River Plate Fires Eduardo Coudet After Copa Sudamericana Exit to Independiente Santa Fe

Elimination hurts, but the way this one ended hurts even more. River Plate crashed out of the 2026 Copa Sudamericana in the round of 16 against Independiente Santa Fe, and that Wednesday night changed the course of an entire era. Eduardo Coudet skipped the microphones as soon as the match ended. He chose silence instead, shutting himself away to think, letting the words come later.

They came on Thursday. And with them came confirmation of what had been whispered since the early morning hours: El Chacho is no longer River's coach.

The story of that night played out away from the cameras. Coudet met with part of the club's leadership into the small hours, in a conversation that ran far longer than usual after a defeat. There were no shouting matches or slammed doors, by all accounts: just a shared diagnosis. The results weren't matching the project, the Sudamericana exit was the final straw, and both sides agreed that the best move for everyone was to cut ties there.

The clearest sign of the break came with what happened to the squad's routine. The team had been scheduled to train Thursday at the Ezeiza facility, like any other post-match day. But those plans changed in an instant. In their place, a press conference was called at the Estadio Monumental starting at 3 p.m., with a single purpose: for Coudet to explain in person why he wouldn't continue on the bench.

An Era Ends in the Cup

It's worth asking how much this particular elimination weighed against the pile-up of results that had already been battering the team. For many at the club, the Sudamericana had been seen as a way to find some breathing room in the middle of a demanding season. Falling in the round of 16 to Independiente Santa Fe instead became the final push toward an exit that had seemed to hang in the air for some time.

River now faces the task of finding a replacement while the season keeps moving, with matches ahead that won't wait for the org chart to settle. Thursday's press conference at the Monumental doesn't just mark Coudet's farewell, it also officially opens the search for whoever takes over at a club where, as always, the margin for error in Nunez has never been generous.