Argie Bargy : Newell’s

Bicycle kicks, inch-perfect freekicks & Ronaldinho-esque genius

Joel Richards — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:12:00 GMT

On the face of it, Racing, All Boys, River and Newell’s are the same this season.

Sure, Racing and All Boys have won one more game than River and Newell’s, but River and Newell’s lost fewer and drew those matches. They are all on 22 points.

They are not having a particularly good - nor a particularly bad - season. Were they in Europe, they’d be chasing Europa league spots. And with this points parity, you’d expect things at the four clubs to be much the same. This would be incorrect.

On the one hand we have All Boys, who are now officially the ‘surprise package’ of the season. The side promoted just a few months back has claimed the scalp of River, Independiente, Estudiantes and Boca at their rickety home ground. After another three points at the weekend and an excellent performance, the coach José Romero modestly suggested that other team’s fans should come to watch them play. "The truth is that it is a pleasure to watch this team play," he confessed.

All Boys’ points were taken at Newell’s expense. The men from Rosario are now the paragon on stability in the Argentine league, with Roberto Sensini the longest-serving coach in top flight. Nothing exemplified the work being done at the club more than the heroic defeat at altitude and against one of the continents top sides in the Sudamericana recently. But then All Boys happened. ‘It was the worst performance of the year,’ said midfielder Bernardi. He was not far off.

Racing’s performances and results, meanwhile, are directly proportional to the quality of performance by the Crouch/Riquelme/Guti/Rivaldo DNA experiment, aka Gio Moreno. With him out of sorts, the Academy struggled to beat Quilmes, and the chances of qualifying for the Libertadores diminish.

River, meanwhile, should feel they are doing pretty well given the state of the side’s relegation average, plus the dire state of the club – this week the true extent of the club’s debt was revealed, discussed and shouted about. Bankruptcy is still not too distant a possibility. And they were truly dire against San Lorenzo.

Yet all four are on the same points…

Elsewhere this weekend, many were quick to point out that there were ONLY 18 GOALS!!!! This apparently equates to a level of tedium only previously recorded when Ricardo Fort is on TV (we're not going to pretend we know who this is - ed).

But no - there was plenty of entertainment to be had. Carlos Sánchez scored a belter against Banfield, while Sergio Araujo scored his first goal – a brilliant one - for Boca (video below) and will soon no doubt soon provoke the typical INTER/BARCELONA/CHELSEA/MILAN/BENFICA/JUVENTUS SWOOP FOR BOCA ACE headlines.

Franco Neill scored a perfect bicycle kick to earn a point for Argentinos.

Maxi Velázquez was invited by the Colón defence to run at them, before he tired, and hit a 25-yard shot for Independiente, before being sent off.

And Mario Regueiro scored an inch-perfect freekick, plus a volleyed second, to win the points for Lanús’ debutant coach, Gabriel Schurrer.

To this list we must add two more. First is Gabriel Mendez’ for Banfield, but it seems like a cross more than a shot.

Second is David Ramírez’ goal against Banfield for Godoy Cruz. It was Ronaldinho-esque. The commentators thought it was genius. ‘Watching it on TV it does look like I meant it,’ said the playmaker after the game. ‘But it was a cross.’

Things are not all that they seem, either on TV, or in the league.

RESULTS Godoy Cruz 2-1 Banfield; All Boys 2-0 Newell’s; Estudiantes 2-0 Huracán; San Lorenzo 0-0 River; Boca 2-1 Arsenal; Gimnasia 0-0 Vélez; Racing 1-1 Quilmes; Olimpo 1-1 Argentinos; Colón 1-1 Independiente; Lanús 2-0 Tigre.

Power of the Jonas Brothers stretches Argentina's weekend

Joel Richards — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:25:00 GMT

In the world of Fútbol Para Todos, where all first division games are broadcast live on national TV, we are used to ‘weekends’ stretching into the working week in order to fit in all the games.

Kicking off on Friday night and finishing on Monday has, so far, been the longest ‘weekend’ of football. But this weekend, we enter new territory.

Round 14 will start on Friday night, and end late on Tuesday.

It should be the superclásico weekend, but there was a hitch. First of all, the president’s husband, and former president Néstor Kirchner passed away. Given the relationship with AFA, as looked at in this blog, plus the reaction within Argentina to Kirchner’s death, it was probably the correct move to cancel football.

In fact, next season will be called the Néstor Kirchner Clausura, in tribute to the ex-president. In the meantime, the fixtures were all pushed back a week.

This is where the hitch occured. In recent weeks, Núñez has been over run with leather, as Bon Jovi were in town. Then just this week, Sir Paul McCartney has delighted the locals with his 60s repertoire. The very presence of SPM has produced an outbreak of highly gratuitous references to Beatles’ classics in the press, but clearly computers here don’t have an English-language spell check. ‘Help. A need somebody’ is the worst offender so far.

Anyway, joining the Bon Jovi/SPM roll call to play the River Plate stadium this weekend are the Jonas Brothers.

But, it’s also River v Boca.

So it is that the superclásico, after much toing and froing which amounted to a contest between the two supergrandes proving who has the grandest one, will be played on Tuesday night.

This is what the Jonas Brothers look like, if you wondered/cared/own a gun

The pitch needs time to recover after all those thousands of teenyboppers, you see.

In the meantime, the rest of the sides will get on with business.

First up is Huracán – Colón, where the home fans will be split over how to receive Joaquin Larrivey. Should they a) cheer his every touch after he scored around 40 goals in the second division, helping the side win promotion to top flight. Or should they b), throw the most vile and heinous abuse at the striker whose foul on keeper Monzón went unpunished in the title play-off a year ago between Huracán and Vélez, and from which Vélez scored the winner and logically, won the title. We all know which it will be.

The other game to watch for is Quilmes against Godoy Cruz, although you’ll have to do so on TV. The game is being played at Banfield’s ground and behind closed doors.

Quilmes, 13 games without a win, were subjected to attack by their own ‘fans’ last week after another defeat. The team bus was stoned, while players had their windscreens smashed and scratched as they tried to leave the ground.

Quilmes vice-president, Aníbal Fernández, who also happens to be the government cabinet chief, admitted this week that he knows who the aggressors are. ‘They are two idiots and I hope they are put away for 70 years, and I know one of them very well, he’s a neighbour.’ That what we want to hear! Justice!

Criminals put behind bars! No such luck. Fernández continued: ‘the issue is that nobody will report them to the police.’ Despite his role at the club, despite his role with the government and despite admitting he knows who they are, Fernández himself will not act. Perhaps the large banner held by the Quilmes barra brava which carries the name of his political group has something to do with this. Perhaps not.

Politics aside, Quilmes are in freefall. Godoy Cruz are one of the best sides in the country. There’ll either be a goal-fest, or a historic win for the Brewers.
Fixtures

FIXTURES Friday 12th Nov Huracán v Colón, Banfield v Gimnasia Saturday 13th Nov Arsenal v All Boys, Tigre v Estudiantes Sunday 14th Nov Argentinos v San Lorenzo, Quilmes v Godoy Cruz, Independiente v Olimpo, Vélez v Lanús, Newell’s v Racing Tuesday 16th Nov River v Boca.

The luckless, mother-insulting, ball-busting weekend preview

Joel Richards — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:45:00 GMT

STOP PRESS: Literally moments after sending this to HQ, Abel Alves quit as Boca coach. His record as Boca coach is P13 W2 D5 L6 F18 A27. He leaves them 19th. That's adiós, not hasta luego...

‘Look how happy you all are!’ beamed Tolo Gallego after his Independiente side lost to Gimnasia. ‘Who was the lucky one, then? Look, the luck’s over, so don’t bust my balls about it anymore.’

If you listen to the local media, Independiente topping the charts in Argentina is a fluke.

Everyone has been saying, writing, shouting and dissecting evidence to prove just how lucky the Reds coach is.

Look how many trophies he’s won! Both as a player and a coach! Look at how many saves his keeper made last weekend! Look how his team rides its luck! He’s blessed from upon high!

Eduardo Coudet, one of Tolo’s players from his days at River, eloquently phrased the general feeling with the following charm. ‘When your A-hole opens up, Tolo, there’s nothing to give it to you with.’

Coming from a man who plays for Colón, that’s a bit rich. The literal translation of what the midfielder said to his former boss, is, however, a back handed compliment. Apparently.

For those believing that Señora Suerte is smiling on Tolo, Godoy Cruz somehow failed to beat Racing, and failed to draw level at the top of the table.

There is one slight hitch to all this championship talk - the sponsor.

The last two runners up in the league – Huracán and Newell’s – were sponsored by Motomel, the largest motorbike manufacturers in the country. Worryingly for the rojo fans, this year it’s Independiente they are paying to promote their mopeds and quads.

Next up to test their luck levels is San Lorenzo, whose coach Sebastián Méndez debuted in midweek with a defeat to the side he captained to the title just three months ago. The merry-go-round continues…

River and Boca crisis watch

While Independiente’s fate may be written in the stars, River Plate’s destiny is starting to become clearer and clearer with every passing game, after the fourth defeat in a row.

A falling-back scraped toe-poke of a shot from Achucarro (‘qué orto!!!!’ – again, it was lucky) won the game for Newell’s on Wednesday. The win rewarded Roberto Sensini with some breathing space, but it makes this weekend’s trip up north to Tucumán do or die for River coach Leo Astrada.

Going down, going down, going down!

In the meantime, the seat-kicking red-faced mother-insulting River Plate fans took to abusing their own players, only letting off Ariel Ortega, who was playing his first game in two months.

River being relegated (in a year’s time) is now a reality rather than a possibility, yet apparently berating their 19 and 18 year old strikers is the answer. It is clearly their fault that the most successful club in Argentine league history is facing the drop, therefore the burden of rescuing the club must weigh down on their teenage shoulders.

Bad luck didn’t really have too much to do with Boca ending their midweeker against Colón with ten men – the Colombian centre back Breyna Bonilla’s two-footed lunge was, in common parlance, criminal.

Neither was there any bad luck in Boca losing again, this time to a modest three goal difference.

Simple footballing concepts such as passing, running, and counter attacking were all that Colón needed to open up a 2-0 scoreline at half time, a lead which they were never in any danger of letting go of.

Also down on their luck were Chacarita when they faced Lanús on Wednesday. 1-0 with six minutes remaining, mired in the relegation zone, you’d think that you were looking at three vital points to avoid the drop. You were wrong. In two minutes – the 89th and the 90th to be precise - Gonzalo Castillejos hit two for Zubeldía’s men.

Chacarita’s naughty fans, the barra brava, thought that all the players needed afterwards was a clear threat of violence to turn things around.

Mauro Navas, who took over the Undertakers an Alex Ferguson-esque 11 days ago, threatened to quit because of the intimidation.

Chacarita now need to win all their games till the end of the season to have any chance of staying up. With four wins from 13, it is perhaps time to start writing the will.

Weekend fixtures
Newell’s v Chacarita
Huracán v Gimnasia
Independiente v San Lorenzo
Lanús v Central
Vélez v Banfield
Atlético Tucumán v River Plate
Godoy Cruz v Tigre
Estudiantes v Racing
Boca v Arsenal
Argentinos v Cólon