Independiente 0 – 2 Boca Juniors

Boca Juniors won the Argentine championship for the second year running with a 2-0 victory at Independiente on Sunday.

Aces Rodrigo Palacio and Martin Palmermo did what they do best, scoring in each half, and setting each other up, as Boca sealed the title with a game to spare.

The first goal was scored by striker Rodrigo Palacio in the 36th minute, after receiving a pinpoint pass from Martín Palermo shot behind the backs of Independiente’s defenders.

The man from Bahía, Palacio crouched and sent the ball overhead of the keeper and into the net at about its mid-height.

A minute into the second half Palacio outran his markers on the left side of the field, sent a cross into the heart of the rival area which found, as usual, Palermo who buried the Reds and the rest of the Argentine league with his 11th goal of the season.

“We get along great,” said Palacio, of his relationship with Palermo, a duo which has scored 33 times this season. “I feel like he gave me more passes but today we both scored and we’re both leaving happy.”

With 40 points from 18 games, the Xeneixes took an unassailable six-point lead over second-placed Lanús in the Clausura championship, the second of two separate league tournaments played in the Argentine season.

Led by Argentina's 1994 World Cup coach Alfio Basile, Boca completed a double after winning the Apertura championship played in the second half of 2005.

“The players earned this,” said Alfio ‘Coco’ Basile after the game. “I have a great team and we were the best.”

Boca have now won 22 titles in the various formats used since Argentine football turned professional in 1931 but are still 10 behind archrivals, River Plate.

They have won every competition they have competed in since Basile took over last June, four titles, including the Copa Sudamericana, played last December and the Recopa.

“The boys never let me down.”

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