Viatri puts the last month behind him
With three matches remaining, Boca Juniors have taken the summit of the Torneo Apertura 2008 thanks to a 2-1 win in spite of Juan Román Riquelme having a penalty saved away to San Martín de Tucumán. Combined with Tigre’s 3-1 loss to Estudiantes in La Plata, the result was enough to send Boca top – but just four points separate them from fourth-placed Lanús. Should be an interesting last three rounds…
The drama began for Boca 23 minutes in, when referee Carlos Maglio gave a penalty for a perceived foul on Luciano Figueroa. Riquelme stepped up to take it, but San Martín goalkeeper Marcos Gutiérrez saved well to his left. It came in the middle of a first half Boca dominated for both possession and territory, but they still had to ride their luck on ocassion – not least from a thunderous free kick which home midfielder Gerardo Solana crashed against the crossbar minutes after the saved penalty.
It was Alvaro González who started the counter which gave Boca the lead eight minutes before half time, stealing the ball from Raúl Saavedra and feeding Lucas Viatri in the middle of the penalty area. He’s attracted some unsavoury headlines this week, but the young striker showed he’d put them behind him with a good finish to make it 1-0.
In the second half Boca continued to play better but Hugo Ibarra was an exception and San Martín had some joy down the left as a result. It was from that flank that the equaliser originated just before the hour mark, Saavedra bursting forward from left back and cutting inside to release a crashing drive from outside the box which Javier García in the Boca goal didn’t have any answer to. Just three minutes later, though, Riquelme dummied a free kick just over the wall and Figueroa made himself the time and space to turn and, with a strong finish, send Boca to the top of the table.
At the same time, Tigre were comprehensively outplayed by Estudiantes in spite of a lot of running and huffing. Seba Verón got things rolling early on with a free kick, and Iván Moreno y Fabianesi doubled Estudiantes’ tally half an hour in. The second half consisted largely of Tigre hurling themselves forward to not much effect until stoppage time, when Carlos Luna pulled one back. That goal, however, came less than a minute after Leandro Benítez had cut in from the right and sent a shot flying into the top corner in a manner that called to mind comparisons between feet and traction engines (apologies to my non-British readers who almost certainly won’t have a clue what I’m talking about).
Elsewhere on Sunday, River Plate took an early lead at home to Argentinos Juniors but threw it away to lose 2-1, and Vélez Sársfield beat Gimnasia de Jujuy 2-0 in Liniers thanks to two goals in the last 15 minutes.
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“sent a shot flying into the top corner in a manner that called to mind comparisons between feet and traction engines (apologies to my non-British readers who almost certainly won’t have a clue what I’m talking about).”
I’m American, and I know exactly what you’re talking about. :)
“That was liquid football!”
Or as someone pointed out recently in the states when comparing two prominent politicians: “the difference between throwing a bullet and shooting one”. That was a rocket by Saavedra against Boca as well.
Are you sure Maglio wasn’t wearing a Boca shirt under his referee’s one? ;-)
The free kick Boca won with looked pretty dubious to me. Boca got a string of marginal decisions, the only one he definitely got right was that Morel didn’t handle the ball for a penalty.
But San Martin should definitely have had a penalty when Ibanez was brought down. To be fair, it was easy to be distracted by Roncaglia rolling across him with a challenge that in itself would have been harsh if it had been given a foul, but there was Battaglia bringing up the rear, he *definitely* made contact with Ibanez to help bring him down.
Mind you, I don’t know why I’m complaining, Racing can breathe a little easier in the promedios and GELP move up a place. Gracias Boca y Maglio! : )
Oh, and by the way, *another* mistake by Gutierrez. Never mind the penalty save, the organisation of the defence for Boca’s first goal was a joke, I can see the old guy being replaced in Jan.
I agree. That should have been a penalty on Battaglia. I cringed when I saw Roman was going to take the penalty kick. He’s just not very confident right now. A really weak effort.