Boca shouted champion in Santiago del Estero with a heated Benedetto who returned full of goals

The important thing is not that new star that Mouth it is embroidered on the shield after beating 3-0 to the Board of Trustees at the end of Argentine Super Cup nor the superiority that marked the team led by Hugo Benjamín Ibarra, which made the difference in category weigh heavily. The most transcendental thing is the return of Darius Ishmael Benedict in all its glory: scored a triplet and was the great figure of the day of Santiago. It happens that for Boca to win the Libertadores Cupthat postponed dream, yes or yes, needs a pipe like tonight’s.

It was known that one of the magnifying glasses of the duel would have been on Benedetto, on his return after 4 dates of disqualification in the national tournament and after not entering the weekend against Vélez. Remember: Pipa had played just 73 minutes in the International Super Cup against Racing in Abu Dhabi. His performance on Arab soil had not been good and the incorporation of Miguel Merentiel had opened a doubt. Even some fans were not satisfied with Benedetto’s return for the final due to the good performances of the Beast against Platense and Vélez. That’s why the celebration of the striker’s first goal was strong and the surname on his shirt was marked on a couple of occasions.

Benedetto played well because he was willing, involved, dynamic, mobile; he was noticed thinner, moreover. He wasn’t the striker who places himself between central defenders and waits for his chance without being disturbed by everything going on around him. That feature was on the Pipa last year and it didn’t go well. It’s possible that internal competition helped him because he ran and looked like a little boy. The ex defender closed a luxury performance, with two headers that came very close in the initial phase, an assist for Luca Langoni and three beautiful goals. In the first of the celebrations the play by Nicolás Figal (overflow from the left and centre-forward) was beautiful, but the movement of the scorer should also be highlighted: he entered the area coming from the croissant.

Boca didn’t shine because maybe it never will. Much less with this 4-3-3 which has vertigo as its flag. It’s true that he can pick up passes with the midfielders. But Óscar Romero and Equi Fernández still find it uncomfortable to move around as insiders. That’s why the youth midfielder collided in several passes with Alan Varela and that’s why the Paraguayan rebelled in some stretches to go to referee as a hitch.

Boca is headed, then. He is able to provoke a goal situation in two touches. Sebastián Villa and Langoni kept her arm in arm and in both the goalkeeper Salvá excelled (he saved in Dibu Martínez mode), who was unable to do anything in Benedetto’s mode.

Ibarra’s team took center stage and imposed conditions and this too should be underlined. It marked the difference between the categories well. It’s true that the board was only designed to defend, to try to save the zero in the arc. Walter Otta opted for a 5-2-3 formation, with Juan Barinaga and Juan Cruz Esquivel as false wingers who didn’t follow the opposing full-backs. Fabra moved up and had spaces to connect with Villa and Romero in that area. The decision to centralize Barinaga and Esquivel was such that they jumped quickly to put pressure on central defenders Roncaglia and Figal. The strategy didn’t work.

Furthermore, for the complement Otta broke the line of 5 defenders and tried to be more offensive. There Boca passed over him; he made 3 but could have been many more.

Benedetto had a left-footed header from a Romero corner and a first-class definition inside the small area after an overflow from Fabra. Then, Ibarra understood the step he had to take and sent Miguel Merentiel onto the field so that all of the Madre de Ciudades greeted Pipa amid applause and ovations.

There were no big celebrations, it’s true, because Boca did what they had to do: beat Patronato, a team that plays in Prima B, without extenuating circumstances. But there was joy on the faces of all the members of the delegation they led Juan Roman Riquelme because a title is always a title and because the finals are won. And why Benedetto, that elite goalscorer, is back.