Boca is in a doubtful moment…

The smoke curtain comes and goes in and out of Buenos Aires, covering and unveiling La Bombonera field and ambience. Boca’s moment is doubtful for more than a thing.

First: How Boca entered the Libertadores Cup playoff.
Boca had a strange last “group match” that decided it all. It was as weird as you can thought. There were multiple possibilities for Boca successfully passing by to next round or unexpectedly failing and being out of the Cup. Boca winning against poor venezuelan Maracaibo team was not enough if mexican team Atlas didn’t win visiting chilean Colo Colo team. It was improbable a victory of Atlas in foreign lands, because Colo Colo’s luck was driven at the same time as Boca’s luck.
Summing it up the many chances: Boca had to win by a difference of 4 goals against Maracaibo to stand a chance of qualifying. Or expect a winning of Atlas in chilean lands to simply winning by the minimun difference to qualify. There was another possibility: A tie between Atlas and Colo Colo would let Boca score only 3 goals to send Colo Colo out of the Cup.
The dices were rolling and both matches playing at the same time. Boca managed to score the first goal at minute 10′ and the second goal on minute 20′!! What a scoring strike! So the third would have been scored at minute 30′.. right?? Wrong! It took another 60′ minutes to Boca score the third goal… By this time Boca was exasperating… Three goals were not enough because Colo Colo was winning 1-0… But suddenly La Bombonera screamed GOOAL! … Fourth Boca goal?? NO! Instead, Atlas tied the match on Chile! Now with the actual scoresheet Boca 3-0 Maracaibo was enough to pass to the next round!! And that was it! Boca qualified sweating the “big drop” (an expression for saying it was tight difficult!).

Second: What happened previous the first leg match against Cruzeiro
Boca had a “classic” match vs San Lorenzo. A “classic” is called when a match is played by two big teams. San Lorenzo are self named “Boca’s daddy” because they almost always win against Boca… sad but true. Not counting the 7-1 Boca won in San Lorenzo stadium in 2006… it was too humiliating!
A matter of Luck: It is a fact well known by Boca fans. Every time Boca wins against San Lorenzo, Boca ends loosing the tournament. And every time San Lorenzo wins over Boca, then Boca ends winning an importan tournament or Cup. Boca lost to San Lorenzo 1-0 playing awfully and with a “B team”, keeping Riquelme out. Was it on purpose to keep the matter of Luck?? What really matters is that Boca played awfully and the defense is doing worse and worse…

Third: First Leg match against Cruzeiro last Wednesday
First match played on La Bombonera. Boca wanted to score many goals to then go to Brasil safetly. But what happened? Boca created 18 goal plays… but scored only 2!!! Impermissible!! You have to see Palacio shooting badly once and over again.. Palermo shooting high, then shooting to the post.. then the Uruguayan Tata Gonzalez failing a kick with the goal WIDE OPEN!! The match was 2-0 and Boca was so close to score a third and even a fourth!!!! But.. no. Brazilians shoot from outside the box. The ball hit a Boca’s defenders back and fooled goalkeeper.. Now Boca was winning 2-1… A final score that let Boca with sad faces even thought they won…
Plus an unbelievable event: An ice cube was thrown from the VIP seats and hit the lineman’s head at minute 90′. WHY the HELL would any Boca fan would ever try to hurt the lineman??? It happened… Referee stopped the match and reported the event. Boca was afraid of a probably resolution: giving the match as lost 3-0. But luckily that didn’t happen. The punishment was a 50.000 fine and La Bombonera disqualified for Libertadores matches… Simply unbelievable. Boca Club is looking for the stupid man that threw the ice cube to ban him forever. But the damage has already been done.

Fourth: What is coming now
Boca’s future depends on the following TWO matches. Next match is against… RIVER PLATE! Held on Sunday. River Plate is leading the chart, four points away from Boca. So Boca winning will allow them to be at just one point away from them. This SUPER CLASICO match is in between important Copa Libertadores matches for both Boca and River. Because both River and Boca played the first leg last wednesday and will play the decisive match next wednesday. River lost against San Lorenzo for Liberadores Cup.
Press is speculating with a TIE between Boca and River, because they both don’t want to risk too much for upcoming matches. This TIE is implicit. Because the one that looses this SUPERCLASICO will be in extreme DANGER!

Boca’s future from now:
Boca is embedded in Buenos Aires smoke. Boca dreamt at the begining of the season with a fancy defense composed by expensive players as Caceres and Paletta joining the Boca icon Hugo Ibarra and Morel Rodriguez. But Paletta, Ibarra and Rodriguez are injured! What is “Plan B” for Boca’s defense??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! There are quite good Boca boys for defense but they seem to not fit in the A team. Boca sold all defense trusting the Plan A would be always available.. This is not possible at the moment.

So Boca has the SUPER CLASICO against RIVER PLATE this very SUNDAY, and the second leg match in BRASIL versus CRUZEIRO next WEDNESDAY. Two FINAL matches that decide it ALL.

Tags: argentina, boca juniors, brazil, copa libertadores, cruzeiro, river plate, san lorenzo