Boca Close Out Their Series in Belo Horizonte.

By: Mauro | May 8th, 2008

The clash of what could have easily been the final match has come to a close. In the first leg, Boca defended their home ground with authority in a dominating 2-1 win that (could have been 6-1 really) ended on a bit of a down note since Cruzeiro was able to get, what in other series’ has been crucial, an away goal in what seemed like the waning minutes of the match.

Tonight, Boca’s stance was a bit more apprehensive. They played poorly in the opening 30 minutes of the match that opened the way for Cruzeiro to control the ball and win more 50/50 plays in the midfield but only afforded them about three mediocre chances to beat Boca keeper Mauricio Caranta. In fact, Cruzeiro lobbed crosses into the area a will but found again and again the heads or feet of Morel Rodrigue and Julio César Cáceres.

In the 36th minute, after a small surge in football production by the visitors, Rodrigo Palacio found a ball that he powered past Cruzeiro keeper Fábio with service from Jesús Dátolo. This goal was as much a knockout punch for Cruzeiro as it was a re-birth of sorts for Boca.

The ball began to belong to Boca in the final 10 minutes of the half and just about finished the match off in the 43rd minute with an exquisite header by Martín Palermo from another cross by Dátolo, who had an amazing match on the left. The match seemed all but over.

The second half began with Boca retuning to play a more apprehensive style of play. And it was in those opening minutes that allowed Cruzeiro to take a bit of control of the match and finally find the back of the net. On a free kick crossed into the penalty area, Boca keeper Caranta came out of his goal and allowed Wagner to score off a fantastic scissor kick. 2-1 to Boca.

With this goal, I thought Cruzeiro was going to stage a historical comeback but as time wore on, and especially after Marcelo Martins Moreno had a header go off the post. They poured the pressure on until the last 10 minutes when it appeared that the amount of effort the futile comeback had required had finally caught up with them. And in the 37th minute, it was all over. Ramires came in on Riquelme a little too hard and was given his second yellow card and off to an early shower.

I guessed the score on this one correctly, Riquelme was not as influential as say, Dátolo, Palacio or Morel, and Vargas did not have a great match either. Boca is not a team to take lightly in Brazil and now we’ll see how they do in Mexico when they play Atlas in Guadalajara.

This will take place after, of course, the first leg in Buenos Aires, which cannot be played at La Bombonera because of the aggression showed by one fan (which I bet was group of fans throwing ice but only one hit paydirt) who hit the linesman in the forehead cutting him and requiring the head ref to suspend the match with barely 30 seconds to play. The opening leg of this match up will most likely be played at Vélez Sarsfield’s stadium, José Amalfitani “El Fortin.”

Be sure to check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.