Game just finished 1-0 another defeat. Against a side doing even worse then us. I dunno what more we can say really. Just want the League to be over with ASAP so we can put this behind us, and at least try to get some degree of optimism back. I know most of the people here prioritize the Copa over the league, and we should put everything we can into it, but success breeds success and winning brings confidence which can be applied to all the tournaments a team are in, and I am worrying why we STILL at this stage and in this horrendous run of form chopping and changing the team left, right and center. Fair enough Bianchi is finding out his best side, but at least lets attempt to keep some dignity.
I'm not sure how long you have been following Boca, but during Bianchi's first spell with the club, his teams ALWAYS fought on both fronts- the Copa Libertadores and the League. I'll give you an example. 2004... River and Boca played in the semifinal of the Copa Libertadores, won by Boca on penales who then lost to Once Caldas. River finished 1st, Boca 2nd in the league. 2003, Boca wins the Copa Libertadores, finished 2nd in the league to River, who had made the quarter finals of the Copa. Even this year, you can see Newell's is first in the league and also playing well in the Copa, even though they suffered a shock loss to Velez at home last week. I think one difference Bianchi is facing, is that his squad is not only smaller, but lacking in quality to what he is used too. In the early 2000s, Boca and River were amonst the best teams in the world, not just south america. The Super Clasico's in those days were played at a extremely high level. Both our clubs could field practically two different sides, one in the Copa Libertadores and one in the League, and they would have equal quality. Both clubs had guys who were starters on the national team, and i don't mean the "local" nt, but the full national team. I think that is where Bianchi is falling apart. Bianchi was always known for getting the most out of less talented players, but the problem with Boca is, that a lot of your players aren't just less talened than what he's used to, but downright awful. Its really hard to put into words just how much Argentine football has fallen off in the last 10 years. I mean, Chiqui Perez is horrendous. At the end of the game today, I believe it was Magallan who sliced a clearance and the ball traveled maybe 3 yards right into the path of an Estudiantes forward, who managed to miss. I think Boca will have to completely rebuild their squad for the next tournament, because from where I'm sitting, the only Boca player who is doing anything useful is Orion, and its normally a bad side when your goalie is your best player. Ramon Diaz so far is doing a little better than Bianchi, but I think he learned a lot from his time at San Lorenzo and Independiente. He saw first hand just how bad some of these players are in Argentina at the moment, and quite frankly this River team is far from great, but we're Barcelona compared to what he was working with at Independiente. For Bianchi, what he saw on TV is way different that what he's seeing first hand...
I started following Boca around 2002-2003 so I remember them playing well on both fronts. I accept that this isn't a good team and has a lot of players in it who shouldn't be, which begs the question why are they there? I remember Boca having a scouting network (especially for young players) that was the envy of most of football, has the talent dried up? I suppose your response poses the bigger question of, Why is football in Argentina regressing so rapidly? I mean as an outsider of sorts looking in, the quality is poor, sometimes even worse then that.
The economy and this government. In the past, Argentine players were always paid in USD $$$. Now they are paid in pesos, which is like being paid in monopoly money. Currentyly, the "official" rate is 5.14 Pesos to 1 USD. This rate is basically fictitious No one but the government and their close associates has access to this rate. The black market, or "blue" rate is 9.34 pesos to 1 USD. This is the rate that people need to buy dollars at. There will soon be a 100% difference between the two rates if Cristina doesn't do something. There have already been a few cases of people's contract being in dispute because of this. Inflation is so rampant, that your salary from last month is worth 10% less than when you were paid. This "cepo cambiaro" as its called is also hurting the clubs' ability to buy players from abroad. If you recall, Juan Manuel Iturbe signed for River yet was unable to play our first game of the season because the AFIP (Argentina's tax agency) wouldn't authorize River to buy the 400,000 Euros needed to pay for Iturbe's loan. The same thing happened last season with Rodrigo Mora, who wasn't even able to play until the 5th game of the season due to the AFIP's shenanagins. In the past, Argentine clubs could buy the best players from Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia... But the AFIP is making this more and more difficult. Its not going to get better any time soon. After the elections in October, expect a HUGE devaluation of the peso to occur. Things are a mess here. My grandparents are in their 80s, and they swear that other than the military dictatorship that killed thousands of innocents, this is the worst government Argentina has ever had, and thats saying something. Its no coincidence that the downturn in the quality of Argentine football began under this government. Things started going down hill around 2006, but the biggest change was 2008-2009 when this government started getting more involved with the football.
I don't know what to say. You see some of the kids play well, you get some hope, but it just doesn't come together. I'm sure that's why Bianchi keeps changing the lineup. He has a lot of capital from me, because of all he's done, but right now it's very frustrating to watch. Anyway, don't feel like talking about it much right now, I just hope they somehow pull the miracle vs Corinthians.
I think against Estudiantes, you had one of the better lately imo. You created a fair amount of chances and really, Estudiantes had two chances only. One of being a horrible mistake by Magallan (by that i mean it can avoided) and the other was a poor clearance by Orion which benefited Nunez. That video sums it up well imo: http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/videohub/video/clipDeportes?id=1786142&categoryid=834528&cc=7586
And just to add, I think while it's true that Chiqui Perez played like crap, to judge him on just this one game is unfair, because he just came back from the injury and it was his first game, and I suspect maybe he rushed it because Boca is running out of soldiers with all the injuries. I think he's better than what he showed yesterday.
I dont get the negativity after this game, of course its frustrating because of the awful run we are on, but this was the best performance ive seen boca put in since bianchi came back. Yes we lost, but defensively we were better in comparison with recent games( apart from a few slipups), we created much more chances and really went for it in the second half and in my opinion deserved to win the game. Te link up play between juan sanchez miño, zarate down the left side was quite promising at times. Id have liked to see palacios thrown in there too. That said, i was depressed as hell after the game, it seems whatever we do, we get no luck whatsoever. And, if river beat us next week, we could find ourselves bottom on the league by sunday night... Ive got a feeling we will beat river though, la bombonera isnt a place river enjoying playing and i think well do them, but i dont see us getting much change from corinthians unfortunately.
unfortunately a mentality doesnt mean much when they still have to play 90 minutes of football. Boca may beat River, but it would be simply for performing better on the field. Which at this point isnt their strong suit. I also dont care what reports are, if Riquelme really does play against Corinthians I assume he will find hes not as ready as he wishes he were. Hamstring injuries are the most nagging injuries there are.
I disagree. Mentality means everything. River is a much better team than Boca. Despite what ASF posted in the preseason, no one in their right mind would trade the River squad for the Boca squad. But River lacks mental strength. Thats why we tied Quilmes. Thats why we tied Boca last year. Thats why we have lost so many games in the last few minutres with this group of players. Boca is just a terrible, terrible team. River does everything to win, then some how manages not to do so.
Riquelme has to try to play, regardless of how he feels. This might be his last season, and with all due respect to River who is our most important rival, the priority has to be the game tomorrow against Corinthians, because Libertadores is what matters most, and it's the only significant thing this season. Boca has to go all out in that game, to stay alive in Libertadores. Only after that they can start thinking about River.
I guess I should have been more specific. Mentality in a game does matter, but that is part of how the game plays out. Mentality before a game means nothing, a team can come out fired up and as motivated as they want but have to actually execute to win. Yeah obviously, but I think if he does play tomorrow he will not be too happy with how he feels. At this point gotta try though.