Boca Lets it Slip Away.

By: Mauro | May 15th, 2008

Boca hosted Atlas last night at Vélez Sarsfield’s stadium last night. In my preview of this match, I covered their previous meetings and their respective records coming into this match. Since this one was for all the marbles, I think Atlas really turned it on. Boca suffered, once again, from the inability to finish off numerous quality chances throughout the match but more notably in the final ten minutes.

The match started right out of the gates. At the 6 minute mark, off a corner kick, Diego Colotto won in the air heading it across the goal where, with the Boca keeper Mauricio Caranta beat, Omar Flores Serrano got a head to it and Atlas had the surprise lead. Credit Colotto, who is very adept at dead ball crosses and this isn’t the first time, with the assist.

After scoring, Atlas resorted to playing with ten men behind the ball with the only exception being Bruno Marioni, who was left alone up front on most plays and sometimes Ulises Mendivil accompanying him.

But Boca poured on the pressure and it became evident that they were not going to score many goals, because if they had started going in, they would have had a hatfull of goals at the end of the first half. Juan Róman Riquelme and Jesús Dátolo pulled the strings in the midfield while Martín Palermo and Rodrigo Palacio paired up near the penalty area and created quite a few chances which they failed to put away.

Even the goal that ended up on Boca’s tally went in off a defender. Off a great pass from Riquelme, Palacio crossed the ball into the penalty area where Atlas defender, Hugo Ayala, met the ball but Palermo slid in behind him, took him down and the Ayala failed to clear the ball, because of the clear foul in my book, and fell into the goal behind the ball that had already gone in. 1-1.

Like the match against Cruzeiro where Boca dominated play, they did the same here. And again, they could have ended the first half by a difference of, at very least, two goals but they weren’t able to put away the good work by Dátolo and Riquelme, even when Riquelme ended up in the area on his own, later in the match, the goal eluded his squad again when his shot hit the post.

While I’m still not sure how the first goal wasn’t a foul on the Ayala, Palermo did make up for it bringing down a cross with his head, serving it up for Julio Cáceres, in the 75th minute, who was able to drive home a shot from short range to give Boca the 2-1 lead.

In the meantime, Morel Rodriguez did everything he could to make sure that Caranta’s score sheet stayed at 1. In fact, I think Cáceres and Maidana owe Morel a little bit of their paychecks from last night. He saved their asses on countless occasions.

Despite Morel’s efforts, in the 88th minute, Atlas on the counter-attack was able to get off a long cross from the left allowing Jorge Torres to nod in Atlas’ second on the night and drew his team level.

From that point on Boca have at least three more clear opportunities to score and failed to convert on all. Just like in the Cruzeiro match at La Bombonera, Boca failed to really show the difference on the score board that was evident on the pitch.

To make matters worse for Boca, keeper Mauricio Caranta ended his poor performance last night with an injury that rules him out for their match at the weekend against Racing and will most likely give Pablo Migliore the start in Mexico against Atlas. There is a rumor that Migliore will be rested and third string youngster Javier Garcia might make the start for Boca on Saturday against Racing, to avoid a potential injury to Migliore and forcing the third stringer to play in the pivotal match next week in Mexico.

This is a great score line for Atlas to take home with them. A scoreless draw or a 1-1 draw will qualify them for the Semis. Boca need a win. Period. And it won’t be easy at the Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara, where Atlas is unbeaten but where Lanús was able to get a couple of goals and harry Atlas’ defense.

But I believe that these types of situations are where Boca come alive. When you think they are dead and buried, they come right back and make the impossible happen. I’m not ready to count the defending champions out. Again, this is why we watch these matches, it’s about the magic, making the impossible possible. If we knew the scores ahead of time, the stadiums would be empty and TVs would never tune to the matches.

I had this one going 2-0 to Boca. I mean, really, who would have thought Atlas was going to get that early goal. And, personally, I think that Boca really missed their stadium last night despite the Boca faithful turning out in droves and creating the same atmosphere.

Check the CONMEBOL website for results, stats and upcoming matches.