Reuters Soccer Blog

Velez Sarsfield’s claim to being Argentina’s sixth big club

By Rex Gowar in Buenos Aires

River Plate, Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club and San Lorenzo are Argentina’s Big Five clubs.

Until Estudiantes became the first club outside the elite Five to win a league title in 1967, no other team had lifted the crown since in the professional era began in 1931.

Many clubs have won a league title since Estudiantes’ first success and Velez have become the most successful of these, winning their eighth crown at the weekend.

It puts them one ahead of Racing, who have won only one in the last 45 years.

One of the chief characteristics of the big teams is their derbies, the clasicos. The biggest is the Superclasico between River Plate and Boca Juniors, then comes the Avellaneda derby between Independiente and Racing whose two large stadiums are less than 300 metres apart.

San Lorenzo’s derby rivals are Huracan but Velez have long surpassed Huracan as a major force. Velez’s area rivals in the west of the capital are Ferro Carril Oeste, now in the second-tier Nacional B championship.

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.

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.

Referee’s apology does little to calm Huracan

As Estudiantes bid to give Argentina the South American crown by winning the Libertadores Cup final, the fallout from Sunday’s Clausura title decider continues at an intensity not unlike that which followed Chelsea’s elimination by Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final.

It was not a final as such, but Huracan went into their last game of the season a point ahead of Velez Sarsfield who they happened to meet in a title decider at Velez. The home side got the win they needed to overtake Huracan on points with a goal scored by Maxi Moralez six minutes from time.

Referee Gabriel Brazenas apologised on Monday for mistakes he realised he made when he saw TV replays in the comfort of his armchair, saying he missed a penalty he should have awarded Velez and a foul in the build-up to the winning goal which he said should not have stood.

This was of little comfort to Huracan’s Angel Cappa, the normally measured coach who lost his cool in the closing minutes of the match after his side fell behind and said “the referee handed Velez the title on a tray”.

Velez coach Ricardo Gareca has countered that, and said he was surprised by Brazenas’s apology. Moralez shot the loose ball into the net after a collision between Huracan keeper Gustavo Monzon and Velez substitute Joaquin Larrivey, which Gareca argued was 50-50 and the keeper was to blame for misjudging his sortie. (more…)