When he took a huge pay cut to leave Internazionale and return
to his boyhood club in Argentina, Juan Sebastián Verón couldn't
have dreamed this.
Winning a league title, as his club did in 2006 after a dramatic
playoff against Boca Juniors, was one thing. Being named South
American Player of the Year back in December, as I wrote at the
time, another sort of honour entirely.
One thing has haunted Estudiantes for almost forty years,
though. The Copa Libertadores. On Wednesday night, they came from a
goal down away to Brazil's Cruzeiro to claim their fourth Copa, and
their first in thirty-nine years. And there could be no more
fitting captain on such a night than a man named Verón.
When Estudiantes won three straight Copas in 1968, '69 and '70,
forward Juan Ramón Verón was arguably their best player. Fast
forward four decades and his son Seba finally stepped out of his
shadow. In January I wrote that it was nice to see the most
prestigious South American individual award given to a player who'd
chosen to return home. Seven months down the line, Verón proved
with one pass on Wednesday night that this young Estudiantes side
still revolve around him.
It came in the fifty-eighth minute of Wednesday night's final
second leg. Estudiantes, having dominated a first leg which ended
goalless thanks entirely to a performance of sustained brilliance
from Cruzeiro goalkeeper Fábio, had just fallen behind to a cruelly
deflected shot from distance from Brazilian midfielder Henrique.
Searching for their rhythm, the ball came to Verón, and the man
known as La Brujita ('the little witch') wove his magic;
cutting inside one marker, he headed for the centre of Cruzeiro's
half of the enormous Minerão pitch and unhesitatingly played a
thirty-yard ball out to the right.
That pass split Cruzeiro wide open, allowing Estudiantes' right
back Cristian Cellay to send in a cross which somehow evaded two
defenders and the goalkeeper, and was nudged over the line by
Gastón Fernández to put the Argentines back on level terms. Fifteen
minutes later, Mauro Boselli rose above the pack and headed them
into the lead. They held on in the face of relentless pressure -
late on, substitute Athirson crashed a shot against the crossbar
from a corner - and Verón went inches away from putting it beyond
doubt with a free kick from long range. Estudiantes had won in a
manner all Argentines love: with a victory in Brazil.
These two teams had already played each other twice earlier in
the competition, both qualifying from Group 5. Those two encounters
had both ended in heavy wins for the home side - a 3-0 win for
Cruzeiro in the first match of the group stage was avenged with a
4-0 victory for Estudiantes back in La Plata. It was no surprise,
then, that last week's first leg in La Plata was a one-sided affair
with nearly all the chances going to Estudiantes. Fábio pulled off
three unbelievable saves and a couple of only slightly more
credible ones to keep the tie goalless and allow home advantage to
swing Cruzeiro's way for the second leg in Belo Horizonte.
The first half on Wednesday night, though, was remarkably even.
At times, Estudiantes looked the more assured team, as if the
pressure of being the home side was getting to Cruzeiro. The crowd
in Brazil's second largest stadium roared their team forward,
though, and it took inspired (or forunate) interventions from
Estudiantes' centre backs, Rolando Schiavi - signed on an
'emergency' loan for two months from Newell's Old Boys after
injuries to two Estudiantes defenders prior to the semi-final
second leg against Nacional in Uruguay - and Leandro Desábato, to
keep the hosts out.
That was why, when Henrique's shot from distance hit Desábato's
shin, changing course by just enough to fly between Catania-bound
goalkeeper Mariando Andújar's hand and his post, those who wanted
Estudiantes to win - and as the only Argentine side to make it to
the quarter-finals, they had no shortage of support back home -
feared the game might be up. But they reckoned without the
character of manager Alejandro Sabella's team.
Since the return of the prodigal Verón junior in 2006,
Estudiantes have hit upon a great formula for running a football
club in an economically unstable country where they're aware their
brightest youngsters will be off to Europe rapidly: making Verón,
already a club legend on his return, the reference point for the
team. The young players look up to him and seem prepared to hang
around just a little longer for the benefit of his experience. His
deep-lying playmaking never depended on pace, meaning that, whilst
Estudiantes might not play the most blistering all-out attacking
football in Argentina, they have had probably the best switch from
defence to attack in the country.
An energetic midfield revolves around Verón and each player
knows his role perfectly: the experienced Rodrigo Braña mops up in
front of the defence, whilst wide men Enzo Pérez and Leandro
Benítez get forward frequently to support the strikers. Up front,
Gastón Fernández constantly drops back into the hole to link play
between midfield and attack. Mauro Boselli, although not the most
clinical, never stops running.
It was hard not to watch the goals scored by those two without a
trace of irony. Twenty-four-year-old Boselli was first loaned and
then sold to Estudiantes by Boca Juniors, who couldn't find room
for him in their team. Fernández arrived in La Plata via San
Lorenzo and Mexico after River Plate decided he wasn't good
enough.
Verón, clearly, is still good enough for any of them, and his
dad knows it; "My son is the greatest player in Estudiantes'
history," he told the press on Thursday. It would sound like mere
fatherly pride coming from anyone else. Juan Ramón, though, knows
that his boy might just have taken his own position in the fans'
hearts.