Boca’s Bittersweet Win.

By: Mauro | May 1st, 2008

Bittersweet because they gave up a late away goal. Bittersweet because last night one of their most famous fans died.

Ischia was correct in not playing Juan Roman Riquelme, Sebastian Battaglia and Morel Rodriguez in Boca’s match on Sunday against San Lorenzo because they were all key in tonight’s win. In fact, the match wasn’t even 10 minutes old before Boca was able to break the 0-0 draw.

In the 6th minute, Battaglia combined with Alvaro Gonzalez who had the assist to Riquelme for the first one. What followed was an all out assault on the Cruzeiro side of the pitch. Boca’s game plan was clear, open up the pitch using the flanks and then look for the cross into the area where they would populate the area with players in blue and yellow.

In the second half, Boca almost extended their lead in the third minute but again the ball went wide and began a trend that would not endear Boca’s fans. In the 65th minute, Dátolo received a pass from Riquelme and juked Cruzeiro defender Jonathan and shot right past keeper Fabio. 2-0 to Boca and it appeared there were more to come as the opportunities presented themselves.

As the match wore on Boca failed to find the precise final touch that would give them the third goal and seemingly their qualification into the quarterfinals. Martin Palermo had many shots go wide as did Palacio and Dátolo. Late in the match, Palermo had a ball go off the post and the rebound fell to Gonzalez but he failed to convert with the entire goal at his disposition.

Cruzeiro depended a lot on Marcelo Moreno Martins and Guilherme up front to keep a semblance of a threat for Boca keeper Mauricio Caranta. The middle was not effective. They attempted to cover Riquelme and Palacio one on one but would find that there was always another unmarked Boca player to pass to.

It took Cruzeiro about 52 minutes to have their first full fledged quality chance on goal in the match. Their goal came off a deflection. Despite having a great match, Gonzalez went from hero to unexpected villain. Like Riise 8 days ago, Gonzalez found himself in the way of a dangerous ball that deflected off of him and went past Caranta. 2-1 to Cruzeiro who found the valuable away goal having done little on the pitch to deserve it.

The match was actually suspended in extra time because there was a projectile thrown at the linesman Pablo Fandiño, but only about 30 seconds of the match was not played.

Undeservedly so, Cruzeiro can now advance to the next round with only a 1-0 win at the Mineirao in one week’s time, but only if they are able to play a little better than they did tonight. This illustrates how important the away goal is.

I had this one ending up 1-1. I didn’t think that Boca had what they had in them. I figured they’d be more wounded but they looked strong and could have been able to put this one away early if they had only a few more gone in.

One of Boca’s most famous fans died yesterday. Maria Esther Duffau, known for her role in the 1933 film, “La Raulito”, she was a fervent fan of the club. A moment of silence was observed before the match started.

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