Every team has its injuries at this time of the year, and it's hit Boca as hard as Flu. Boca was missing three starters yesterday -Somoza, Ledesma and Silva- and several others in the roster are out, like Colazo, Viatri, Battaglia, Gaona Lugo. I don't know if Battaglia will ever return, his injury is really stubborn, I could see him retiring. But Somoza and Silva have a chance to be back for the return leg next Wednesday. Viatri they say will be on the bench this Sunday. At least Riquelme is healthy and playing, that's a huge plus. As far as the return leg, I think it could go either way. Of course a key for Fluminense will be to keep Boca from scoring. As long as Boca doesn't score, they have a good chance to turn it around, but just one goal will make it really tough. Boca thrives when the other team has to attack, and struggles more when they stay back and counter. After the red, Flu was smart to stay back and limit the damage to one goal, but unless they get some fortune early, at some point they are going to have to take risks and go for it. That's when the fun will start.
Boca's players hounded the referee, who showed he needs a spine transplant. He gave in to several of their complaints. In addition, the first yellow card on Carlinhos was questionable, although Carlinhos should have shown better self-control. A very "caseiro" referee indeed. Credit to Diego Cavalieri for several pivotal saves. If Fluminense ultimately advances, it will be in huge part thanks to his heroics. The team itself did well until the Carlinhos ejection. In the end, Boca used every artifice it could to secure a crucial home win. The play when Schiavi stomped on a fallen Fluminense player's hand would've made all followers of Bilardismo proud.
It was unfortunate about Carlinhos. The first yellow was a judgement call, but that handball had to be a second yellow, the ref had no choice at that point. Carlinhos seems to be an important player, and will be missed on the return leg. Do they have a good replacement at left back? As far as Schiavi stepping on a hand, watching the game I thought that was incidental. Did you get a chance to see some tape that makes it look like it was deliberate?
The stream I was watching, the narrators were going on and on about a supposed handball in Boca's area that, according to them, should have been a penalty in favour of Flu. The stream was quite bad, so the replays showed as slide shows, and it was hard to see. Was there anything at all?
Yes. Clear handball. Terrible Terrible ref. I was questioning whether he had on a blue jersey underneath. Localista, por favor.
It was a bad ref, but his calls went against both teams. There was a yellow to a Boca player which wasn't even a foul. There was no stomping motion made by Schiavi on that play by the side-line so that was a good call. Pure accident. Although the biggest/worst call was the non-penalty. It could've even been a red card since the ball was headed to an open net. I would feel bad for Flu but their constant diving and feigning injury only left me with a smirk on my face when they lost. To illustrate how bad the ref was, he couldn't even measure 10 yards for free-kicks. Like not even close. Getting basic shit like that wrong shouldn't happen at this level.
I think a red would have been harsh. Roncaglia had his back to the ball, there's no way he could have seen it coming let alone get out of the way. A penalty should have been called, because he interfered with the ball, but the play was unintentional. He jumped, the ball passed over him and then it was headed back towards him from behind, and it bounced off the back of his upper arm. He didn't extend his arm, either. It was a normal jumping motion. Plus it happened very fast and in a crowded area, I can understand the ref not seeing it. I didn't see it the first time either. It's easy to complain after seeing things several times on replays from different angles, but it was a tough call and if the ref is not sure where the ball hit the player he cannot call a penalty.
Morante is a really great defender. I've seen him miss 2 months due to injury, return for a month, then be out for 4, and return again. Everytime he returns he comes back in good shape and makes it seem like he wasn't out of competition at all. He did that last year. He's awesome to have when he's healthy. Unfortunately for him and for U de Chile, you haven't seen the best of him.
I really hope you are right dude... I haven't seen anything of him! I missed his first match against San Felipe when he got injured. I trust Sampaoli's judgement 100% though, since he coached him. Also, any guy who plays for the Ecuador NT defence can't be crap. You guys have a better defence than our NT anyway.
He recovered from his first injury to start playing...and get hurt again. Per your post, I get the impression he's very injury-prone: is that the case? If so, it will be tough for him to make an impact for a while.
he was injury prone last year. And apparently this year as well. But durting his first year playing as a regular in Emelec (2010 season), he wasn't ever out for more than 2 weeks or so. Last year he was out for the first half of the year (the majority of it), but he played most of the campeonato games really well during the second half of the year. I'm not too sure how Chile's campeonatos work. From what i'm seeing it's a bit similar to mexico with play offs, am i correct? I watch U de Chile play here and there on Tv Chile, but in the last 3 weeks or so. I'm assuming you guys are almost done with your campeonato.
Brazilians up to their usual antics: http://canchallena.lanacion.com.ar/...o-para-que-los-jugadores-de-boca-no-durmieran
Absolutely not! As I was saying in rivalries, in Buenos Aires we treated their players so well. We allowed them to sleep like babies. In fact, we even mixed sleeping pills in their water to help them sleep.
Wasn't asking you if they do it - I was "suggesting" you do as they do since the sleeping pills failed. As exciting as the Libertadores is, too bad it's winding down. A 2-week break due to international friendlies, then the semifinals & finals... and that's it till 2013.
If we get past Flu maybe we can do it against Corinthians or Santos. And whoever wins it this year, they better beat Chelsea. It's one thing to lose to Barca, but we can't lose to an English team.
Vasco, Corinthians, and Santos fans will take note... 4 starters against Bayern Munich were Englishmen - Lampard, Cahill, Cole, and Bertrand. There were two Ivorians, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Nigerian, a Spaniard, and a Czech as well. Bayern in contrast had 8 Germans in the starting lineup. I'd say that Chelsea isn't much of a representative of English soccer - as I said here recently, the better UEFA teams have South Americans (and Africans) in their teams. They need us far more than we need them.