Boca beat River 3-2, for the quarterfinals of the League Cup. A deserved victory built from the sides. Once again, Diego Martínez’s team made the difference “on the outside”, either with centers or splits, with plays initiated by their full-backs. There the DNA of a coach is explained a little in a team that is still under construction, but he found there his starting point after several years of mediocrity in the xeneize game.
At the start of a new cycle, while defining the interpreters and the scheme, There was something that Diego Martínez was clear about: Jorge Almirón’s Boca was a heavy, slow team, without a change of pace and with great difficulties in attacking.. Furthermore, the best link had been Valentín Barco (a full-back converted into a midfielder and winger), but Martínez had lost him due to his sale to England. To correct this collective deficit, beyond making adjustments in the middle of the field, he gave a greater role to the full-backs. Blondel was already there, but the main success was in the hiring of Lautaro Blanco and Kevin Zenón. And he did not leave them alone in the attempt, but rather associated them with the line of flyers.
In the cold statistics, 13 of the 27 goals that Boca scored in the year were born with the participation of a full-back, either to convert or assist. Against River, it was no exception: overflow by Luis Advíncula, center back and goal by Merentiel, an action that had some similarity with that goal by Cristian Medina against Demichelis’s own River at the Monumental. White had been, until that moment, the main attack card, but the imbalance came from another side.
The best of the match
“I’m not going to get into the analysis of the rival, I don’t usually do that. I respect and appreciate Diego Martínez, he will surely end up giving his team an identity like Tigre and Huracán, he is in that search, I would never get involved in his analysis, proposal or objectives, but if I as River coach finish the game with seven defenders “I’m probably not respecting River’s history,” Demichelis had said after the 1-1 draw at the Monumental.
But the chicana that Demichelis tried after the last equality in Núñez on the “7 defenders” could have more place in the gallery than from a colleague on a decision that is made on the benches. Because? Because many times coaches – nowadays – are forced to put “doble lateral” (if you want to call it that) because – just as happened a long time ago with the 5 branded cap – the midfielders disappeared on the outside, the Augusto Fernández (if an example is chosen in River) or a Burrito Rivero (if a reference is taken in Boca). Demichelis has just Santiago Simon as a pure outside midfielder (but he was often used as a full-back) and Jabes Saralegui He now appeared as the only Xeneize exponent with those characteristics on the squad. Saralegui has some things by Diego Cagna. And if there was something that Jorge Almirón’s Boca lacked, it was freshness, dynamics, a greater back and forth. And changes of pace in their midfielders to surprise opponents and unbalance.
Martínez in Boca, like had an unbalanced squad in that resourcehe was forced to try an Advíncula-Blondel tandem on the right, and also think about a Lautaro Blanco-Fabra partnership on the left, even though Kevin Zenón, who in Unión could play as a left back in a line of 5, It also has the possibility of fulfilling that facet. Defensive? No. Because he used players with a certain characteristic but to be able to attack in a faster and more dynamic way. And he had no others. Plan C, which he also tried (without success) was to place forwards like Janson and Briasco as external midfielders. Saracchi remained as Blanco’s first substitute and Fabra was positioned – based on the coach’s preferences – as an eventual midfielder, as when he entered there against Newell’s in Rosario and River in Núñez. Blanco is a much better winger than Fabra. It is curious because, in the comparisons, the former Rosario Central until now had a parallel in how Fabra attacked in his best moment, but… very few put or put in the balance that Lautaro Blanco (in what differs most from the Colombian) is that he defends better from individual duels, crossed aerial balls, the ability to play with his body without committing an infraction and concentration for the coverage of the center backs or midfielders.
Blondel’s injury created a problem for Martínez because Marcelo Weigandt (he was the third right back) he went to Inter Miami, because Pedro Velurtas He is on loan at Barracas Central and because Pol Fernández, at 32 years old, no longer has (logically) that back and forth from when he emerged from the lower Xeneizes in 2012. Advíncula had been left without a double 4. That is why this Sunday against River he entered in the second half Nicolas Figal (center) as a refreshment on the right. The former Independiente went as a winger and Advíncula moved forward a few meters.
There were plays where Boca, towards the end, ended up defending with 7: Advíncula, Figal, Lema, Rojo, Blanco and Zenón distributed staggeredly across the width; Langoni, Campuzano (a more tactical 5) and Equi Fernández ahead and Benedetto alone at the front. A figure within a certain context. Martínez shouted for them to come out from the back, but there was an instinct for self-preservation among the Boca players to defend what they had achieved (3-1) when the timer ran out. But it would be unfair – like that afternoon at the Monumental, where Blondel and Fabra were midfielders– if Demichelis resorted to that figure again. During the match, well-crafted team splits and attacks were seen several times.
The plus of Advíncula (at least until Blondel was injured) and Blanco is that they also defended better overall. Even with flaws and things to improve, due to having players with more dynamic and less pasty characteristics ahead of them, they found greater collective collaboration so as not to have to resolve rival attacks head-to-head beforehand. It wasn’t just the attack or the difference in the assists generated. This Boca, even with many shortcomings (such as its central midfielder, so undefined) is a team that – at least – detached itself positively from what the cycles of Battaglia, Ibarra and Almirón had been. While you finish defining the other positions, Martínez has a security: His full-backs are not defenders, but rather have the soul of wines and give results.