Torneo Internacional Nocturno Rioplatense

The Torneo Internacional Nocturno Rioplatense (English: Rioplatense Night International Tournament) was a non-confederative^{[note 1]} association football club competition contested by teams from Argentina and Uruguay.^[2]

The Internacional Nocturno was part of several tournaments contested by Argentine and Uruguayan clubs only (such as Tie Cup, Copa de Honor Cousenier, Copa Aldao, and Copa Escobar-Gerona, among others). It was held on four occasions during the summer recess of official competitions in Argentina and Uruguay between 1936 and 1944.^[3]

Torneo Internacional Nocturno was a predecessor of Argentine Torneos de Verano, first held in 1968 and always played during January and February in Argentina,^[4] with Uruguayan (and also clubs from other countries) being invited to them.^[5]

Format

Participating teams played each other in a single round-robin system. The team with most points at the end of the tournament was crowned champion. That system changed in 1944 when participants were divided into two groups of five teams each, where the first of each zone qualified to play a final that decided a champion.^[3]

Participating teams

Clubs that contested the International Nocturno during over the years were Independiente, Racing, San Lorenzo, Newell's Old Boys, Peñarol, Nacional (all editions), Rosario Central (1936, 1938, 1944), Boca Juniors (1936, 1938, 1943), River Plate (1936, 1938, 1944), Estudiantes (LP) (1938, 1944), and Huracán (1943, 1944)

Notable players

Although being a friendly competition, participating clubs attended the Torneo Internacional Nocturno with their senior squads so some of most notable footballers of Argentina and Uruguay of those times played in the tournament.

Some of those players were Francisco Varallo, Mario Boyé, Ernesto Lazzatti (Boca Juniors); Raimundo Orsi, Arsenio Erico, Vicente de la Mata, Antonio Sastre (Independiente), Bernabé Ferreyra, Carlos Peucelle, José Manuel Moreno, Angel Labruna (River Plate), Roque Máspoli, Severino Varela (Peñarol), Atilio García, Roberto Porta (Nacional), Rinaldo Martino (San Loernzo), René Pontoni (Newell's), Waldino Aguirre (Rosario Central), Manuel Pelegrina, Ricardo Infante (Estudiantes LP), and Emilio Baldonedo (Huracán).^[6]

Notable matches

The match where Nacional beat Estudiantes de La Plata 2–1 played on 19 February 1938 in La Plata remains as one of the most violent matches in the history of South American football and a clear example of the strong Rioplatense rivalry. Media that covered the match stated: "a victory from Nacional had to be avoided in any way, and we feared for the Uruguayan supporters' safety" (Uruguayan newspaper El Diario). On the other hand, Argentine magazine El Gráfico wrote: "Saturday at La Plata there were two fights, 50% to the ball, 50% to the rival players. Nobody was safe, even the referee was on the verge of being beaten".^[7]

It was revealed that there were armed persons at the stadium, and some of those people would have showed their guns near the lockers during the halftime. After being noticed of that, Nacional captain Ricardo Faccio encouraged his teammates to win the match "for us and for our families". Atilio García scored two goals (the second one with his shirt covered on his own blood after he had been injured) for the final win over Estudiantes. Because of that, the match (attended by 20,000) remained on records as "the match of the blooded shirts".^[7][8][9]

Beyond the violence, the Huracán 8–1 Peñarol (with a hat-trick by Norberto "Tucho" Méndez) on February 25, 1943,^[10] was the all-time largest win of the tournament.^[3]

Editions

* Champion  

1936

Pos.	Club	Pts	Pl	W	D	L	Gf	Gc	Dif
1º	Independiente	13	8	5	3	0	24	10	14
2º	San Lorenzo	12	8	5	2	1	22	17	5
3º	Rosario Central	10	8	4	2	2	20	17	3
4º	River Plate	9	8	3	3	2	19	19	0
5º	Newell's Old Boys	8	8	2	4	2	12	12	0
6º	Nacional	6	8	1	4	3	7	10	-4
7º	Peñarol	6	8	2	2	4	18	21	-3
8º	Boca Juniors	5	8	1	3	4	14	20	-6
9º	Racing	3	8	1	1	6	17	28	-11

1938

Pos.	Club	Pts	Pl	W	D	L	Gf	Gc	Dif
1º	Nacional	14	9	7	0	2	16	8	8
2º	San Lorenzo	12	9	6	0	3	28	21	7
3º	Boca Juniors	11	9	5	1	3	25	16	9
4º	Newell's Old Boys	10	9	4	2	3	24	19	5
5º	Independiente	9	9	4	1	4	22	17	5
6º	Racing	9	9	4	1	4	21	16	5
7º	Rosario Central	8	9	3	2	4	15	20	-5
8º	Peñarol	7	9	3	1	5	23	31	-8
9º	River Plate	7	9	3	1	5	13	21	-8
10º	Estudiantes (LP)	3	9	1	1	7	15	33	-18

Top scorers

Player	Club	Goals
Atilio García	Nacional	12
Arsenio Erico	Independiente	11
Luis Rongo	River Plate	9

1943

Pos.	Club	Pts	Pl	W	D	L	Gf	Gc	Dif
1º	Newell's Old Boys	11	7	5	1	1	19	13	6
2º	Boca Juniors	9	7	4	1	2	15	6	9
3º	Independiente	8	7	4	0	3	22	20	2
4º	Nacional	7	7	3	1	3	17	18	-1
5º	Huracán	6	7	3	0	4	20	18	2
6º	Peñarol	6	7	2	2	3	15	21	-6
7º	Racing	5	7	2	1	4	15	20	-5
8º	San Lorenzo	4	7	2	0	5	14	22	-8

1944

Group A

Pos.	Club	Pts	Pl	W	D	L	Gf	Gc	Dif
1º	River Plate	5	4	2	1	1	12	7	5	First position playoff
1º	Nacional	5	4	2	1	1	6	4	2	First position playoff
3º	Huracán	4	4	1	2	1	10	10	0
4º	San Lorenzo	4	4	2	0	2	8	13	-5
5º	Peñarol	2	4	0	2	2	3	5	-2

Group B

Pos.	Club	Pts	M	W	D	L	Gf	Gc	Dif
1º	Rosario Central	5	4	2	1	1	5	4	1	Qualified to the final
2º	Estudiantes (LP)	4	4	2	0	2	9	9	0
3º	Newell's Old Boys	4	4	1	2	1	8	8	0
4º	Independiente	4	4	2	0	2	5	9	-4
5º	Racing Club	3	4	1	1	2	6	7	3

Group A first place playoff

*   Winner of the series

Team 1	Team 2	Res.	Venue	City
River Plate	Nacional	6–3	San Lorenzo Stadium	Buenos Aires

Final

Team 1	Team 2	Res.	Venue	City
River Plate	Rosario Central	2–0	San Lorenzo Stadium	Buenos Aires

List of champions

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1936	Independiente	San Lorenzo	– [note 2]
1938	Nacional [9]	San Lorenzo	– [note 2]
1943	Newell's Old Boys [11]	Boca Juniors	– [note 2]
1944	River Plate	Rosario Central	2–0

See also

• Torneos de Verano (Argentina)

Notes

References