A Sack Full Of Soul

By: Scott | August 21st, 2008

Again, title is a reference to the legendary Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who provides the backdrop to all failures and accomplishments this season, and there was a little of both in the past couple of weeks.

Copa Sudamericana -

The new squad debuted at home against San Lorenzo in the quest to top this conglomeration of South and Central American clubs. As Arsenal proved last year, any team can get hot and come out champions. However, no team can accomplish it by looking the way Argentinos did on August 6th. They had 1 (one) shot on goal, which was saved brilliantly by Agustín Orion as he auditions for a payday in Europe. Jonathan Botinelli was spectacular in saving two one-on-one situations before moving on to Sampdoria after the match. I am trying to think of “cute” or “funny” or “interesting” things to say about the match. I can’t. It was cold and boring and depressing, since all San Lorenzo has to do is win at home tonight (tune in live on Fox Sports en Español at 8pm Eastern!!!) to advance. I am happy, however, that they did not go out and embarrass themselves and I am hopeful that they will do the same tonight: play well enough so that I can come to the office tomorrow without being verbally abused to the point of tears. Unfortunately, I cry easily so…possible sick day alert!

If you recall, last year’s 61 points were a big deal for two reasons: 1) the most successful campaign since they were champions of the Libertadores in 1985 and 2) qualification for the Sudamericana, which works to lend legitimacy to the team and assets to the club’s coffers. However, with another uninspired and impotent outing tonight, all of that will turn into an unspectacular wash. The analogy here would be the kid who gets invited to his first high school dance by the girl he likes, but only as part of her “group”, not an actual date setup, and then watch her make out with the guy she really likes, who just also happens to be the kid that verbally mocks him every day in trigonometry class with verbals assaults on his senses of fashion and hygiene and has turned his nights from peaceful slumber to turbulent sessions of teeth gnashing and tears…in other words, it would suck.

Torneo Apertura 2008 -

There have been two matches thus far, and they are night and day. If you’ve never been to Sarandí, then a description of the smell in the town is impossible. I thought I had seen everything, but the location of the stadium is right at the meeting point of what seems like 10,000 dumpsters and sewers, all of which has been slowly roasted and then pissed on by 10,000 horses. Truly stomach-wrenching. Unfortunately enough, that wasn’t the only disgusting aspect of the Argentinos-Arsenal match played three days after the match against San Lorenzo. Arsenal is riding high on the signing of Facundo Sava, who left Racing recently but will never lose his ability to score that goal that beats your team. Sure enough, 3 minutes into his debut for his new club, he headed one over Matías Caruzzo and past Torrico for the first goal of the season. It only got worse from there. I will spare you (read:myself) the details, but the final was 3-0 and it wasn’t that close.

If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that Argentinos had played two full matches without scoring a goal…those are rough waters. Velez Sarsfield was next on the schedule and the first 45 minutes still showed no signs of hope. We had depended so strongly on homefield advantage, yet they were pathetic. The 3-5-2 formation had holes in the defense and no punch in the offense. Juan Fernandez, substitute wingback on the left and right, was abused in both matches and was absolutely shown to be someone with next to 0 footballing talent. The starters, Gonzalo Prosperi and Sergio Escudero, can NOT take a week off….ever. Anyway, the second half whistle blew, and we “dealt with a miracle”. An unexpected cast of characters delivered on the goals: Andrés Scotti towered over the defense on a deflected free kick and knocked it home to open the floodgates; Ortigoza pounded a penalty after Tobio kicked the crap out of Hauche in the area with the ball 50 yards away; Mercier played a beautiful 1-2 with Pavlovich and finished with the left foot; and Prosperi centered one that Aban nailed home for the 4-1 victory.

I have talked before about how Hauche is a player who has some talents, but whose principal attributes stand in the fact that he will take every advantage he can out there to find position, win the ball, draw a foul, etc. He has a reputation of a questionable player, it is obvious now, as he doesn’t draw many fouls and is called for a lot. However, in the Velez match, it all played to our favor and played a big part in the result. With a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute, he was tugging and pushing in a fight to get the ball against two defenders. He lost and the ball was cleared. One of the defenders, Tobio, a real young-looking guy, had been fighting with Gabriel the entire afternoon. He had obviously had had enough, as he kicked the crap out of Hauche in the area…dumb, dumb dumb. Red card and penalty and the entire match changed.

What do we know

Nothing, as always. Rodrigo “Rengo” Diaz, the big signing, has played well, but nothing to make you think that he’s truly going to lead this team to a finish better than the 5th place from last year. The loss of our hero Alvaro Pereira has led Gorosito to opt for a much more defensive posture, with a 3-5-2, and at times Diaz, Peñalba, and Hauche are stranded up top. They haven’t learned how to make goals out of nothing and the support from the wings, which was so vital last year, is non-existent. They STILL looked horrible away from home and weak on set pieces–the SAME problems that haunted them last year. Their defense looks really solid (ignore the Arsenal match) and that is good enough for me. Onward to San Lorenzo tonight…