River Plate made a winning start to the Club World Cup and overcame the Argentinian club's crisis with a fine 3-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds, showing that Inter Milan will need to be very worried when they face Marcelo Gallardo's side.
The first thing that caught the eye in the Argentinians' victory was the strong pace that is characteristic of these Argentinian teams in international tournaments. Even with a frustrating campaign in the domestic league, River controlled the offensive actions and made a very strong imposition with advanced lines.
It's important to note how River's three goals came about. The first of these came when Marcos Acuña made a free run down the left and crossed for Colidio to get ahead of his marker and open the scoring in the 12th minute. Right after the break, a failure in the Japanese team's play ended up in a goal for Marcus Acuña, who had a cross with the opposing goalkeeper.
River Plate's third goal came after a corner kick, when Maxi Meza rose completely free at the far post to score the third goal. In other words, all three of the goals scored by Marcelo Gallardo's side came from set-pieces, which is a factor that has been exploited to great effect and will certainly attract more attention from River Plate.
On the other hand, it was also striking how River managed to defend well for most of the game, making it difficult for the Japanese to find space. However, when the intensity dropped, the Argentinian team lost momentum and ended up allowing their opponents to grow, which is a great asset that can be exploited by Inter and Monterrey.
Boca took many more people to the USA than River
Finally, the last point that caught the eye was the presence of only 11,000 fans at Lumen Field, a disappointing figure considering that Boca Juniors faced Benfica with more than 50,000 fans present at the Hard Rock Stadium.