Football United

River Plate handed Boca Juniors their first defeat in the 2004 Argentine Clausura, with a 1-0 victory at Boca's famed La Bombonera. The match was the 174th meeting in the Argentine La Primera between the two rivals. Both teams came into the match with Copa Libertadores victories during the midweek and Boca held a two point lead at the top of the table over River. The match began on a cool Autumn afternoon with the field covered in confetti.

The match was very tight at the beginning, with both sides committing hard fouls against one another. Then in the seventh minute of the match, Marcelo Salas had to leave as he suffered an injury, in what appeared to be a hamstring pull. Los Millonarios would bring in Maxi Lopez and this event would change the match, because Lopez caused all kinds of problems for the back four of Boca. At the half hour point of the match River began to get a sniff of Boca's net. It appeared that Rolando Schiavi tripped up Marcelo Gallardo inside the Boca penalty area, but Center Judge Sergio Pezzotta didn't see it that way and gave Gallardo a yellow for diving. River might have been robbed on the play, but 8 minutes later it didn't matter.

Fernando Cavenaghi scored the match's only goal in the 38th minute, off a beautifully executed corner kick.
Claudio Husain was the first person to get to the corner kick, as Husain headed the ball toward the far right post. Cavenaghi was just poaching on the play saw the ball come his way and promptly headed the ball past Boca's Roberto Abbondanzieri. Boca never seemed to recover from that play. Boca would have a hard time trying to maintain possession and string passes together. When Boca turned the ball over, they would resort to fouling the Millonarios players in an effort to prevent counter-attacks. A philosophy that would hurt Boca even more. Boca would finish the match with only 9 nine players. Jose Maria Calvo was the first Boca player to see red, as he received his second yellow card 3 minutes after the second half began. Then Carlos Tevez, who already had a yellow, received a straight red for a bad tackle on Horacio Ameli. In both cases, the Boca players committed the fouls after losing possession.

River seemed happy to have just the one goal and failed to create more opportunities. Los Millonarios best effort in the second half came, when Rofi Montenegro had an one on one opportunity with Abbondanzieri, but his shot caromed off of the post. River would be reduced to 10 players on the pitch, when Eduardo Tuzzio was shown red in the 83rd. Boca did create a few more chances, but they weren't strong enough and River went on to win. The victory catapulted River over Boca to the top of the table. Now with 5 weeks remaining in the Clausura River looks to maintain their lead over the rest of Argentina. Now Millonarios fans are dreaming of a possible double, as River is in the Quarter-finals for the Libertadores as well as leading the Argentine Clausura race. So far Leonardo Astrada has River performing on all cylinders in his first season at the helm for River. On the other side of the pitch, Boca will have to regroup and one can be sure that Carlos Bianchi will not take this loss lightly. The defending World Champions have just been embarrassed and will be looking for victims. Quilmes be prepared, as an angry Boca Juniors side will be coming your way in the upcoming week

BOCA JUNIORS: Roberto Abbondanzieri; José Calvo, Rolando Schiavi, Nicolás Burdisso, Clemente Rodríguez; Matías Donnet, Raúl Cascini (Franco Cangele, 69'), Fabián Vargas, Diego Cagna (Luis Perea, 55'); Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Neri Cardozo, 69'), Carlos Tevez.

River 1: Germán Lux; Ariel Garcé, Horacio Ameli, Eduardo Tuzzio, Ricardo Rojas; Javier Mascherano, Claudio Husain, Luis González; Marcelo Gallardo (Daniel Montenegro, 68'); Marcelo Salas (Maxi Lopez, 7'), Fernando Cavenaghi (Cristian Nasuti, 83').

GOALS: 0-1, Cavenaghi (38')

SENT-OFF: José Calvo (47'), Carlos Tevez (80'), Eduardo Tuzzio (82').

Source: soccerage.com; carp.org.ar