstruction begins
From the crying of the players in a burning Monumental the spirit of resurrection was born. Almeyda, the captain who had missed the rematch against Belgrano due to suspension (1-1 in Núñez after the 2-0 loss in Córdoba), a few hours after the relegation was completed, accepted the offer of Daniel Passarella -the president who signed the debacle initiated by his predecessor Jose Maria Aguilar– to replace Juan Jose Lopez as a technician of the fallen giant.
And, unusually, unlike the last transfer market in the A, when he only incorporated Fabián Bordagaray, to play in the B Nacional River he pointed to hierarchical reinforcements. Fernando Cavenaghi y Alejandro “Chori” Dominguez they forgot their differences with the “Kaiser” and returned to Núñez with their hearts in their hands.
But they also returned Christian “Lobo” Ledesma y Nicholas Sunday; among others, the arrivals of Carlos Sanchez y Martin Aguirreand already in the middle of the road there was another huge leap in quality with the return of Leonardo Ponzio and the landing of a world champion: David Trezeguet.
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Fan of the Band since his childhood in Vicente López, the French nationalized striker won the millionaire sky for his two goals in the 2-0 against Almirante Brown that a decade ago untied the knots in the throats and They returned River to the top flight being champion of the BN tournament with 73 points: 20 wins, 13 draws and five losses, with 66 goals for and 28 against.
The campaign began with a tight 1-0 win over Chacarita at the Antonio Vespucio Liberti, then had venues without an audience in San Lorenzo and Huracán and, after those five games of sanction for the damage to the stadium on the afternoon of relegation, he returned to the Monumental but without the high Sívori stand enabled.
Lost in Corrientes against Boca Unidos (a goal by Cristian Núñez) the same weekend that the other Boca became undefeated champion, faced rivals that he would never have imagined and Atlanta was perhaps the reflection of the ambivalence: They thrashed it 7-1 at home and fell 1-0 at the Vélez stadium.
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Despite having a 64% effectiveness, suffering accompanied him at all timesto the point that on the penultimate date it lost 1-0 to Patronato de Paraná, on the field of Colón de Santa Fe, and for that reason reached the definition inch by inch with teams of shaft such as Rosario Central, Instituto de Córdoba and Quilmes, the other that ultimately got the ticket for direct promotion.
The top scorer, with 19 goals, was Cavenaghi, captain of a squad that, in addition to the firmness of Jonatan Maidanathe only starting footballer both on the day of relegation and promotion, had the contribution of home players such as Lucas Ocampos, Ezequiel Cirigliano and the twins Ramiro and Gabriel Funes Mori.
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On November 12, 2011, in the Monumental, a flag was hung for the first time that says “You will see me return and you will kneel”. That it was fair in a River 0-2 defeat against Atlético Tucumán reflects the path of thorns that was that year in the B Nacional, 363 eternal days… Like the glory that would come after.
