Copa Libertadores: Unspectacular start leaves Bianchi needing a win

14Mar 2013

Copa Libertadores

The third coming of Carlos Bianchi hasn't quite gone according to plan at Boca Juniors just yet says Jonathan Wilson, but a win over Nacional tonight could make a huge difference...

Walk around any Argentinian league ground and you can sell the nostalgia. Theirs is a football that lives in the past, that honours its legends - in word if not necessarily in deed - and remembers the days when it was the best in the world, when the best players didn't dash off to Europe (or Brazil, or China) after one good season.

Theirs is a football of loss, often awful matches played out in front of vast crowds - the sixth largest in the world, despite the crumbling terraces, the poor football and the constant threat of violence. Perhaps in the circumstances it's not surprising that so many fans seem to spend so much of the game orchestrating chants rather than watching the game. And perhaps it's not surprising that Boca Juniors were so keen to get Carlos Bianchi back as coach.

The Larry David lookalike is the most successful coach in Copa Libertadores history, having won the tournament four times - once with Velez Sarsfield and three times with Boca. But to Boca fans, he's more than that: he's the man who made a team that got the best out of Juan Roman Riquelme.

His first stint lasted from 1998-2001 and brought two aperturas, a clausura, two Libertaores and a famous Club World Cup victory over Real Madrid. Then he left, returning in 2003 to win another clausura, Libertadores and Club World Cup. Little wonder he is regarded as some kind of miracle-worker.

When he was appointed in December, Boca were in a mess. Julio Cesar Falcioni had led them to the 2011-12 apertura, to the Copa Argentina, and then to the final of the Libertadores, but his style of play struggled to accommodate Riquelme. In fact, Riquelme hated his style of play to the point that there were regular rows. Boca's form tailed off which cost them the clausura last season, a tournament they really should have won.

When they were beaten in the Libertadores final by Corinthians, Riquelme said he was quitting - and yet he never formally retired. His presence hovered always in the background and the possibility he might return if the circumstances were right was surely a contributory factor in the decision not to renew Falcioni's contract. Once he had gone, the way was clear for the third coming of Bianchi and - sure enough - Riquelme returned.

This was the dream. Boca fans wanted to imagine again that it was 2000 and they were again beating Real Madrid in Tokyo. But time saps at everybody and the reality has proved rather different. Since Bianchi's return, Boca have won just two of eight matches. They lie 16th in the Torneo Final and have lost both home matches so far in the Libertadores. A win away to the Ecuadorean side Barcelona is the only thing that gives them hope.

They face Nacional in Montevideo tonight having lost four of their last seven games. They lost to Nacional last week, despite playing the final 19 minutes against 10 men.

Riquelme has played just twice so far this season - in the 3-1 home defeat to Union and against Nacional. In theory, if he were fit, if he were the player of even three years ago, a forward line of him behind Lucas Viatri, all honest endeavour and aerial strength, and Juan Martinez, with his intelligent running, should work, particularly with Walter Erviti adding his creative powers from midfield.

But Riquelme is not the player he was and Boca, not for the first time, seem to have thrown out a style that worked in order to pursue an ideal that doesn't. Before Falcioni they had gone three years without a trophy.

Nacional, meanwhile, followed up their victory over Boca with a 2-1 home win over struggling Central Espanol - their first success in their third game of the Uruguayan season. Although they won 3-2 away to Toluca in the Libertadores, their form is unconvincing, and it took a late equaliser to avoid defeat to Barcelona.

And that, really, is Boca's hope. This group comprises only teams in inconsistent form; Toluca's draw away to Barcelona last night means they are only two points clear of Boca. Win tonight (2.87) - with Riquelme almost certainly absent with gastroenteritis - and the last 16 becomes a possibility again. With the league looking a struggle, Bianchi needs it.

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