Riep calls it quits plus starting XI at Maracaibo

By: Lugo | January 13th, 2008

Citing family reasons Rodrigo Riep has formally renounced his place at Junior but one wonders if the name of Giovanni Hernandez had too much to weigh in his decision as the first thing that the Colombian international did after arriving to Barranquilla was stripping the Argentinean of his no. 10 shirt at least in training. (Obviously, this was on team orders).

Altough many might think that Riep was the one called upon to form a lethal partnership with Giovanni, the fact that boss Escobar might not necessarily play with two offensive mids and that he has to use an under 20 player and that spot might go Causado severely hurted Riep’s starting chances. So to partner Giovanni, now Escobar “only” has Acuña, Rolong, Causado and even Del Castillo altough i’m stil wondering… What ever happened to Pedro Ortega??

Junior is playing today (Jan 13) its first pre-season friendly away against UA Maracaibo from Venezuela and according to Junior’s website the projected lineups are:

UNION ATLETICO MARACAIBO

Tulio Hernández; Julio Machado, Gregory Lancken, Claudio Muñoz; Pedro Fernández, Gabriel Urdaneta, Jorge Rojas, Víctor Villarreal, Guillermo Beraza; Armando Maita, Víctor Guazá.

JUNIOR

Didier Muñoz; Haider Palacio, Marcelo Méndez (John Valencia), Hilario Cuenú, César Fawcett; Dumar Rueda, Alexander Del Castillo, Emerson Acuña (Andrés Casañas), Giovanni Hernández; Jorge “La Babilla” Díaz, Edwards Jiménez.

From the rival, former Venezuelan NT star Gabriel Urdaneta should be watched out as he is coming back home after a successful spell in Switzerland and also winger Jorge Rojas who was with America de Cali last year and has a splendid crossing skills. Victor Guazá Lucumí is a Colombian youngster who had tried his luck in Colombia with Atletico Huila without much success.

But for Junior, Haider Palacio and Marcelo Mendez are making their comeback debuts and the 3 players will also debut in the midfield (Rueda, Del Castillo and Gio) and one more up front (Jiménez). So hopefully this team will start showing glimpses of what a Colombian league title favourite. Winning against Venezuelan opposition is always a must (no matter how hard or easy it might be) but we shouldn’t get carried away by an eventual goal glut in Junior’s favor. It’s just preseason after all.

Latest transfer news include the arrival of Roller Cambindo to complete stregthening the defense because the Piccoli deal collapsed but there’s still no final word on Pepe Moreno.

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