There is a Superclassic tumult.
Everything blurs in this ending to pure runs and blows.
Almost all the
River
and
Boca
players , plus both coaching staffs and security agents, make up a great ball of people.
There have already been pineapples
and now everyone grabs their shirts, they invite each other to fight, they dress handsome.
Only one person remains oblivious to everything: Miguel Borja
, in the middle of the field, contemplates how the Monumental moves from here to there to the rhythm of the song.
And the Colombian raises his hands, harangues the crowd, smiles while the rest grit their teeth.
After all, the Hummingbird is one of the star characters of the duel: he scored the penalty goal with which River beat Boca 1-0.
The end was chaos, a sad image
.
He had to move Boca to play the last 2 minutes of the duel, but he had almost no players.
Darío Herrera had distributed red cards to those inside and outside;
and the visitors paid more dearly because
Ezequiel Fernández, Nicolás Valentini and Esteban Rolón
were playing.
River only lost Agustín Palavecino
, the one targeted by all the visitors.
Thus, he had nothing to go with to look for the tie Boca.
It should also be said that, being eleven against eleven, those commanded by Jorge Almirón did very little to win.
There was speculation during the week about the way in which Boca would play at the Monumental.
Due to the previous antecedents, one possibility was that Jorge Almirón would send an attack on his team.
The other alternative that was being considered was that it be planted as a counterattack, with Luis Advíncula and Sebastián Villa.
In no way was it thought that Boca would defend himself so much in Núñez,
This is how it all ended after the excessive celebration of Palavecino. Photo: Emmanuel Fernández
Is it wrong to defend?
Of course not.
It is one of the many variants that a football game can give away.
Perhaps Almirón thought that keeping zero in his goal was going to cause the locals to despair and thus find space for a run by Sebastián Villa.
But the Colombian was very far from Franco Armani's goal and only caused something in the last play of the first half, when Enzo Pérez earned the yellow card for knocking him down.
He opted for a very compact 5-3-2 Almirón
, with the full-backs contained and with the line of 3 centrals not so withdrawn.
The distance between the defenders and Vázquez was not huge.
He did not go on the attack once Valentin Barco in the initial stage.
Advíncula did go up to three quarters to send an unproductive cross.
Boca did not kick the goal in the first part simply because he did not propose it.
Martín Demichelis made a small modification to the scheme: this time it was 4-2-3-1, with Nicolás De la Cruz on the right and Ignacio Fernández as a hitch.
That move had a clear idea: to attack the youthful Barco's back.
And from there came the best actions of the venue because the footballers alternated to go and drill that space.
They were Casco, De la Cruz, Aliendro, Fernández and Beltrán.
But the millionaire group lacked completion.
Many of the midfielders handled it, although they did not find the final pass.
Possession of 69 percent paints what the first 45 minutes were like.
Although it is convenient not to enlarge things: River did not make enormous merits to take advantage, beyond handling the ball and assuming the leading role.
Casco lowers Merentiel in a rough match. Photo: Emmanuel Fernández
Sergio Romero did not have great saves and Franco Armani did not touch it.
Chiquito
made some effort to cover a couple of distant shots from Nacho Fernández, the most participatory of the locals.
Beltrán had a clear header, but he missed the goal.
There wasn't much else.
And he got in a lot, of course.
That could not be missing.
Darío Herrera handed out 7 yellow cards in that initial stage;
the first for Aliendro was at 4
.
In the complement, Boca went ahead a few meters and River was left without legs.
The process became more even.
The same, the place continued to have the leading role.
Romero took a difficult ball from De la Cruz, who was destined for a great goal.
Demichelis was more ambitious than Almirón.
The changes of one were offensive, while those of the other were to maintain the established.
And the appearance of Pablo Solari by Aliendro was fundamental.
Micho
understood that he had to continue attacking the back of the youthful Barco.
The man from Córdoba hit the post and they committed the penalty -finite- that Borja exchanged for a goal.
Mouth?
Too poor, without greatness.
Milton Casco had a good finish when Villa went one-on-one and the Colombian tested Armani twice from distance, once with a free kick.
It was all he accomplished in 90 minutes.
Sandez's penalty arrived at Solari, Borja's goal, the hug between Demichelis and his son Bastian, the celebrations and the scandal at pure red.
The duel did not deserve such an ending.
But if someone deserved to succeed for what they did on the field, that was River.
