From Reuters;

The fall season has seen infusion of skill and talent for last season's 8th place River Plate side. After questionable starts versus Edo's Squid and Blast FC "Los Millionarios" have not only found a rebirth but in today's record - setting performance showed character and guts unseen in previous matches. River Plate came into today's match in 4th place, one point ahead of the Blast FC and 4 points behind the Lions at a sold out Bryan Park Field in the spacious confines of CVSA Stadium. A roaring crowd cheered the streaking Red and Whites who have won 2 in a row, scoring 8 goals while shutting out it's opponents!

Today's match witnessed the leadership of Ricardo Francesco Lopresti (ToTo) manifest itself in an unprecedented performance! LoPresti opened what would end up being a record-setting day with a strike from 17yds out, low and fast past Lobo's Keeper, Barry Thomas. 1-0 at the 23rd minute. Lobos stormed back. Paolo Snafu Cortito, Lobos 5'4" Brazilian winger tea it up from the left side and sailed just over the calculated reach of Kevin Humphrey to top right corner - 1-1 at the 35th minute. Cortito would challenge again 5 minutes later from the same side and get a near post shot just under the diving keeper from Va. Tech! 2-1. with just minutes left in the first half Gio Scilachi Failla in an effort to clear the through ball shanked a right footer back into his own net sending both teams to the locker rooms Lobos up 3-1.

Reports close to Reuters confirm a riveting, positively laced rants by Alzuro and LoPresti. River Plate was without the services of two top scorers in Lanre and Jarvis. Baker who's speed and skill anchors the 4th best defense in the league was also out. Both Lanre and Jarvis were committed to playing friendlies for their respective World Cup squads (Cameroon and England) while Baker was on loan to the LA Galaxy and Blair with he playoff bound United. The defense lead by seasoned keeper Humphrey tapped on Columbia's Juan Santacoloma and Uruguay's Juan Hatchondo to spear head the central defense as Parker and Italy's Gio were ask to go virtually 90 minutes full speed! The defense set up huge

breaks against a violent Brazilian lead attack by Lobos Grieses. In the midfield Alzuro muscled Lobos out of their rhythm. This allowed the River plate attack some breaks in the seem to create pure magic! Standford, Mamone, Craig, Werness and Ukriane's Sergei  relentlessly cut through the Lobos midfield  and defense. Key passes by Kennedy and Peru's Lopez fed Italy's Lopresti and Thomas had no answer for Toto's right foot in the span of 24 minutes Toto scored 3 goals all low and hard from just inside 18 en route to two records, most goals scored in a game

and a natural hat-trick! Jarvis scored a regular hat-trick versus The Umbrellas in their previous match. The game did see some close calls in the 2nd half...Lobos crashed the crossbar twice, Costa Rica's Ramoncito misfired from 3yds out and Sergei's gol, bender from a corner kick was disallowed (Alzuro, called for obstruction).

With it's 3 key starters out some question the cohesion factor for the "Millionaires" from Buenos Aires. Clearly, the undaunted 15 did not let the nerves get to them they played together one attack at a time. The depth and character of a team is tested at every game...today the 4-1-4-1 formation has extended it's wining streak to 3, scoring 12 goals and allowing 3. Here are a few stats collected from Reuters.

Note:

*** = records set on 10/25/09

River Plate 40+ Boys Set Standard For Partizan in Inaugural Season.