It was the summer of 2000 and all was right in the barrio Núñez of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The men from “El Monumental” River Plate, having previously been crowned champions of the recent Apertura and Clausura tournaments, had set their sights on cementing their dominance of the national game, whilst reinforcing their chances of continental Copa Mercosur glory.

With this ambitious goal in mind, and the club’s prestigious centenary season also on the horizon, the River Plate board would set themselves the task of repatriating one of the club’s most beloved idols of the tim, from a somewhat erratic European adventure: Ariel “El Burrito” Ortega (along with Claudio Husaín) would return to his boyhood love River Plate from AS Parma, thus joining a notoriously expansive, attacking team, already spearheaded by a trio of outstanding prospects the likes of Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola and Colombian Juan Pablo Angel.

Combined to the returning Ortega, the media of time would quickly christen the quartet “Los 4 Fantasticos“, Argentine football’s very own “Fantastic 4“.

The 27th of August, and the 4th round of the 2000 Torneo Clausura would see River boss Americo “El Tolo” Gallego set the head-scratching task of introducing his big money recruit(s) in to an already established, successful side. The challenge could perhaps be seen as the first “Galacticos” style conundrum of the new millennium, to fit in all your stars whilst still managing to field a balanced team.

Gallego would opt for introducing Claudio Husain into a reinforced central midfield alongside Eduardo Berrizo, whilst giving his “enganches” Aimar and Ortega provisional positions wide on the wings*, with the license to come inside when River’s attacking full backs Adrian Lombardi and Diego Placente would bomb forward to join the attack. (* = A frequent tactical variation would see Husain pull wider to the right, allowing Aimar to drop into the middle in the hole behind the forwards)

The XI chosen to face Rosario Central was without doubt one of the strongest seen in the whole South American continent, even more so when you consider the likes of Martin Cardetti, Eduardo “Chacho” Coudet, Hernan Diaz or Leonel Gancedo where waiting in the wings as substitutes.

Sometimes it’s the case that the hype surrounding such players and their first match exceeds the actual contribution. This was certainly not the case for this River Plate team.

Early on, the “Fantastic 4” established their dominance of the ball. In particular. Ortega and “El Payaso” Aimar showing their full repertoire of tricks and flicks. Indeed, it would take “Los Milionarios” barely 5 minutes to get on the score-sheet, Javier “El Conejito” Saviola taking a pass from the returning Ortega and finishing with his clinical aplomb. The goal spurred on both the players and exuberant fans alike. River quickly racing into a 3 goal lead, courtesy of further goals from left wing-back Placente and Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel, the later finishing off a delightful combination between Aimar and Ortega, with a cool-headed finish.

Even a controversial penalty converted by Central could not halt the quartet’s super show. Playing against 10 men (and eventually 9) fans in El Monumental would have been forgiven for thinking this was an exhibition game, their side creating in excess of 20 attempts on goal, and were it not for the brilliance of Central keeper Jose Maria Buljubasich, the score might have ended up a historic one.

To the surprise of many, and despite the multitude of chances created, River would go on to score only one more goal, again Angel this time punishing the Central keeper’s only mistake, to make the final score River Plate 4 Rosario Central 1.

With such a resounding display fans leaving the stadium that day were no doubt convinced that their domestic dominance was set to continue for some time.

Fantastic Failure?

Surprisingly, the tale of the “Fantastic 4” would be one to end without any trophies. Despite having the league’s best attack, scoring in excess of 40 goals in just 19 games, River’s inability to close out games would come back to haunt them. In particular, their failure to finish off CA Huracan at home in their penultimate fixture proving extremely costly.

In such scenarios, many would attribute such a fiasco to an approach focused too much on attacking, perhaps inferring that River Plate quartet unbalanced the side. However, statistically it would be more accurate to say the problem was River’s failure was down to not being able to field all “4 Fantasticos” on a consistent basis. The game versus Rosario Central aside, Ortega, Aimar, Saviola and Angel only started together another 5 times.

In fact, in the 6 games they did play together River’s record was as close to “fantastic” as you would expect: undefeated, 5 wins, and 14 goals scored, 10 of which coming from the all-star quartets boots.

The end of the campaign would see the “Fantastic 4” disbanded, with Aimar and Saviola (and subsequently Angel also) heading off to Europe for extremely prosperous careers. And although River’s world renowned academy would produce two suitable replacements in Andrés D’Alessandro and Fernando Cavenaghi, fans of the game around the world alike are still left to wonder: “what if?”…

Personally I prefer to enjoy the quartets brief time together, below a highlights video (in Spanish) of the now famous River Plate 4 – Rosario Central 1 – Enjoy!