Routing Colón Gives Newell's Hope

After two straight 2-0 loses, away to Boca Jrs and at home against Belgrano, Newell's Old Boys needed a confidence builder. Heading into Sante Fe to face Colón was not a recipe for such, but sometimes things work out far better than expected. The home of Colón is nicknamed "El Cementerio de los Elefantes", the Elephant's Graveyard. Visiting teams going there hoping for three points fail far more often they succeed.

I was not able to watch the match, as it was played on Friday while I was at work, and ended about the time I was leaving. Driving home I had a brief feeling that the game ended 3-0... which I put aside quickly, as holding such as a truth would surely mean that Colón had won. Instead I began singing in my head: "Yo no soy un Elefante, soy un leproso es verdad..." which is all I remember of a four line song I wrote when Newell's were last fighting for the title, and were heading into Sante Fe needing a win.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and checked on the score. Colón 0 Newell's Old Boys 3. HOLY SHIT! I could not help but make the exclamation out loud. I was hoping for a point, dreaming of three, but never imagined that La Lepra could roll over Colón in Sante Fe, not this current team anyway. But it had happened.

Pablo Perez scored the first goal off a corner in first half injury time. The cross from the left was poor, but so was the attempted heading clearance, which Perez fought for and won with the kind of individual effort we have seen far too little of over the past year and a half. 1-0. As he celebrated Perez pointed into the stands, at the hincha who had traveled to support a team that had let them down in the previous two games.

I can only imagine that Colón completely fell apart in the second half. Iván Moreno y Fabianesi received a straight red card in the 69th minute put the home side down to 10 men. Gerardo Alcoba was sent off in the 82nd, and Colón where then out numbered 11 to 9.

Martín Tonso who had come on for Leandro Torres, scored Newell's second goal. In the 87th minute Lucas Bernardi turned playmaker, feeding a perfect return pass to the young attacking midfielder that left only goalkeeper Diego Pozo to beat. 2-0. It was a thing of beauty, but the best was yet to come.

Maximiliano Urruti had scored two goals in Newell's first two matches, and against Colón he scored the final goal of the match with what may just be the goal of the tournament. Five minutes into injury time he was feed a pass by Raúl Villalba. Again, goalkeeper Pozo was the only one left to beat. As he came out to cutoff the angles Urruti chipped the ball calmly over Pozo. One bounce, and it was in the net. 3-0.

Sure, the final two goals came after Newell's had a two man advantage, but it still feels good to get vital points on the road.

(Perhaps Roberto Sensini is not such a bad coach for Newell's after all... so long as he is running the opposing team - he took over Colón during the summer break.)

Up next Atletico Rafaela come to Rosario, match is scheduled for Sunday the 18th.

Independiente On The Horizon

Being that it's only Tuesday, it may be a bit early to look forward toward Newell's Old Boys match on Saturday when they host a struggling Independiente, but the rumors are already flying, so...

Let's start with what we do know. Marcelo Estigarribia will not be available, as he will be away on national team duty with Paraguay. I still haven't seen anything in his playing time with Newell's to show why Paraguay would need him, but, hey, it's not my call. Also missing from what has been our usual starting line up so far will be Raúl Villalba as he's suffering from a right quadriceps injury.

There is some good news in that both Lucas Bernardi and Leonel Vangioni have recovered from their respective injuries, and are expected to play in the reserve game to get them back up to match fitness.

The rumors are that Sensini has been practicing with the following line up:

Sebastián Peratta
Agustín Alayes, Rolando Schiavi, Ignacio Fideleff
Mauricio Sperduti, Diego Mateo, Mauricio Scaglia, Gabriel Cichero
Mauro Formica
Luis Rodríguez, Iván Borghello

It will be interesting to see if Fideleff can do a better job as a central defender that Cichero. The 21 year old has spent most, if not all of the time that he has played as a leftback, but he does have the size and strength to hold up in the middle.

Scaglia, if he indeed plays, will be making his debut for La Lepra. The 20 year old will have a tough job filling Villalba's boots. Or maybe I should say Bernardi's, as Villalba has only been starting because of Lucas being injured.

Still, it's a long way off before Saturday's 8:20 PM (local time) kick off. We'll see what develops between now and then.

Newell's Steamroll Over Colón

After watching Newell's Old Boys destroy Colón de Santa Fe 5-0 I have to ask: just what has woken La Lepra up this late in the Clausura? Sure, Los Sabaleros were playing with out there best forwards, including their best goal scorer Oscar Fuertes, but that only explains why they didn't cause Sebastián Peratta many problems.

No, this was Newell's day, it's as simple as that. Every starter played to the best of their ability, no one more so than Joaquín Boghossian. The first time he put the ball in the back of the goal was called back due to two of his team mates being offsides. That didn't keep the big man from playing his best game in months, and, with service reminiscent of that which he got during the Apertura, he scored a pair of headers, the game's first and final goals to bookend the three others. He also narrowly missed lobbing a shot off a rebound that would have had Colón's keeper Diego Pozo beat by a mile. Not bad for a player who might not have been playing had Cristian Nuñez not been suspended for his red card during last week's Clasico Rosarino.

Mauricio Sperdutti scored the second goal with a golazo, Mauro Fórmica scored off a beautiful freekick for the third, while Jorge Achucarro notched the fourth. I'm disappointed for Leonel Vangioni, who has yet to notch a goal this season. He's come close several times, and against Colón he rang one off the crossbar.

Raúl Villalba looked like he's a player ready to become a force. He only started because both Diego Mateo and Lucas Bernardi weren't available, but as a lone holding midfielder he handled himself well, made a number of dangerous passes, and took a couple of shots from distance that weren't too far off the mark. With the two veterans in front of him, it may be a while before he can crack the starting 11 on a regular basis, but he'll only turn 21 this September, so he's got plenty of time.

Peratta spent more time taking goal kicks and punting the ball forward than he did making saves. He was credited with making three, but those were so easy he didn't even have to make moves on them. Still, he's one of my favorite players, so how can I not write a few word, and post a picture of him?

Perhaps even more impressive than the five goals was that this is, if I'm not mistaken, the first match I've seen Newell's play were not one of their players received a card. It's not that Juan Carlos Loustau didn't call any fouls (five against Newell's, eight for Colón,) but that none really deserved a carding. Two were doled out to Colón players, but I only recall Maximiliano Caire's, who was called for a hand ball when he seemed to intentionally punch the ball out of bounds rather than vie with a Newell's player who was rushing down the right wing (it was either Sperdutti, or Achucarro, I'm not sure.) The carding wasn't for the hand ball, however, but for protesting that he had struck it accidently.

With the team playing so poorly for much of the Clausura, it's good to get a blow out win. With luck Newell's can still end up in the top five, provided they win their final three matches. For now, let's enjoy today's goals again:


Next match with be on Thursday, April 29th when Newell's again travel to Buenos Aires to face Arsenal de Sarandí.