Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Newell's Face Chacarita On Friday The 13th

This might just seem like any other date on the fixture calender to most Newell's fans, but here, in this strange land I live in, we're a bit superstitious about any Friday that ends up as the 13th day of the month. Adding to that it's a match against Chacarita Juniors, who's nickname is Los Funebreros - The Undertakers. The fact that we are just 13 days past Halloween doesn't help, either.

As I mentioned previously, Newell's will be visiting an old friend in the form of Chacarita's coach Fernando Gamboa, but he's not the only former Lepra currently plying his trade with Los Funebreros. Diego Crosa and Cristian Grabinski anchor Chacarita's defense, while Sebastián Cejas has started five games in goal for the team in the red, white, and black strips. Cejas played 170 matches for Newell's from 1994 through 2001, and scored 6 goals during that time. Most, if not all of those, were no doubt from the penalty spot.

Cejas scores from the spot against Boca Jrs.

Sensini has announced the starting 11 for Friday's match up: Peratta; Machuca, Schiavi, Fideleff; Roseli, Barrientos, Bernardi, Vangioni; Sánchez Prette; Formica, Boghossian. Achucarro's injury wasn't serious, but he will be in France on national team duty with Paraguay. Cristian Sánchez Prette will be allowed to play because of article 225, which I can't say I'm all that familiar with, but appears to allow a team to field a suspended player if another in unavailable due to national team duty.

Again Newell's a getting a referee who's already worked two of their games this Apertura. This time it's Juan Pablo Pompei, and while I can't say I remember much about how he's called the matches, the fact that both the games ended in draws isn't encouraging. I suppose I should be happy that we're not seeing Collado again, as San Lorenzo and Independiente are the unlucky pairing to have him work their match. My condolences to both teams.

Here's the full fixture list for this weekend, along with the scheduled referee:

Friday the 13th:
Chacarita-Newell's, at Argentinos Juniors stadium, Juan Pablo Pompei.
Tigre-Godoy Cruz, Patricio Lousteau.

Saturday the 14th:
Banfield-Vélez Sarsfield, Héctor Baldassi.
Colón-Argentinos Juniors, Cristian Faraoni.

Sunday the 15th:
San Lorenzo-Independiente, Javier Collado.
River Plate-Atlético Tucumán, Mauro Giannini.
Arsenal-Boca Juniors, Sergio Pezzotta.

Monday the 16th:
Racing-Estudiantes de La Plata, Pablo Lunati.
Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata-Huracán, Rafael Furchi.
Rosario Central-Lanús, Néstor Pittana.

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