Yes, Another Weekend Is Gone, And Newell's Lost Again

Alright, going on the road to face Boca Jrs no reason to expect anything but a loss... still I was hoping that Newell's Old Boys could pull off a draw. At the half I thought that it might even come to pass.

At that point the score was still 0-0, despite Boca being awarded a penalty as a cross struck Rolando Schiavi's upper arm inside the box... but considering he was practically right on top of the play, he hardly had a chance to do anything but let the ball hit him where it might. Martin Palermo stepped up to the spot and placed a decent enough shot low to the left of Newell's keeper Sebastián Peratta, but San Seba choose the right direction and made the save look easy.

Once the second half started it did not take long for Palermo to make up for his missed penalty as he scored the lone goal in the 50th minute. Watching on in the stands was Carlos Tevez... you may have heard of him before. He was there to be presented with a plaque and jersey from his former club. I'm not sure exactly what it was all about, but it was one more thing working against La Lepra.

All things considered Javier Torrente can not be too upset with the result. Still, the fact that he had Newell's start out with a 5-3-1-1 formation was pretty much sign that he holds no confidence in the current squad's offensive abilities. Adding to the offensive woes was the fact that La Lepra's top three goal scorers were missing from the match. Juan Manual Cobelli will most likely never wear another Newell's kit as his agent (and brother) has declare the young striker will be moving to Europe as soon as the transfer window opens, Claudio Bieler has basically played his way out of the starting 11, and Mauricio Sperdutti (or is it Mauricio Sperduti?) due to having received his fifth yellow card of the season. All three players are on three goals for the Clausura, but it looks like only Sperdutti has a chance of added to his total.

So now there are only three matches left in the Clausura. Two of those matches are at home, but I fear Newell's will need more than luck to earn enough points to avoid landing in last place. They are currently tied with Huracán at eleven points each. Any hopes of passing anyone else would nearly take a miracle as there is a five point gap between the bottom two and the three teams, Arsenal, Quilmes, and Gimnasia LP.