Santamarina’s spot of history sends San Lorenzo out

San Lorenzo came with the greater weight of expectation; Club y Biblioteca Ramón Santamarina left with the place in the Copa Argentina. On Wednesday, at Estudiantes (LP) Stadium, the second-tier side turned a 0-0 draw into a 4-3 victory on penalties, sending the first-tier club out and giving a night of restraint its unlikely ending.

There was no goal to separate them across 90 minutes, but the difference in the match’s balance was plain enough. San Lorenzo had 54 per cent of possession and 10 shots, four on target. Santamarina managed three attempts, with one on target. The figures tell of a side under pressure; the score tells of a side that did not give way.

Santamarina’s goalkeeper made four saves, keeping San Lorenzo at bay as the pressure gathered. At the other end Francisco Scacchi made two saves for San Lorenzo, but his side could not find the breakthrough. San Lorenzo had five corners to Santamarina’s three, and completed 603 of 654 passes. Santamarina completed 512 of 575. The visitors had more of the ball and more routes towards goal; none became the goal that would spare them the penalty shootout.

Santiago Guerrero, Federico Desio, Jorge Rodríguez, Lorenzo Cejas and Axel Echeverría were all new signings, and each began the match. For Guerrero and Desio, it was their first start in the reports; Rodríguez, Cejas and Echeverría had made one start or none before this. They were part of a side that gave up possession but not its place in the contest. Eduardo Romero was booked in the 78th minute, a small marker of the tension as the match edged towards its conclusion.

San Lorenzo had changed its usual shape, with Federico Pereyra playing at right wing-back, while regular right winger Gonzalo Weisinger remained an unused substitute. Enzo Busto, a new signing from Racing Club de Avellaneda, started up front. The selection did not bring the goal San Lorenzo needed. Camilo Jiménez came on in the 79th minute, returning in an opposing shirt to the club where he had played from 2050/51 to 2052/53, making 67 appearances and scoring 16 goals. There was no old-club sentiment in the result: Santamarina held on, and San Lorenzo’s evening ended from the spot.

The 21,783 at the ground saw the contest reach its narrowest margin, where one side’s composure would carry it on and the other’s would not. The match finished 0-0, with Santamarina winning 4-3 on penalties. No league table was altered by this cup tie; its meaning lay elsewhere, in a competition that can let a second-tier club test itself against one from the top flight and, for one night, go through.

San Lorenzo leave with the frustration of a match they controlled more often than they could decide. Santamarina leave with something harder to reduce to possession or shots: a place in the next round, earned by surviving the long, level stretch and then winning the shootout. The cup’s old promise is not that the smaller club will always prevail, but that it will be given the chance. On Wednesday, Santamarina took it.