The sixteenth round of the 19-round long tournament saw River suffer a body blow in the waning moments of their match against Argentinos Juniors after promising young centre-back Nicolás Pareja nailed a free kick to end the match 2-2.

Marcelo Gallardo had previously managed to notch up what looked to be the winner for the Millonarios with a magnificent 30-yard drive. Passarella’s men deserved to win the clash – even if many think that a Clausura conquest would be unmerited by a poor River.

Although cruel to single out players, both Alvarez and Mareque are liabilities for the team in defense, committing crass errors in marking throughout the game. Passarella was fuming at referee Giménez’s decisions. “His errors directly influenced the result and possibly the tournament.”

The River Coach outlined what he saw as three cardinal mistakes. “The first was a penalty on Farías that he [Giménez] overlooked – and even gave our player a card despite being far away from the incident. He also didn’t send (Cristian) Ledesma off and he gave a last-minute free kick.”

Passarella went on to ironically comment on the eternal rivals’ disparate treatment. “Boca had the good luck that the referee [Sergio Pezzotta] made his mistakes in their favour [in the Vélez match] whereas we had the reverse kind of luck ourselves".

Reviewing the evidence, Sergio Pezzotta was a key element in Boca managing to grab the vital away win at the Vélez redoubt, but Daniel Passarella is putting all the blame for an irregular campaign on the referee for one match. “If Boca benefit and River are prejudiced it’s impossible to do anything” snapped the ‘Gran Capitan’.

Boca won 3-2 over Vélez in the last move of the match, after which referee Pezzotta suspended the remaining two minutes of play due to a rising tide of violence on the terraces. This was, in turn, partly brought on by the fact that the ref allowed the free kick to be retaken.

Boca will face Estudiantes in the Bombonera, a rather deflated Independiente in Avellaneda and could well be champions before the final home fixture against modest Olimpo if the Xeneizes win their next two matches.

River, on the other hand, look almost dead in the water. They have the dual commitment to both the domestic Clausura and the Libertadores – Boca only playing the less prestigious Sudamericana this year – that starts with Corinthians’ visit to the Monumental de Núñez tomorrow.

Next Sunday the Millonarios have an outing to Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, who’re still in with a title shout, then play host to Racing before playing the last fixture out against beertown boys Quilmes. Unless Boca falters it looks like the trophy will do a lap of the Bombonera in three weeks time.

To say that this is all down to bad refereeing is an exaggeration that borders on scapegoating, but there have been rumbles coming from other camps as well. Abel Gnecco, director of the refereeing college in Argentina, backed up Sergio Pezzotta and denied that there would be any measures taken.

“The decisions in question were taken in difficult situations, and I think that he did his best and we can’t punish a man who showed that he put his all into the refereeing. Some people magnify things out of all proportion”.

After last year’s Brazilian league was spattered with mud due to betting rings that bought off a corrupt referee, there’s a lot of pressure on the man in black in Argentina – even more than the traditional post-match whining about being robbed.

Three more rounds coming up, and there’s bound to be more controversy over refereeing in the Clausura. What needs to be examined is do Argentinean referees need better training – or are they easy targets for humane mistakes committed under pressure?

In a footballing world where referees can be hounded into retirement by Coaches’ accusations, and where fans can be incensed by such Coaches to make death threats, surely there’s a need for more maturity on the part of critical Coaches. If not, violence may rear its ugly head once more.

Aaron Marcus