A Tale Of Two Halves

One of the problems with following a team from afar is that it decreases the number of friends whom you can talk to face to face about your passion. When said team is in another country, and the land in which you live has only started paying attention to the sport you love, well, for all the Lepra contacts I have online, I have not a one with whom I can share a conversation in person. In fact, the closest I've ever come to meeting anyone here that followed futbol Argentino was when I pulled into a gas station and someone with a Boca license plate was leaving.

I have meet plenty of futbol fans in this country, generally they have moved here from other places, or are second/third generation, their parents/grands handing down their love for the game. All of those however, save one, were fans of the European leagues. The one exception was from Mexico, and was a Chivas fan. When I tell them my interests in the game, every single one of them has asked River or Boca? Not which team do you follow, who you are a fan of, but River or Boca, as if they were the only two teams in Argentina.

As frustrating as all that can be, it's made even more frustrating when I got it into my head that this weekend's game against Banfield was to be played today. It wasn't, it was yesterday. Add to that, playing at home all that was managed was another 1-1 tie. That's 8 for the Clausura and counting.

From the reports I've read, it was Banfield controlling the flow of play in the first half, during which Sebastián Fernández scored the first goal during the 21st minute for Banfield. Newell's took over control in the second, but it wasn't until after Banfield went down a man (Santiago Silva was sent off in the 72nd) that Alejandro Da Silva equalized for Newell's, scoring in the 77th. Both goals were scored off of corners, and can be seen below:

I suppose this isn't a bad result, considering the team was with out two of it's best players. Hernán Bernardello was suspended for yellow card accumulation, while Mauro Formica, if I understand correctly, was out due to injury. Hopefully it's nothing serious, as Formica has been the best player for Newell's through out the Clausura.