Gracias, Newell's. Gracias, Achucarro.

I'm marking this date down, the 7th of April, 2010, Newell's Old Boys beat River Plate at El Monumental on my Birthday!

Now normally I would write up my thoughts of the match, but I'm gonna keep it short tonight. It's hard to tell if Newell's played well, or if River are simply so bad that even a struggling team can waltz into their stadium and come away with three points.

Jorge Achucarro scored the lone goal in the 51st minute. I don't know who came up with this particular goal celebration (pictured above,) but I call it "kissing the baby." The goal it's self was a bit lucky, as Achu's first shot rebound off a defender, but Jorge was there to flick the ball over keeper Daniel Vega's fingers and into the net.


Mauro Fórmica had a solid game. Pictured above is a foul that he drew in the second half, resulting in a yellow card for the River player's effort. Later in the match Ariel Ortega, the drunken little donkey making his first appearance for River in some time, would also receive a yellow card for fouling Mauro, with a pull of the jersey that could have easily been spotted from the highest seat in the stands, with or with out binoculars.

Joaquín Boghossian didn't start, but did come on in the second half. He looked better than he has of late, and narrowly missed an opportunity that Fórmica threaded into River's penalty area for him. If Bogho can keep getting that kind of service in front of goal he's bound to start scoring again. Below Joaquin is brought down by two River players, one of which kicked the big man in the face. The announcers called it an accident, I call it a mugging.

And, of course, here's the video of the goal: