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No Riquelme free kick, no Boca victory
By Rex Gowar in Buenos Aires
Boca Juniors, in their modern crisis that goes back a couple of years, cannot string three wins together.
Fans might have thought after two wins on the trot that the worst was behind them.
But there wasn’t a free kick in a good position for Juan Roman Riquelme to exploit so they lost 2-0 at Lanus.
It seems safe to say now that there would not have been two successive Boca wins if Riquelme hadn’t scored from two free kicks in a row.
So the big debate in Buenos Aires is what is Julio Cesar Falcioni’s Boca without Riquelme scoring.
One answer is that Boca are “not playing at anything”. Another that they don’t have enough good players and the best are some way past 30.
Argentina’s big guns show signs of life
Boca Juniors have two aces in their pack, one now firing on all cylinders, the other in one of his worst slumps during his final season before retiring.
River Plate have a new ace at the lower end of the age scale who is growing in confidence, cheek and sheer skill.
Juan Roman Riquelme, 32, who featured in a UEFA free kick training video when he was at Villarreal, has scored brilliantly with two dead balls in Boca’s last two games, both victories, after his team’s poor start to the Clausura championship.
Martin Palermo, Boca’s 37-year-old all-time record goalscorer on the other hand, has gone 748 minutes without finding the net but understudy Lucas Viatri came on for him and scored the last-minute winner against Estudiantes on Sunday.
Teenager Erik Lamela laid on a peach of a goal for right wing back Paulo Ferrari as River beat Quilmes 1-0 to go top equal with Estudiantes, ironically thanks to their arch-rivals Boca.
Perhaps the hierarchy in Argentine football is settling back into old accustomed positions.
Racing Club and Independiente, classic rivals from the suburb of Avellaneda, want their say as Argentina’s traditional “Big Five”, including San Lorenzo, jostle for their places at the top.
Boca crossroads more of a roundabout
Boca Juniors can’t escape the spotlight after another defeat, 1-0 at Velez Sarsfield on Sunday.
The big question surrounding coach Julio Cesar Falcioni’s team is whether he should continue to pick striker Martin Palermo when he can only count on one half of a brilliant, but aging double act that helped Boca win a string of trophies.
Juan Roman Riquelme, out of the last three matches after the 4-1 home defeat by Godoy Cruz on the opening weekend of the Clausura championship in mid-February, is nursing a knee problem.
Until he gets rid of some water on that knee he will not be included again in the squad for training.
Palermo, Boca’s all-time record goalscorer, has yet to find the net after four matches of the championship. Worse still, he has hardly had a chance because the team don’t play to him as they do with Riquelme pulling the strings.
Lucas Viatri, Palermo’s natural understudy, has been more incisive in his brief outings as a substitute and media are speculating Falcioni may have to drop Palermo, although Viatri is nursing an injury.
Boca were crowned South American champions four times in the first decade of the new millennium with the Riquelme-Palermo duet a key element in their success.
Emotional Maradona and the last chance saloon
The above picture was the defining image of Argentina’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Peru in the rain on Saturday, and perhaps Diego Maradona’s tenure as national team coach to date.
For many in Argentina, Maradona’s reactions are indicative of an approach to the job that is too emotional.
Whatever he is really thinking, he often looks slightly bemused on the touchline when his team are not in control. He has been criticised for being unable to make the right substitutions, though he did pull a rabbit out of the hat with the introduction of mircale maker Martin Palermo, a striker who has been dubbed “the goal optimist”.
When Maradona celebrates he is like any fan and while his dive on to the sodden pitch after Palermo’s winner made for great pictures, the sports talk shows have been asking whether it was the image the national team manager should be giving.
The always elegant Cesar Luis Menotti, the coach who wrought a sea change in how Argentina’s national team is run when he took charge in 1974 and set the tone for two World Cup victories, is probably having nightmares watching the present side.
Yet here they are, one win away form clinching a place at the World Cup finals.
So often big name teams have a string of players but never play as a team. England, Argentina & Italy are classic examples of how the artist in this case a manager fails to use the right colours on palette to a potential master piece trying to fit in all the superstars into a starting eleven. It is irrelevant if Argentina deserve to be in South Africa or not. If they get the results than they deserve it. Argentina for me since 1990 have been a great mystery & a real sign how ruthless a cup competition is because they have had talented side’s competing but they just cannot get it right. In the last World Cup they were by far the most dangerous team let down by poor decisions by a coach against Germany substituting Riquelme after going ahead and wanting to sit on your laurels.
On the subject of Maradona emotions. He is just that emotion. Maybe not the most pragmatic and ruthless manager one finds, but are we not judging him in haste. After all the guy has no experience he was brought in as a replacement to Alfio Basile so he could galvanise a group of talented players into a team as he done on so many times as a player. It was a desperate situation & a desperate move was made maybe not the right one but when called he responded to his country’s hour of need. So it has not worked out in that manner, but it will be Diego Maradona win lose or draw tonight that will be made the scapegoat because the knifes are out for a genius who for three decades as many lovers and enemies.
Martin Palermo heads towards the record books
Is Martin Palermo’s amazing winner for Boca Juniors on Sunday, a header from nearly 40 metres that bounced just once on the line of the six-yard box on its way into the net, worthy of an entry into the Guinness Book of records?
This is a question Argentines have been asking, while TV sports chat shows have been running footage of other remarkable goals and moments in the career of the 35-year-old striker.
Palermo himself barely knew what had happened on Sunday. His expression as he celebrated his feat said it all. First a quick run, taking his shirt off and waving it over his head. Then a stance with feet and arms out wide in front of the hardcore fans at the Bombonera, soaking up the adulation but also with a wry grin as if to ask “How did I manage that?”
Velez Sarsfield goalkeeper German Montoya came out of his box to kick the ball clear. It went at head height towards the centre circle. Palermo, standing just outside the circle 38.90 metres from goal headed it right back and it sailed, veering towards the right, into the net. Another 10 metres and it would have hit the post or gone just wide.
“It always happens to me. When I look for similar stories of other players there aren’t any. Things happen to me that I can’t explain,” Palermo told TyC Sports cable TV.
Diego Maradona is probably going to give Palermo, who scored twice with two orthodox headers in a friendly 2-0 win against a weak Ghana team last Wednesday, a start in Argentina’s critical World Cup qualifier against Peru at the Monumental on Saturday.
It is another remarkable moment in the career of a striker who won seven caps in 1999, one of which came in a match against Colombia in which he missed three penalties, and then did not put on an Argentina shirt for 10 years.
Who is the manufacturer of the protective nose mask Martin wore. I need one & can’t find it.
Another day in the life of Martin Palermo…
The fact that Martin Palermo is Boca Juniors’s regular penalty taker speaks volumes about his strength of character.
Back in 1999, Palermo made international headlines for the wrong reasons when he missed three penalties for Argentina in their 3-0 Copa America defeat by Colombia. Yet, instead of hiding in his hotel room, Palermo came out and faced the media the next day, promising to get on with his career.
Three days later, he bounced back to score in a 2-0 win over Uruguay. Nine years later, Palermo is Boca’s all-time leading scorer, having overtaken the previous record of 180 goals set by Francisco Varallo in the 1930s. His Argentina career never got off the ground but he has become a cult figure at Boca, having returned after stints with Villarreal, Real Betis and Alaves in Spain.
By Argentine standards, Palermo is a somewhat clumsy, lumbering forward. Yet his ability to bounce back from adversity and his knack for alternating brilliance with tragicomedy have endeared him to the club’s fanatical supporters. At Villarreal, Palermo famously broke his leg while celebrating a goal when he stood on a small concrete wall which collapsed under the weight of fans.
After returning to Boca, he was one of the central figures in a brawl which sparked a crowd riot in a Libertadores Cup game against Guadalajara. The match was abandoned, Boca were knocked out and Palermo banned. On the flipside, Palermo succeeded where Pele had failed by scoring from just inside his own half against Independiente.
Boca’s last two matches in the Libertadores have been fairly typical of his ups and downs. Two weeks ago against Chilean champions Colo Colo, Palermo missed another penalty with his team 1-0 down and reduced to 10 men. Yet, two minutes later he scored — and Boca went on to win 4-3.
Tuesday’s match against Mexico’s Atlas was one of his unlucky days. With the score at 1-1 and Boca on top, Palermo contrived to miss an open goal from six metres as he sidefooted the ball wide. Atlas came out for the second half with fresh ambition, won 3-1 and left the defending champions facing an early exit at the group stage.
