The result lasted about four seconds in the conversation
Boca Juniors are in the Copa Sudamericana semi-finals. A 1-1 draw away at Sao Paulo on Tuesday, on top of the 1-0 from the first leg, did the job. Nobody in South America is discussing the aggregate score this morning.
They are discussing what happened at the whistle. TyC Sports report that it began with Leandro Paredes and the Brazilian Djhordney. Paredes had spent ninety minutes needling anyone within earshot, then celebrated the qualification with a swagger calculated to annoy. Djhordney grabbed him by the face. Sao Paulo players arrived from all directions before Boca team-mates pulled the two apart.
Once he was safely behind a wall of shirts, Paredes stopped. He had made his point.
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Ten matches and 77,000 euros ago
This is the same player who spent his summer on the wrong end of a FIFA ruling. After the World Cup final defeat to Spain in July, Paredes was in the middle of the mess that broke out at full time. The punishment came quickly: a 10-match suspension and 77,000 euros in fines.
Ten matches is not a warning. For a 32-year-old midfielder running down his international career, it spans several windows and a meaningful chunk of whatever he has left with Argentina.
Two months later, the former PSG man has done something similar. Different continent, different competition, a quarter-final his team had just won.
CONMEBOL will have seen the footage
The football part is settled. Sudamericana is the continent’s second competition, but the winner earns a Copa Libertadores place next year, and for a club with Boca’s expectations a semi-final reshapes an entire season.
The disciplinary part is not settled at all. CONMEBOL gets the referee’s report and the television pictures, and Paredes walks into that process with a recent record everyone can read. Any new ban stacks on top of FIFA’s, and the semi-finals are not far off.
Boca have a call to make on their most experienced player. Leader, or liability.
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