Barracas Central 0-0 Argentinos Juniors will file away as a stalemate, but anyone who watched the middle of the park saw something worth remembering. Tomás Porra spent the afternoon going at defenders and mostly winning, finishing with six successful dribbles from eight attempts and drawing two fouls for his trouble.
Numbers like that rarely survive a 0-0. There is no goal to hang them on, no assist to point to, just a midfielder who kept receiving the ball in tight spaces and kept getting out the other side. Six from eight is the kind of return that usually opens a game up. On this occasion, Argentinos Juniors held firm everywhere else and the scoreline stayed blank.
What the numbers show
- 6 successful dribbles from 8 attempts
- Fouled 2 times
- Match rating: 7.5
The fouls tell their own story. Twice defenders had no other way to stop him than to bring him down, the sort of concession that usually signals a player has found his rhythm and his marker has run out of answers. Porra kept picking his moments, driving at Argentinos Juniors' backline and forcing them into decisions they did not want to make.
It added up to a 7.5 rating, comfortably the kind of individual mark that stands out in a match with no goals at all. Barracas Central will take the point at home to Argentinos Juniors, but the game will be remembered locally for the version of Porra who kept the ball glued to his feet and the crowd on its toes, even as the final whistle confirmed nothing had changed on the board.