Monday, July 4, 2011

Season Is Over, And I Am Late... Again

Ok, ok... so I haven't gotten around to mentioning Newell's Old Boys final two games of the Clausura 2011. Can you really blame me? This has to be one of the most painful seasons we Lepra have had to sit though, ever. Even rosario3.com has the Olimpo 1-1 draw up as the last game played in their sidebar...

Newell's final two results were a rather dull 0-0 draw with San Lorenzo, and an uplifting 1-0 win over Colón de Santa Fe in the final match of the season. The win took La Lepra out of last place, two points ahead of Huracán, who were relegated. The only goal from the two matches was score by Mauricio Sperduti giving him four during the Clausura to lead the team in scoring.

Joining Huracán in the drop are Quilmes, who finished below Huracán in the relegation race, River Plate, who take the drop for the first time ever, and Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. Both River and Gimnasia lost play-offs against teams from the National B. (Please don't ask me to go into the rules about relegation in Argentina... it is complicated.)

The four teams that make the jump from the B up to the top flight are Atlético Rafaela, who won the B with 77 points from 38 matches, Unión de Santa Fe (which gives Newell's another provincial rival to go along with Colón,) San Martín (San Juan,) who beat River in their play-off, and Belgrano (Córdoba,) who took down Gimnasia.

More important to us Newell's fans, of course, is that Rosario Bentral (ok... for those who don't know, they're really called Central) are still in the B, having only managed 50 points on the season.

Soon after the season closed, Newell's announced that Rolando Schiavi was headed back to Boca Jrs in exchange for striker Ricardo Noir... as far as I can tell this was a straight up player swap, no money involved. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

It also looks as though goalkeeper Sebastián Peratta will be headed to Boca to join Schiavi, as an offer of $1.5 million has been made. Newell's are reported to be looking into bringing Justo Villar back to replace the man who replace him between the woodwork. (Crossing my fingers on that one... and wishing there was/is an option that does not cost the team any thing... we need the cash.)

There has also been talk of shopping Sperduti and Leonel Vangioni around. So far I have not seen any word on teams being interested. Considering that over the past year Vangioni has spent more time injured than on the field does not help. Neither does the poor season the team just finished.

Returning from loans should be Juan Quiroga, Pablo Perez, Diego Torres, and Leandro Torres. Leandro could well slide right into place as our playmaker. He did quite well in that role before. Diego Torres is a capable forward, and I really do not understand how he did not manage to break Quilmes starting 11 more often than he did... unless it was due to injuries. Quiroga never was convincing as a defender, in my opinion, but seems to have found himself while away. Same can be said for Perez, but unless the team finds a buyer for Sperduti.

After a long and trying season, there are reasons to hope for a better 11/12.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hope better "Apertura" tournament, this past was sooo awful for us, a bad dream came true..