Boca ease 'cabaret' crisis with away win
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Boca Juniors went some way towards easing a dressing room crisis that included two of their players coming to blows with a 2-1 win at Racing Club in the Argentine championship on Sunday.
Agustin Orion and midfielder Pablo Ledesma fought on Friday over the goalkeeper's alleged revelations to a reporter of internal squad squabbles, referred to in the media as "the Boca cabaret", in a dressing room with deep divisions, according to reports.
"We needed to win, we're still hopeful of fighting for the championship to the end, it had been a long time since we last won away," captain Juan Roman Riquelme said.
"There's nothing going on, it's happening in our dressing room," he added mysteriously without elaborating after Sunday's win at Racing's Cilindro ground.
Boca have struggled for form since the return of record title-winning coach Carlos Bianchi, who steered them to a string of domestic and international trophies between 1998 and 2003, last season.
Winger Juan Sanchez Mino gave Boca a first-half lead, goalkeeper Sebastian Saja equalised for Racing with a penalty in the 68th minute and midfielder Cristian Erbes hit the winner in the 76th against the run of play.
Boca had last strung two wins together in October during the Inicial championship, first of two in the season, when they beat arch-rivals River Plate 1-0 at the Monumental, also the last time they had won away.
Argentine football's two biggest rivals are three matches away from the next "Superclasico", which will be played at Boca's La Bombonera on March 30.
Title holders San Lorenzo conceded an added time equaliser and were held 1-1 at Godoy Cruz, missing the chance to overtake surprise leaders Colon at the top of the Final championship standings.
Colon, unbeaten in six matches after being held 0-0 by Gimnasia in Santa Fe on Saturday, have taken 14 points out of a possible 21 with San Lorenzo and Velez Sarsfield on 13.
Velez recovered from a 4-1 loss at Newell's Old Boys in midweek with a 3-1 home win over Belgrano. Former Lazio striker Mauro Zarate hit their opening goal and leads the scorers' chart with six.
Winger Maxi Rodriguez, back from Argentina's 0-0 draw with Romania in midweek World Cup warm-up in Bucharest, missed a penalty and Newell's were upset 1-0 at modest Olimpo in Bahia Blanca.
Racing, who had been tipped to do well in the Final which they started with a 3-0 win over Colon a month ago, are bottom of the standings with four points having taken only one more in six matches.
(Writing by Rex Gowar; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
