Unión fall to Central Córdoba after set-piece goal in lacklustre match | OneFootball

For the fourth round of the Torneo Apertura, on paper Unión had a match to encourage them to aim higher against a Central Córdoba that had not won in the tournament and had gone 439 minutes without scoring. They were also coming off a 4-0 thrashing of Gimnasia de Mendoza, and everything indicated it could be a good night at the Madre de Ciudades. But the exact opposite happened.

The first half was flat, boring, and without chances. Unión did not create any danger, just a single shot on goal, the same as the home team. At the 10-minute mark, there was a hard foul by Tijanovich on Mauro Pittón that wasn’t even reviewed, in an action that could have changed the course of the game. The Ferroviario relied almost exclusively on crosses, left spaces, but Tatengue neither knew how nor was able to take advantage of them. There was no clear dominator and the match lent itself more to confusion than to play. The defense responded without trouble, although the lack of ideas from midfield forward was already noticeable.

At the start of the second half, Lucas Pusineri read the game and quickly made changes: he brought on Marco Iacobelli, who would end up being key, and sought a different dynamic. On Unión’s side, Madelón waited. He only switched Palacios and Del Blanco to opposite wings, but didn’t change any names or refresh the team until well into the second half.

And the match was broken where even matches are often broken: on a set piece. Iacobelli took charge of the delivery after a specific request from Michael Santos. A tight cross, weak marking, Unión poorly positioned, and Santos was the most alert of all to understand the value of that set piece in a match like this and push it into the net, ending a long drought for the home side. A direct blow to Tatengue’s chin.

From that point on, Unión didn’t know how to react. The substitutions came late and poorly. Tarragona came off, but not Estigarribia; Palavecino and Colazo came in, but the team never found clarity or depth. It was all disorganized effort, more desire than ideas, and just a header from Estigarribia that Aguerre handled well.

The end saw a confused Unión, without answers, paying dearly for a match they lost on their own. For not creating, for not changing in time, and for not reading the game better. Central Córdoba, with very little, took it all. Unión returned to Santa Fe empty-handed and with the feeling of having let a clear opportunity slip away.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.