The lineup featured Sebastián Peratta; Cristian Díaz, Santiago Vergini, Hernán Pellerano y Leonel Vangioni: Diego Mateo, Lucas Bernardi, Martín Tonso y Víctor Figueroa; Mauricio Sperduti y Ricardo Noir.

Newell’s started in a 4-4-2 but switched to a 3 man back line in the second half with the debut of newest acquisition Victor López. With the insertion of López, Christian Diaz moved up and subbed in for Tonso.

Since I spent most of the day and part of the night trying to find an alternator for a Ford E-350 diesel motor (not an easy task in Haiti) so I could get our bus moved out of a not so great location to break down, I didn’t see the match so I am only relying on newspaper reports for this post.

By all accounts Newell’s played much better than in their two previous friendlies and López looked very comfortable in defense.

Just to catch up since my last post, Newell’s has pretty much screwed the old proverbial perro. Two coaches have departed and we don’t have any real marquee players. NOB is facing a potential relegation battle heading into the Clausura sitting 14th, and even though their promedio is a good bit better than All Boys at 17th a repeat of the Apertura’s 16 point campaign would be hard to overcome.

La Lepra didn’t look good last season. It was even painful sometimes. And we didn’t even get a chance to salvage the season by beating Central since they went and got themselves relegated.

Fast forward to today. Favorite son Gerardo Martino has returned to el Parque as coach. His last coaching gig didn’t turn out too badly, and he is probably second to only Bielsa in fan adoration so his arrival has stirred the passions of the fan base. Yesterday he made his first (and possibly only) signing in defender Victor Lopez, from Banfield. I believe that Lopez negotiated his release from Banfield and signed with Newell’s so there was no official transfer fee.

The Clausura starts on February 12 with a trip to Estudiantes and then a home match the following week versus Argentinos. I’ll see if I can dredge up their preseason matches and get that up next.

He’ll also be face-to-face with one Ricardo Caruso, ex-Newell’s boss and head man at Tigre, who had a very acrimonious parting with Schiavi when Caruso was heading out the door. Should be interesting, maybe.

Sebastián Taborda was terrible. I mean terrible. He might be a little bit of ok when it comes to being a target man but give him the ball on the ground and I am a better player. And I am just this side of suck. If he is the best we have, send him home and bring in the kids for a bit of seasoning.

In defense, Schiavi was uncharacteristically spotty but Augustín Alayes was almost as useless as Taborda. Mario Regueiro pretty much did whatever he wanted on the right side. The thing is Mauricia Sperdutti isn’t known for playing great defense so when you are playing behind him you have to be in good form. And Alayes was not. Lucky it was only one goal.

While I can’t really put my finger on why, the offense did seem better than I expected it to. Granted I only saw a few minutes of the first match, but they did seem more cohesive and able to sustain an attack a bit better. Not quite so many long balls played either. Leandro Velázquez looked good replacing la Pulga Rodriguez, comfortable on ball and able to move it. Marcelo Estigarribia was a bit better than solid as well. Mauro Formica was average, for him and does seem to attract a lot of fouls. I didn’t see the stats but probably half of el Granate’s fouls were against him.

I’d give the man of the match award to el Gordo for the sweet free kick, but the two stupid yellows that sent him home early and leave him out against Tigre next week make it impossible. The second yellow might be debatable but pulling the first for celebrating is just stupid.

So that leaves me with Diego Mateo, in my opinion the best player of not just this match but the first match as well (which I didn’t get around to writing about much). He played most of the second half without a real partner in the middle and Newell’s didn’t miss a beat.

I can’t wait for Lucas Bernardi to get fit and return to the midfield while Mateo is in this run of form. If this keeps up it will be hard to hang on to Mateo for much longer.

After writing all this, I think I feel better about the draw. A point against Lanús on the road is not a bad result I was just letting the opening loss affect my feelings. We’re still 5 off the pace after two weeks, but it is a long-ish season and I did see improvement. If we can manufacture a couple of goals here and there we should be ok.

The goals:

And just for fun, and because I don’t get tired of watching it, Salcedo’s “mummy goal.”

The deal is for a one year loan with an option to buy and I don’t think there is any transfer fee although I believe there was a cancellation of a debt between the club and Quilmes (or Torres).

In my mind this could be a costly move for Sensini since I don’t see anyone ready to step up and start scoring or doing a whole lot else. While Torres wasn’t a prolific goal scorer he brought a lot to the field. In a way he reminded me of Damian Steinert, who followed Caruso Lombardi to Racing and is now playing with defending Turkish champs Buraspor.

Except maybe Steinert was flat out speed and Torres isn’t quite that fast. And Steinert won a title with the club and Torres didn’t. But other than that, similar.

If the striker play doesn’t pick up they might as well season the kids and get Dening and Falcone in a few matches.

Not so fast says Diego. I can live with making less than at Newell’s, but this here is only a one year deal. He wants to leave Newell’s and go somewhere he can feature regularly, but methinks being tied to a team that has a more than average chance of being relegated shortly is not part of his master plan.

I’m guessing he wanted to feature at Quilmes, draw some attention and either compete for time at Newell’s next year (with maybe a new coach in the saddle) or be free to explore a switch to another (read bigger/richer than Quilmes) club.

The deal is still on the table, but now some serious terms negotiating has to happen as Torres isn’t going to Quilmes for three years. He’d rather languish in the reserves at a proper club. I’m not a huge fan of Torres but with the collection of non-goal scorers that la Lepra brought in to replace Boghossian and company he may be the best option around.

The way the jerk jumped ship for River he deserves all the bad karma he’s gotten. He actually joined All Boys after washing out in the Mexican second division. Hah!

Why, they even have a before and after picture from a celebrity endorser who just happens to be the one and only Ricardo Caruso Lombardi. Yep, the ex-Newell’s coach is doing transplant ads for a hair company in Rosario. He isn’t in Tigre gear and the tagline under his name only says DT. I’ve tried to figure out how to put the ad up here but no luck. The ad is on this page but I don’t know how long it will be there.

He’s a bit of a loose cannon and a somewhat divisive figure, but he kept Newell’s from the drop a few years ago so he shouldn’t have to pay for a drink anytime soon in Rosario.

And if you read Spanish, check out this story by Domingo Caratozzolo about that day 19 years or so ago that La Lepra beat Boca in La Bombonera to become champions.

One more thing. This friendly tonight needs to be Bob Bradley’s last game in charge. I’m just saying.

You know the story. Two titles and several years of success followed.

Honestly, he was before my time as fan, so I don’t know much about him. I believe he was the last president before the Rat Bastard took over, but don’t quote me on that.

Anyway, the man who hired el Loco deserves to be remembered as a good guy and his loyalty to the club will always stand out amongst the long list of club presidents.

Adios Don Mario.

It is still weird seeing German Re’s name on the other lineup. He should always be leproso.

Since I didn’t see the match I can’t give you any pointed insight. All I know is a penalty taken by Brujita Verón led to the 0-1 defeat. Scanning the headlines, “Newell’s played bad, committed an error, and paid dearly” seems to sum it up. Sensini said after the match that a draw would have been the fairest result.

It won’t get a whole lot easier with a trip to Lanús up next.