All Boca Eyes are on Lavolpe

By: Bob | October 18th, 2006

Blog reader and guest contributor Christian Denes is keeping a close eye on all things Boca Juniors as they struggle to rule the world under new coach Ricardo Lavolpe. This week’s installment takes a look at how the South American giants have responded after their debacle against River Plater in the Superclasico. If you’d like to submit a guest post, email bob [at] theoffside.com

Call it his job or call it the Argentine first division title, Boca Juniors coach Ricardo Lavolpe has only one thing left to fight for. Everything else has fallen by the wayside.

The Superclásico against archenemy River Plate – rated by the Observer as the #1 “sporting thing you must do before you die” – came and went. Boca lost the match 3-1 to the elation of a River Plate stadium bursting at the seams. Not only was Boca’s coach forced to suffer the humiliation of being patted on the head after the match by River coach Daniel “the Kaiser” Passarella*, but the loss also ended a 22-game undefeated streak and, perhaps worse, brought River within one point of first-place Boca. Yet Lavolpe was still standing.

Four days later, Boca managed to pull off a 2-1 victory at home against Nacional of Uruguay in the third round of the Copa Sudamericana. But the score was only enough to create an aggregate tie in the two-game match-up, and Boca ultimately flailed, unsuccessfully executing on three penalties kicks in a row. Boca found themselves out of the tournament they had won two years in a row. But yet again, Lavolpe was still standing.

The fact that Lavolpe still held his job after the two losses was a mystery to many. Boca had a 3-1-2 record since he had taken over the job – perhaps an acceptable record for any other team, but not for the multi-champion Boca Juniors squad he had inherited.

There was no shortage of rumors and insults over the next couple of days. The players – accustomed to former coach “Coco” Basile’s laid-back style – were said to be unhappy with Lavolpe’s new formation, unwillingness to compromise, and more intense practices, and were therefore intentionally undermining the games. The referees were supposedly answering to pressure from other coaches to call games more strictly against a Boca team previously “favored” under Basile. Shots could be heard from as far away as Mexico, where Lavolpe had developed a contentious relationship with the press over more than 10 years of coaching. After the Superclásico against River, the Medio Tiempo warned, “You won’t sleep tonight Lavolpe,” adding that he would now “Get to know the rage of the Boca fans.” It seemed that everyone – from the players, to the refs, to the journalists – was waiting for his departure. Meanwhile, Lavolpe met with the team for an 80-minute meeting. He was open to suggestions from the players, but made his case easy to understand: he was going to do things his way, and his bags were packed and ready to go if they didn’t like it.

The next Sunday, before playing against Rosario-based team Newell’s Old Boys, Boca had already learned that each of the other top teams had won their games – Independiente, Estudiantes, Racing, and of course River, who for the first time in the season had taken first place away from Boca**. Not to mention, the team was going into the game with three significant injuries and – to add insult to injury – with a key defensive player out on a red card during the previous week’s Superclásico.

But whistling and jeering was absent as Lavolpe took the field before the match against Newell’s. Some homemade protest signs were visible, but no more than at the beginning of “Coco” Basile’s tenure. It seemed that the fans had left the door slightly ajar for the coach.

Boca was imprecise at the start of the match, but veteran Guillermo Barros Schelotto rose to the occasion and took the team on his shoulders. Guillermo, benched during much of the Basile era, is the winningest Boca player in history with 15 titles (and holds the Argentine record with 17 overall) and stands evenly along side Maradona, Carlos Bianchi and Carlitos Tevez as all-time fan favorites. With Palermo injured, Guillermo was back as a starter, and his 10-plus-years on the field were evident only in his fluid, intelligent passes and ball handling.

As the game progressed, the rest of the team started to gel, and Lavolpe’s high-paced style, with bursts of speed down the midfield sides, took form. The coach’s persistence finally paid off in the 32nd minute when Palacio connected a pass to Guillermo, who kicked in the game’s first goal. While the offense was showing signs of adjustment to this new style play, it became clear that a compromise had been made on defense. On certain plays, particularly free kicks, the team had moved away from Lavolpe’s insistence on a zone defense and returned to the more familiar man-to-man formation of the past. And it was this strong defense that helped Boca overcome a controversial red card to Guillermo and a half-hour offensive slump to finally score two more goals in the 31st and 38th minutes of the second half. Boca came away with a solid 3-1 victory and Lavolpe was still standing, but this time with a smile.

As Lavolpe himself has pointed out, new coaches are almost never brought on when things are going well, and generally have the benefit of a pre-season training period. In this case, however, the coach and players had the misfortune of having to butt heads and feel each other out during a Superclásico and a Copa Sudamericana. No sports fan accepts loss easily, but the Boca devotees are starting to learn that one era is over and a new one is beginning. Meanwhile, Lavolpe and his players are starting to learn that there may be a successful formula somewhere between each of their preferred styles of play. Now, they must turn their focus on an away match, without Palermo or Barros Schelotto, against a historically strong Racing Club that has won four games in a row. And off in the distance, seven games away, is a first place finish that would give Boca fans no less than a three-peat for the first time in team history (only Racing Club and River Plate have done so in Argentine first division history). There is plenty left to cheer for. But Lavolpe half-jokingly let the press know that he has the helicopter ready to go behind the stadium, just in case.

* Both Passarella and Lavolpe were on the 1978 World Cup-winning Argentine national team. Passarella was a starter and the first to hold the cup after winning the final while Lavolpe watched the Cup from the bench as a reserve goalkeeper.

*Boca had played two less games at the time: 1) That day’s match against Newell’s, and 2) The second half of a match against Gimnasia de la Plata that was suspended when the former team’s President allegedly threatened the referee in the locker room during halftime.