Newell's Pull One Out Of The Hat

When Belgrano Cordoba defender Gastón Turus scored the first goal of the game in the eigth minute my thoughts were "here we go again." When midfielder Juan Maldonado put the home side up 2-0 some five minutes later I was sure that La Lepra were done, that this game was just going to be another painful reminder that the team just was not capable of scoring goals, and that the defensive lapses from last season were returning. On Twitter I called for Newell's to wake up...

Enter Pablo Perez in the thirty first minute, replacing defender Alexis Machuca. Perez positioned himself in midfield, with Cristian Díaz moving back to defense. It was as if the entire Newell's squad had pasted through the magical hat of Hijitus and become Super Lepra. Belgrano stopped getting as many chances. Ten minutes later and Sperduti placed a cross in to the area, Víctor Aquino heading a bouncing ball past Belgrano keeper Juan Carlos Olave.

Newell's were back in the game.

The second half belonged to Newell's and Newell's alone. In the sixty third minute Lucas Bernardi launched the ball forward to the feet of Ricardo Noir, who calmly took the ball and blasted it into the back of the net and the score was level.

Three minutes later and it was Noir again, this time with a header (after another cross from Sperduti.) Now after the game against Boca last week I stated that Noir had barely proved himself better than a player I have been known to call the Great Tree Stump. All I can say is I love it when any Newell's player proves me wrong.



Up next, the closest thing that La Lepra have to a clasico, as Colón de Santa Fe come to Rosario. There will actually be two mini-clasicos for Newell's this season, as Unión de Santa Fe have come up from the B. Just prior to the start of the Newell's Belgrano match these two teams played their true clasico, Unión taking a surprize 2-0 victory.