What Was 8 Is Now 6…

By: Brett | October 11th, 2009

Racing Club 1-2 Boca

Three points at the Presidente Peron Stadium, combined with a late Carlos Quintana goal for Lanus at the Dr. Jose Luis Meiszner Stadium in La Plata, means what was an eight point gap between us and Estudiantes at the top is now down to six.

Not only that, but the win was our second on the bounce, which counts as a streak – a streak I have since named the “Apertura Winning Streak of the Devil of Death.”

Earning our winning streak was no easy task, however. In what is becoming all too familiar, Boca fought back from a goal down at Racing on Thursday night (or Friday morning depending on where you are in the world). Only twice this campaign have we managed to score before our opponents. Twice. From eight matches. That’s pretty dismal.

I’m not entirely sure why we have been prone to this thus far in Apertura ‘09. Complacency? Laziness? Arrogance? The international rather than domestic focus of the club? Gabriel Paletta? I’ll mull it over and come up with something a little later. If anyone out there has any ideas, please let me know.

In what turned out to be the only shot on target Racing would have the for the entire match, Pablo Caballero nudged a hopeful free-kick past Pato in the 32nd minute to open the scoring.

I don’t know how many goals we’ve conceded from set pieces, but I would venture to guess that it’s quite a few. At times we seem utterly incapable of dealing with them. Clueless. The opening goal at Estudiantes a couple of weeks back immediately comes to mind. I’m not saying our set piece defending is Real Madrid standard, but we certainly aren’t great.

Thanks for the 2-1 win should be given to the attacking instincts of Lucas Viatri, the pure genius of Juan Riquelme and the decent understanding of the other the two seem to possess. Here’s 33 seconds of highlights to show you what I’m talking about:

Viatri was decent for both his goals. Johnny-on-the-spot for his first after a thunderous drive from Riquelme was barely kept out by Jorge Alberto De Olivera in the Racing goal. Lucas knicked in front of the Racing defender to tap home from around 2cm.

The kids’ second will surely be doing the rounds on highlight reels this week. He finished with aplomp following a divine one-two with Riquelme. Just quietly, who doesn’t love an audacious backheel? Especially a Juan Riquelme audacious backheel, which are, somehow, more audacious than most?

Basile has been playing Palermo as the lone striker of late, but Lucas’ fine display against Racing will surely give him something to think about going into next weeks match. Palermo and the kid up front, with Juan in behind doing as he pleases sounds pretty dynamic to me – and surely pretty scary to Tigre.

That’s right, next up for us and our “Apertura Winning Streak of the Devil of Death”…Tigre at La Bombonera. Tigre are a bit of a rabble at the minute, so another three points is surely ours for the taking. Estudiantes and Velez both have tricky away fixtures, so come next Monday, what is currently a six point gap could be two, or better yet, three, points fewer.

Sidenotes…

Emiliano Insua was the only past/present Boca player in Diego’s starting eleven for the national teams match with Peru. However, any disappointment I felt at this was erased by the satisfaction of seeing Martin Palermo thrust out is gigantic left peg in the 92nd minute to poke home the winner. The man sure does hate wearing shirts…

Looks like Ezequiel Munoz’s transfer to Fiorentina is all but done. He’ll most likely move in January for something close to 7 million euros. In doing so, he will join the growing list of Argentines with the name Ezequiel playing in Europe. Hopefully having a dude named Ezequiel in your team will become the new fad amongst European clubs – in the same way having an African central midfielder and an Eastern European centreback have been in the past…

Going to the Arsenal game? Find out how to get to North London and where to stay near Emirates Stadium.
Buy tickets to Arsenal games.