Sunday, April 1, 2012

Temporary Leaders


Racing Club gave Newell's Old Boys a better game today than the 2-0 score might make it look. Still, a great result for La Lepra, marking four wins in a row, all of which have seen the team from Rosario hold their opponents scoreless. The difference boils down to Racing being called for offsides often, while Maximiliano Urruti and Pablo Perez both beat offsides traps to score the games two goals.

The first goal came in the 60th minute from some smart passing, going from Mauricio Sperdutti to Lucas Bernardi to Perez back to Bernardi who put the ball through the defense for Urruti to track down and guide past Racing keeper Sebastián Saja. With that first goal Newell's took over sole possession of first place, even if it turns out to be short lived (as I write, Boca Juniors lead Estudiantes 2-0 putting Boca at 17 points and pushing Newell's back to second place... a draw would give Estudiantes 16 points, equaling Newell's.) It also gave Urruti his fourth goal in eight matches. Not a bad scoring rate at all!

Now comes the strange part. Bernardi is a defensive midfielder. He is not known for his play in the attacking half, never has been. He set up the first goal for Urruti, and he set up the second, sending a wide cross to a wide open Perez who blasted the shot past Saja and into the upper part of the net.

8 games into the Clausura and Gerardo "Tata" Martino has Newell's Old Boys playing so well that they have already matched the 16 points they gained in 19 games of played during the Apertura.

It does look like we will have to settle for second place for the moment, as Boca now leads Estudiantes 3-0 with some fifteen minutes to play. All things considered, second place is far better than anyone could have expected. If we can end up there when the Clausura is over I will be more than happy. If, and it is still a huge if at this point, Newell's some how manages to win the title? I will celebrate the moment, but worry about next season, when Newell's will still need points to avoid relegation. Being Champions would mean we would be back in the Copa Libertadores, and I do not think we will have the depth to play on two fronts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cant believe this moment,from the bottom of the ranking to the top. Tata came from heaven and good bless us

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