Thursday, September 3, 2009

Getting A Hand Up

A point at La Bombonara is more than I expected from tonight's match between Newell's and Boca Jrs. Yes, we beat them 2-0 during the Clausura, but going into their house twice in a row and coming away with points both times? That's nearly impossible, even when Los Xeneises aren't playing well. Still, in many ways, this should have been another 1-0 victory for La Lepra.

If Schiavi hadn't been called up to La Selection I'm confident that Boca would not have scored. As it was, the goal should not have counted. While the quality may not be the best, take a close look at the picture below (if I come across any better, I'll post them later.) Yes, that's a hand reaching up from between two Newell's players touching the ball, and that is attached to a body that's wearing Boca colors. A clear infraction that the referee didn't catch.

Ok, have to give credit where credit is due, I didn't notice that Guillermo Marino got a hand up, knocking the ball back to Lucas Viatri on Boca's goal. Thanks to Sam Kelly at hastaelgolsiempre.com for getting his post on the game up before I did. Because of his observation, I had to go back and rewatch the video of Boca's goal several times before I managed to pause on the frame that provided the above picture.

As for the goal that tied the game, Leonel Vangioni took a difficult chance and turned it into a purely magical moment. Below are both goals:


Once again, I didn't see most of the game. Thursday nights has been a night I get together with friends for nearly 30 years now. I did have it on, and managed to sneak away from time to time to catch a glimpse of what was happening. What I saw was encouraging, as the team looks to be settling in a bit, and not just playing constant long ball tactics (though still a bit more reliant on them for my taste.)

Perhaps that was Sensini's intent all along. The best attack after all is one that has a variety of ways to go... only using long ball, or build up play though the midfield, and your opponents know what you'll be doing.

So far, and I know it's only been three games, I'm most impressed with returning Old Boy Diego Mateo. While I don't see him as a scoring threat, he does seem to have a knack for threading passes to the front from his position as a deep laying midfielder, and his defensive play along side Bernardi speaks for it's self.

He's certainly making the loss of Bernardello far less painful than it would have been otherwise.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We played very well, better than boca for sure, but you know, it is too difficult win over there becouse the little help that they always have.

The good news is that we are playing better as team, Mateo like you said is a good surprise, Sanchez prette it's a good player too and vangioni is been sharp, I think we are doing quite better than last campeonato, I hope this continue for long time.


GO LA LEPRA


PEPE LEPRA