No Relief For La Volpe

Beating their old coach, again, Boca Juniors have one foot in the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals. Velez Sarsfield boss Ricardo La Volpe just cannot get it right against his former team, losing to them twice in the span of 24 days. He'll try to turn the tide when the two teams face off in next week's round-of-16 second-leg match on Wednesday, at the Jose Amalfitani.

Perhaps the most dramatic episode of tonight's game was when Velez keeper Gaston Sessa almost took Rodrigo Palacio's head off (it looks worse from this angle). Remarkably, Palacio would stay on the field and play the full ninety. Sessa's subsequent sending off would be the one red card in a sea of yellows. In all, ref Hector Baldassi handed out nine cautions (5 for Velez and 4 for Boca) and one red. Oh, what a night.

The rest of tonight's Libertadores scores:

Caracas 2-2 Santos
Defensor Sporting 3-0 Flamengo
Sao Paulo 1-0 Gremio
America 3-0 Colo Colo

Parana v. Libertad, Cucuta v. Toluca, and Nacional v. Necaxa will be played tomorrow night.

Boca Juniors beats Velez Sarsfield 3-0 [International Herald Tribune]

-ac