The Cali - Boca arbitration controversies: a possible red and a penalty on the magnifying glass

Two arbitral controversies took place in Deportivo Cali's debut match in the 2022 Copa Libertadores against Argentina's Boca Juniors. The protagonist in both plays was striker Darío Benedetto and according to Infobae arbitration analyst Miguel Scime, Venezuelan referee Jesús Valenzuela had a right and an error in judging these actions.

The first play came at the end of the first 45 minutes of the match. A long control of the Argentine striker ends up being rejected by the right back of the 'sugar' team, Aldair Gutiérrez. However, in his eagerness to get the ball back, Benedetto boldly hit his colleague with the guayos strikes. For Scime, the play deserved the red card for the use of excessive force. For the infringement the player only saw the yellow card stock.

The second play occurred over the two-minute addition of the first half when the striker claimed an infringement in the area due to a clash with goalkeeper Guillermo de Amores. For Miguel Scime, the play was provoked by the Boca Juniors player, so Valenzuela was right by not scoring the penalty.

The balance of the match left five yellow cards, three for Boca Juniors and two for Deportivo Cali. In addition, there were a total of 33 fouls, 20 in favor of the 'Verdiblanco' team and 13 for the 'Xeneizes'.

In the first minutes, the Xeneize team started attacking led by Paraguayan Oscar Romero, a headache for the midfielders of the Azucarero team, and by the youthful Exequiel 'Changuito' Zeballos, who twice finished off the goal of Uruguayan Guillermo de Amores on this stage.

Meanwhile, the Colombians had their clearest chance of the first half in the 13th minute when in a counterattack goalkeeper Agustín Rossi snooped in the clearance and the football was left to winger Yony González, who got tangled and ended up early by Peruvian centre-back Carlos Zambrano.

As time went on, the match fell and Boca lost clarity in the first minutes, although he came close to scoring again in a play at 39 in which a double save by De Amores saved Cali, as he first covered a mid-range shot by Darío Benedetto and then deflected the rebound shot, made by Zeballos.

In the complementary stage, the match became even more entangled and the teams had a lot of difficulty creating opportunities, to which was added the poor state of the pitch of the Deportivo Cali stadium.

Teo Gutiérrez's flashes brought the Azucareros closer to Rossi's goal, while Romero remained the most important of the Argentines, although in the second half the Paraguayan had to look for the ball many times on his own ground because he was getting too little.

When the match looked more tangled, the hosts opened the score to 69 in a free kick from the right side that Velasco took and that Burdisso managed to head the ball, despite how hard he was going, to send him to the back of the net and put Venezuelan coach Rafael Dudame l to celebrate.

Boca, stunned by the scoring, received the second blow ten minutes later when Velasco, in a great play on the left side, overflowed and sent a creeping cross for Vasquez, who appeared as a ghost and with a left-handed shot sentenced the match in favor of the Colombians.

On the second day, scheduled for next week, Xeneize will host the emboldened Always Ready on Tuesday, while the Sugar Growers will visit Corinthians on Wednesday.

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