Martin Palermo baffled by Boca Juniors' rapid descent

Yahoo! Sports

Fri Nov 19 02:51am EST

Martin Palermo baffled by Boca Juniors' rapid descent

Boca Juniors, one of the most decorated clubs in the world, sit firmly in the bottom half of Argentina's Primera Division for the second straight year. On Tuesday, they lost a typically heated Superclasico match 1-0 to River Plate. On Wednesday, their manager of just six months, Claudio Borghi, quit and River goalkeeper Juan Pablo Corrizo gleefully flicked his rivals' exposed nerve. From Goal.com:

"I was a luxury spectator: I didn't have any great work to do [in the Superclasico], apart from crosses and a couple of long shots," Carrizo told TyC Sports.
"I never thought that this would be the game where I had least to do!"

Burn!

Now, Boca captain Martin Palermo, who will retire next June, is wondering how the club's collapse could have happened so fast.

From the AP:

“We’ve lost all the prestige that we gained over 10, 11 years,” he said. “In two years we’ve lost the shine.”

Boca was South America’s dominant club team between 2000 and 2007, winning the Copa Libertadores—the continental championshp—four times in the span. But the famous club has not won a league title since 2008. This season it’s mired in 15th place in the 20-team league and again has no prospect of winning a thing.

“Boca doesn’t deserve to lose its prestige so quickly,” Palermo added.

Youth team coach Roberto Pompei will take over as manager for the remainder of the Apertura and a more fitting replacement will be found for the ensuing Clausura.

It's unfortunate that a player like Palermo has to suffer this kind of indignity at the end of his career and amazing that a powerhouse like Boca has fallen so fast. Still, River seem perfectly content to rub it in even though they've struggled themselves the last couple years. But why polish your glass house when you can throw bricks at someone else's?

Photo: AP