River Plate emerged as Torneo Preparación victors on Sunday night against Peñarol to win the inaugural edition of the tournament.
The Torneo Preparación was set up to provide the 16 Primera División teams with a warm up tournament for the 2011/12 Clausura during the summer break, but also provided fans from the interior of the country to watch games first-hand. Eight stadiums were used to host the tournament, which was a straight knock-out between the 16 sides, with games even being held in the small provincial towns of Trinidad, Fray Bentos and Treinta y Tres.
Some of Uruguay's bigger teams, including Peñarol, Nacional and Defensor Sporting, chose to use teams predominantly made up of youth players throughout the tournament due to their involvement in the Copa Libertadores; Peñarol are due to play their first group game later this week away to Godoy Cruz, while Nacional and Defensor Sporting have already begun their campaigns.
Teams were seeded according to their league positions at the end of the 2011 Apertura, but River Plate made hard work of reaching the final as it took penalties to see them past both Fénix in the first round and El Tanque Sisley in the semi-finals. Peñarol, meanwhile, beat both Rentistas and Racing 3-0 before seeing off Wanderers on penalties in the semi-finals.
The final was held in in the 30,000 capacity stadium in Rivera, situated on the northern border of Uruguay with Brazil and home of former Primera side Frontera Rivera. Maureen Franco gave River Plate the lead after seven minutes before young forward Alejandro Siles equalised for Peñarol midway through the first half. Just before half time though, Franco found the net again for 2-1, and River Plate held on for the win.
The Uruguayan Clausura starts in a week's time, with teams looking to break Nacional's stranglehold on domestic titles; the Montevideo side are the current holders of both the Apertura and Clausura titles.
