Guest friendly report: Melbourne Victory 0 – 1 Boca Juniors

My internet connection is down for the weekend at home (I’m typing from a cafe/bar in San Telmo called La Poesía, which I heartily recommend to anyone of a literary bent who’s visiting or living in Buenos Aires), but fortunately for me I’m having some content provided for me today by Niel Zimmerman of the excellent Melbourne Victory blog Victory In Melbourne. He was at the Victory vs Boca Juniors friendly the other day, and you can read his brief report of the action here, along with a video of the only goal.

Boca Juniors kicked off their Australasian tour with a hard fought and often spiteful 1-0 win over Australian side Melbourne Victory. In Claudio Borghi’s first match in charge of the Xeneize, it was a Marcelo Cañete strike just before half time that settled the affair.

Cañete, who had earlier suffered a bloodied nose after an accidental clash with the referee, capitalised on an errant Victory back pass before unleashing a powerful shot that left the goalkeeper with little chance. Cañete was Boca’s standout performer in what was a lacklustre performance by both sides.

Playing with a back three, the Boca defence was largely untroubled by a Melbourne Victory attack in their first serious outing a month from the start of the Australian season. However, there were a few occasions on which they were left a little flat-footed and were only saved by the lack of composure of their Melbourne opponents. Javier García, in goal for Boca, looked a little suspect coming out for crosses but fortunately for him the Victory were unable to test him out on a regular basis.

The fact that this match was a friendly didn’t stop either team from producing some fairly rash tackles with Cristian Erbes’ effort with thirty-five minutes on the clock bringing a heated response from their opposition and setting the tone for the remainder of the match. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was a friendly both could have been down a man or two by the time the final whistle had been blown.

Boca now travel to New Zealand to take on Wellington Phoenix on Friday 23 July.

Thanks very much to Neil for this, and if any other HEGS readers want the chance to see their name in lights (well, you know what I mean) and have an Argentine side (Catania, maybe?) playing a pre-season friendly near you, do feel free to send a report in if you’re going along to the game. If you’ve got a blog of your own and your report’s decent enough to publish, I’ll be happy to link to you.

Melbourne Victory 0 – 1 Boca Juniors (pre-season friendly, Friday 16th July 2010)

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