2008–09 Argentine Primera División season

Primera División
Season	2008–09
Champions	Apertura: Boca Juniors (29th title) Clausura: Vélez Sarsfield (7th title)
Relegated	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J) San Martín (T)
2009 Copa Libertadores	Boca Juniors San Lorenzo Estudiantes (LP)
2010 Copa Libertadores	Vélez Sarsfield
2009 Copa Sudamericana	Lanús Vélez Sarsfield San Lorenzo Tigre
Top goalscorer	Apertura: José Sand (15 goals) Clausura: José Sand (13 goals) Season: José Sand (28 goals)
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008-09 Primera División season was the 118th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina and the nineteenth season in which the Apertura and Clausura system is used.

Boca Juniors won the Apertura championship for their 29th national title after a three team playoff with Tigre and San Lorenzo. The Clausura championship was won by Vélez Sársfield for their 7th national title. Gimnasia y Esgrima (J) and San Martín (T) were relegated to the Primera B Nacional.

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Format

The format for the 2008-09 season remained unchanged. The season was split into two tournaments called Apertura and Clausura. Each tournament was contested by the same 20 teams in a single round-robin format. The champions of each tournament is determined by points. If the tops teams would be tied at points at the end of each tournament, a playoff would be held at a neutral site. Relegation was determined at the end of the season.

Club information

San Martín (T)

GBA

Colón

Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)

Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams outside Greater Buenos Aires

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams within Greater Buenos Aires

Promotion and relegation

Olimpo and San Martín (SJ) were relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Primera División season. They were replaced by Godoy Cruz and San Martín (T), both of whom were promoted from the Primera B Nacional.

Gimnasia y Esgrima (J) and Racing played the relegation/promotion playoffs against Unión and Belgrano, respectively. Both Gimnasia and Esgrima (J) and Racing won their playoff matches and retained their status in top-flight football.

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
Argentinos Juniors	Buenos Aires	Diego Armando Maradona	24,800
Arsenal	Sarandí	Julio H. Grondona	16,300
Banfield	Banfield	Florencio Sola	40,500
Boca Juniors	Buenos Aires	Alberto J. Armando	49,000
Colón	Santa Fe	Brigadier General Estanislao López	32,500
Estudiantes (LP)	La Plata	Jorge Luis Hirschi	23,000
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	San Salvador de Jujuy	23 de Agosto	24,000
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	La Plata	Juan Carlos Zerillo	24,544
Godoy Cruz	Godoy Cruz	Malvinas Argentinas	40,268
Huracán	Buenos Aires	Tomás Adolfo Ducó	48,314
Independiente	Avellaneda	Libertadores de América	52,823
Lanús	Lanús	Ciudad de Lanús - Néstor Díaz Pérez	46,619
Newell's Old Boys	Rosario	Newell's Old Boys	38,095
Racing	Avellaneda	Presidente Juan Domingo Perón	51,000
River Plate	Buenos Aires	Monumental Antonio V. Liberti	65,645
Rosario Central	Rosario	Dr. Lisandro de la Torre	41,824
San Lorenzo	Buenos Aires	Pedro Bidegain	43,494
San Martín (T)	Tucumán	La Cuidadela	35,000
Tigre	Victoria	Monumental de Victoria	26,282
Vélez Sársfield	Buenos Aires	José Amalfitani	49,540

Personnel

Club	Manager
Argentinos Juniors	Claudio Borghi
Arsenal	Jorge Burruchaga
Banfield	Julio César Falcioni
Boca Juniors	Abel Alves
Colón	Antonio Mohamed
Estudiantes (LP)	Alejandro Sabella
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	Héctor Arzubialde
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	Leonardo Madelón
Godoy Cruz	Diego Cocca
Huracán	Ángel Cappa
Independiente	Américo Gallego
Lanús	Luis Zubeldía
Newell's Old Boys	Roberto Sensini
Racing	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi
River Plate	Néstor Gorosito
Rosario Central	Miguel Ángel Russo
San Lorenzo	Diego Simeone
San Martín (T)	Carlos Roldán
Tigre	Diego Cagna
Vélez Sarsfield	Ricardo Gareca

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Apertura changes
Huracán	Claudio Úbeda	Resigned	Sep. 14, 2008	Héctor Martínez (interim)	Sep. 15, 2008	20th
Estudiantes (LP)	Roberto Sensini	Resigned	Sep. 17, 2008	Leonardo Astrada	Sep. 20, 2008	18th
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	Guillermo Sanguinetti	Resigned	Sep. 29, 2008	Leonardo Madelón	Oct. 2, 2008	12th
Independiente	Claudio Borghi	Resigned	Oct. 5, 2008	Miguel Ángel Santoro	Oct. 6, 2008	15th
Rosario Central	Pablo Sánchez	Sacked	Oct. 6, 2008	Gustavo Alfaro	Oct. 10, 2008	19th
Godoy Cruz	Daniel Oldrá	Resigned	Oct. 28, 2008	Diego Cocca	Oct. 29, 2008	18th
Huracán	Héctor Martínez (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 3, 2008	Ángel Cappa	Nov. 4, 2008	15th
River Plate	Diego Simeone	Resigned	Nov. 9, 2008	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	Nov. 10, 2008	20th
Vélez Sarsfield	Hugo Tocalli	Resigned	Dec. 3, 2008	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	Dec. 4, 2008	6th
Inter-tournament changes
Argentinos Juniors	Néstor Gorosito	Resigned	Dec. 14, 2008	Claudio Vivas	Dec. 27, 2008	11th (A)
Vélez Sarsfield	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Ricardo Gareca	Dec. 16, 2008	9th (A)
River Plate	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Néstor Gorosito	Dec. 23, 2008	20th (A)
Newell's Old Boys	Fernando Gamboa	Resigned	Dec. 16, 2008	Roberto Sensini	Dec. 22, 2008	5th (A)
Clausura changes
Racing	Juan Manuel Llop	Sacked	Feb. 21, 2009	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Feb. 24, 2009	20th
Rosario Central	Gustavo Alfaro	Sacked	Feb. 28, 2009	Reinaldo Merlo	Mar. 2, 2009	18th
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	Omar Labruna	Resigned	Mar. 10, 2009	Héctor Arzubialde	Mar. 11, 2009	19th
Estudiantes (LP)	Leonardo Astrada	Resigned	Mar. 11, 2009	Alejandro Sabella	Mar. 15, 2009	18th
Independiente	Miguel Ángel Santoro	Resigned	Mar. 21, 2009	Américo Gallego	Mar. 27, 2009	8th
Banfield	Jorge Burruchaga	Resigned	Mar. 22, 2009	Julio César Falcioni	Mar. 23, 2009	9th
San Lorenzo	Miguel Ángel Russo	Resigned	Apr. 9, 2009	Diego Simeone	Apr. 16, 2009	10th
Rosario Central	Reinaldo Merlo	Resigned	Apr. 14, 2009	Miguel Ángel Russo	Apr. 16, 2009	9th
Arsenal	Daniel Garnero	Sacked	Apr. 25, 2009	José Rizzo (interim)	Apr. 26, 2009	16th
Arsenal	José Rizzo (interim)	End of contract	May 4, 2009	Jorge Burruchaga	May 5, 2009	18th
Argentinos Juniors	Claudio Vivas	Resigned	May 23, 2009	Claudio Borghi	Jun. 2, 2009	20th
Boca Juniors	Carlos Ischia	Resigned	Jun. 16, 2009	Abel Alves (interim)	Jun. 17, 2009	15th

Transfers

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura (English: Opening Tournament) was played between August 6 to December 14, 2008. The champions earned a spot in the 2009 Copa Libertadores.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	San Lorenzo	19	12	3	4	34	17	+17	39	Qualification for Championship playoff
1	Boca Juniors	19	12	3	4	33	21	+12	39
1	Tigre	19	12	3	4	31	19	+12	39
4	Lanús	19	11	4	4	34	23	+11	37
5	Newell's Old Boys	19	8	7	4	26	18	+8	31
6	Arsenal	19	8	4	7	26	27	−1	28
7	Estudiantes (LP)	19	8	4	7	24	25	−1	28
8	Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	19	6	9	4	17	15	+2	27
9	Vélez Sarsfield	19	7	5	7	22	27	−5	26
10	Colón	19	5	8	6	29	25	+4	23
11	Argentinos Juniors	19	5	8	6	25	26	−1	23
12	Godoy Cruz	19	6	5	8	25	28	−3	23
13	Banfield	19	5	8	6	18	21	−3	23
14	Racing	19	5	7	7	19	22	−3	22
15	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	19	6	3	10	19	31	−12	21
16	San Martín (T)	19	5	5	9	15	18	−3	20
17	Huracán	19	5	5	9	18	29	−11	20
18	Independiente	19	4	6	9	15	23	−8	18
19	Rosario Central	19	4	3	12	20	26	−6	15
20	River Plate	19	2	8	9	20	29	−9	14

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goals scored; 4th head-to-head points; 5th head-to-head goal difference; 6th head-to-head goals scored. This does not apply to determining the champion. If two or more teams would be tied in points at the end of the tournament, a playoff would be held at a neutral venue within 72 hours for the championship.

Results

Home \ Away	ARJ	ARS	BAN	BOC	COL	EST	GJU	GLP	GCR	HUR	IND	LAN	NOB	RAC	RIV	RCE	SLO	SMT	TIG	VEL
Argentinos Juniors				0–0		5–0				2–0			0–4	0–1		0–0	0–1		2–0	4–1
Arsenal	3–0		3–2	0–1	3–2				2–1	1–0			1–1	2–2	2–2					3–3
Banfield	2–2			0–1	0–0				1–2	0–0			2–1	1–0	2–1		1–3			2–2
Boca Juniors					3–2	1–2	4–0				1–1	2–1		2–1		2–1	1–0		2–3	2–3
Colón	5–2					0–1			0–0	1–1	1–2	3–3	1–1		1–1				2–2
Estudiantes (LP)		2–0	2–2				2–0	3–1			1–0	1–0			1–1			1–1	3–1
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	1–1	0–1	2–0		1–4			1–1	2–1	4–3			1–0		1–0			1–0
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–0				3–1	1–0			0–1		0–0			1–0
Godoy Cruz	1–1			4–1		2–1				2–3			0–0	1–0		1–0	1–2			1–3
Huracán				0–3		1–0					1–0		1–1	1–0		0–2	1–4		0–3	3–0
Independiente	1–1	1–2	0–1				3–2	1–1	1–1			0–2			0–1			1–0
Lanús	4–2	2–1	1–1				3–2	1–1	4–3	0–0					2–0			1–0
Newell's Old Boys				2–4		1–1					1–0	2–1		3–0		1–0	3–3		2–0	1–0
Racing					0–2	2–1	0–0	1–1			1–1	0–2				4–1	2–1		0–0	0–0
River Plate	1–2			0–1					1–2	3–3			1–1	3–3		2–0	0–0			1–2
Rosario Central		3–0	0–0		0–1	3–2	3–0	0–1			1–2	1–2						1–1	2–3
San Lorenzo		2–0			3–0	3–0	2–1	1–1			4–1	1–3				2–1		1–0	0–1
San Martín (T)	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–1				1–1	2–0			2–0	0–2	3–1
Tigre		2–1	1–0				1–0	3–1	2–0		1–0	3–0			3–1			1–2
Vélez Sarsfield					0–3	1–0	2–0	0–2			0–0	0–2				2–1	0–1	2–0	1–1

Source: RSSSF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship playoff

Since San Lorenzo, Tigre and Boca Juniors ended the tournament with the same number of points, a three-way playoff was played to determine the champions.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Boca Juniors (C)	2	1	1	3	2	+1	3	Qualification for 2009 Copa Libertadores Second Stage
2	Tigre	2	1	1	2	2	0	3
3	San Lorenzo	2	1	1	3	4	−1	3

Source: RSSSF
(C) Champions

2008 Torneo Apertura playoff

December 17, 2008

Round 1

Tigre	1–2	San Lorenzo
Lázzaro 76'	Report	Barrientos 18' Bergessio 20'

José Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aires

Referee: Saúl Laverni

December 20, 2008

Round 2

San Lorenzo	1–3	Boca Juniors
Solari 61'	Report	Viatri 45' Palacio 77' Chávez 90'

Presidente Perón Stadium, Avellaneda

Referee: Héctor Baldassi

San Lorenzo

Boca Juniors



GK	1	Agustín Orión
DF	2	Adrián González
DF	20	Gastón Aguirre
DF	16	Nicolás Bianchi Arce
DF	11	Aureliano Torres
MF	10	Pablo Barrientos
MF	28	Cristian Ledesma
MF	4	Juan Manuel Torres
MF	6	Santiago Solari	(1)
FW	7	Andrés Silvera	(2)
FW	15	Gonzalo Bergessio
Substitutes:
FW	18	Santiago Hirsig	(1)
FW	22	Cristian G. Chávez	(2)
GK	12	Nereo Champagne
DF	30	Fernando Meza
DF	3	Germán Voboril
MF	32	Salvador Reynoso
Manager:
Miguel Ángel Russo



GK	12	Javier García
DF	4	Hugo Ibarra
DF	2	Julio César Cáceres
DF	6	Juan Forlín	(1)
DF	3	Claudio Morel
MF	22	Fabián Vargas	(2)
MF	5	Sebastián Battaglia
MF	23	Jesús Dátolo
MF	10	Román Riquelme
FW	18	Luciano Figueroa	(3)
FW	27	Lucas Viatri
Substitutes:
DF	13	Facundo Roncaglia	(1)
MF	21	Cristian M. Chávez	(2)
FW	14	Rodrigo Palacio	(3)
GK	25	Josué Ayala
MF	15	Álvaro González
DF	33	Ezequiel Muñoz
MF	28	Nicolás Gaitán
FW	17	Ricardo Noir
FW	7	Pablo Mouche
Manager:
Carlos Ischia

December 23, 2008

Round 3

Boca Juniors	0–1	Tigre
	Report	Lázzaro 68'

Presidente Perón Stadium, Avellaneda

Referee: Sergio Pezzotta

Boca Juniors

Tigre



GK	12	Javier García	69'
DF	4	Hugo Ibarra
DF	13	Facundo Roncaglia	33'
DF	2	Julio César Cáceres
DF	3	Claudio Morel
MF	21	Cristian Manuel Chávez
MF	5	Sebastián Battaglia
MF	23	Jesús Dátolo	45'
MF	11	Leandro Gracián
FW	18	Luciano Figueroa	55'
FW	27	Lucas Viatri
Substitutes:
GK	25	Josué Ayala	69' 90'
MF	15	Álvaro González	45'
FW	14	Rodrigo Palacio	55' 89'
DF	33	Ezequiel Muñoz
MF	24	Exequiel Benavídez
MF	28	Nicolás Gaitán
FW	17	Ricardo Noir
Manager:
Carlos Ischia



GK	1	Daniel Islas
DF	27	Luis Ardente
DF	14	Pablo Jerez
DF	23	Norberto Paparatto
DF	6	Rodolfo Arruabarrena	(1)
MF	15	Sebastián Rosario	(2)
MF	17	Matías Giménez	(3)
MF	10	Martín Morel
MF	8	Jonathan Blanco
FW	7	Carlos Luna
FW	9	Leandro Lázzaro
Substitutes:
FW	31	Mauro Villegas	(1)
FW	15	Leonel Altobelli	(2)
FW	18	Sebastián Rusculleda	(3)
GK	21	Lucas Abud
DF	29	Pablo Fontanello
DF	2	Damián Leyes
DF	4	José San Román
Manager:

Primera División 2008 Apertura champions
Boca Juniors 29th title

Top Goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	15
2	Martín Morel	Tigre	13
3	Esteban Fuertes	Colón	11
4	Alejandro Gómez	Arsenal	8
4	Mauro Boselli	Estudiantes (LP)	8
6	Rubén Ramírez	Colón	7
	Lucas Viatri	Boca Juniors
	Pablo Barrientos	San Lorenzo
	Leonel Núñez	Independiente
	Carlos Luna	Tigre

Source: Scorer Stats (in Spanish)

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura (English: Closing Tournament) began on February 6, 2009 and ended on July 5, 2009. The champions earned a spot in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.