Barracas Central VS Sarmiento Junin

Barracas Central host Samiento Junin for this round 7 of Copa De La Liga Profesional today. Neither team have really been at their best so far, especially in terms of offensive structure and creativity, but this is pretty normal at the early stage of the season. Typically for this league the goal expectancy here is low – and the probability of a draw is 34% - much more than in most football matches on at the highest level globally. Even though Copa De La Liga Profesional is a relatively low-level league on average by world standards, Argentina is still an amazing football country and football is clearly to most popular in the country! Fans are very enthusiastic and home advantage is high here as well. Indeed, Sarmiento Junin have two just one of their latest 10 matches in all competitions. All the biggest clubs on the planet have their scouts watching Argentinian and other South American promising youngsters - especially offensive players that play in the two groups of Copa De la Liga Profesional. Every year a long lasrge number of players leave Argentina to play for big teams in the most competitive leagues in Europe. These leagues include even English Premiership and especially Spanish LaLiga. 

The differences in class and financial resources between teams are unfortunately quite clear in this league. For example Boca Juniors are a legendary team with huge resources, and the iconic player Diego Maradona signed a contract with them back in 1981 at the age of 15 at. River Plate are another giant in the Argentinian football. Neither of the teams here are big teams though..Indeed, according to a well-known German website Transfermarkt.com the hosts’ squad is valued at 6.05 million, however in my opinion the fair value is about 8.5 million! Especially centre-forward Castro is surely more valuable than the 350 000 euros listed on Transfermarkt.com. The visitors’ team is value close to 11 million but I see that being to high an amount and 9.5 million would be more accurate. At least 4 of their players are over-valued. There is no denying the fact that Sarmiento Junin are the better team here though. They have grabbed 11 points so far in Group A whilst the host have 6 points in Group B. They started pretty poorly losing several matches in a row, but have won two of their latest matches. In their most recent match they took a surprising 3-1 win over Rosario Central away from home. Yes, they had some luck on their side, but defended very well against a very dangerous opponent as heavy underdogs. This must be a huge boost for them! I see the visitors as only slim favorites here, and the wise choice for my fans and myself is Barracas Central +0.5 goals handicap!