Week From Hell

Newell's lost to San Martin (Tucumán) yesterday by a score of 1-0. I didn't see much of the game, by the time I'd gotten home there was only 10 minutes left. What little I did see was not pretty. San Martin were a man down, yet still Newell's were playing long ball futbol... during the first two games of the Clausura we were playing short pass, keep the ball on the ground, and it paid off with wins over Gimnasia LP 3-0, and Boca Jrs 2-0.

In the third game we saw the return of Salcedo to the line up, and ever sense the team has been going more and more to long balls and counter attacks. And what is the reward for the change of tactics? Well, 2 wins and 9 ties out of 16 games.

Now I'm not saying that Newell's would be on top of the standings if Salcedo had stayed out of the line up, but I do think that they'd be further up the standings than they are now. I also think they would have been better off taking Mauro Rosales from River in the exchange for Fabbiani rather than Salcedo. Rosales may not be in top form, but at least he is a player who came from Newell's youth ranks, and a return to La Lepra might just be the cure for what's been ailing him.

For those who did not see it, or those who can stomach watching it again, I present you the goal from Friday's game:


Meanwhile, over in South Africa, the USA are participating in the Confederations Cup. Really, they may as well have stayed at home. They lost to Italy 3-1, and Brazil 3-0, and had a player shown a red card in both games.

Now the fact that they lost isn't so bad, I mean both of the opponents they faced are traditional world powers, honestly I expected them to lose. What made this the week from hell is that I tried to tape both these games, and both times failed.

The surprise is that going into the game tomorrow the USA still has a chance to make it to the second round. They will need to beat Egypt, and Brazil will need to beat Italy. After that, it would be a matter of goal difference... they may as well go try storming a castle.

Ugh... San Martin Takes Down Newell's 2-0

San Martin took the game to Newell's in the first half, facilitated by a 4-5-1 deployment by Gamboa which didn't give Los Leprosos a way of generating any offense. Rather than going with the expected line up, he chose to sit Diego Torres, and added Mauricio Sperdutti to midfield.

Leo Torres may as well have not have been on the field, not due to any fault of his own, but due to the fact that he was constantly by passed. Newell's only attempts at offense in the first half from what I saw (I missed the first 10 minutes or so) were long balls that never seemed to land anywhere near a place that would have allowed Fabbiani to have done a damn thing. By the end of the half, San Martin had a 1-0 lead, and Newell's didn't look even close to scoring.

Early in the second half Gamboa finally made a move, and put Diego Torres into play. Why he chose to take Quiroga, a defender, off the pitch to do so I'll never understand. Still, the offense did pick up a bit. If not for a lack of finishing the game may well have been turned around.

In the 75th minute Gamboa replaced midfielder Sperdutti with defender Mauro Fórmica. Unfortunately it didn't help as some 3 minutes later San Martin scored their second.

There were two commercials of interest. The first is a rather personal one, as I noted that there was a commercial for Massey-Ferguson on the broadcast. The reason I lived in Argentina when I did was due to the fact that my father worked as an engineer for the company. When they bought out three factories that were owned by a German tractor manufacturer in the late 60's my dad was given a choice, he could stay in Detroit and take a pay cut, or move to Argentina and get a raise... and so it is that a company who's products are perdomenently red and black lead me to follow a team who's colors are rojinegro.

The second was an ad for Guillermo Lorente's run for Newell's presidency. Can you hear the bell toll, Senior Lopez?

Two More Defenders Sidelined By Injuries

With only two hours before the game against San Martín de Tucumán kicks off, I have to wonder whether or not Newell's defense will be up to the task today. Why, you may ask? Because this week both Schiavi and Re have gone down to injuries that will keep them out of the final two games.

That means that the only healthy starters on defense are Nicolás Spolli, who was sidelined by an early season injury, and Juan Manuel Insaurrald, who wasn't a starter until Spolli was injuried. The expected lineup is as follows:

Sebastián Peratta; Iván Pillud, Nicolás Spolli, Juan Manuel Insaurralde y Juan Quiroga; Gastón Machín, Hernán Bernardello y Leonel Vangioni; Leandro Torres; Diego Torres y Cristian Fabbiani.

Of the two defenders stepping in to fill the breach, Quiroga has seen the most action, having played in 4 games. Pillud will only be making his second appearance of the Apertura. Granted, the fact that the game is against San Martin is a far better time to have to go through this than say Boca Jrs, but it still has me nervous as to how they'll hold up. In about 4 hours, we'll have an answer. 'Til then, hold on to your seats.