The “El Superclasico” derby in Buenos Aires between Boca Juniors and River Plate, the two most succesful and well supported clubs in the football mad country of Argentina, is renowned as one of, if not the, most important, and sometimes violent, derbies in the world. Statistics state that 70% of all football fans in Argentina support one of the two clubs.

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On December 9th, 1962, Boca Juniors played out a legendary match against their bitter arch rivals River Plate. The sides where deadlocked throughout most of the game. Boca needed a win in this match and their next to claim their first title of the decade. With six minutes left in the game, Boca goal keeper Antonio Roma stopped a penalty shot. As a result, Boca earned a 1-0 victory and following a great 4-0 win over Estudiantes de la Plata in the next game, they became the new champion of Argentina. This began an outstanding run of championship wins throughout the 1960’s, marking the beggining of Boca Juniors golden era. 

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Boca came agonizingly close to a Copa Libertadores in 1963, finishing in second place. Their following title came about in 1964. Antonio Roma performed brilliantly, not conceding a goal in 742 minutes. In 1965, Boca succesfully became back-to-back champions for the third time in their professional era, one key match being a 2-1 Superclasico victory. The club was on a high until the events of 23rd June, 1968. The rivalry between Boca and River has always been extremely intense, to the point where several deaths and injuries have arisen as a result of fan violence. However, none was worse than the Puerta 12 tragedy at River Plate’s Momumental Stadium, when 71 Boca Juniors fans were crushed to death at gate 12, and 150 more injured. Most victims were children and young adults with the average age of 19, and this was the worst football related incident in the history of Argentine football. The finger of blame has been pointed at several parties, from Boca fans accidentally throwing burning River flags onto their own fans causing a stampede, to River fans invading the Boca section, but after 3 years the Argentina government found nobody guilty. Since the disaster, the gates at El Monumental have been identified by letters rather than numbers. 

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But, Juniors played on, and the following year, with the legendary Alfredo di Stefano managing the team, they took out the first division title once again, and made it a double by winning the Copa Argentina. Boca were proclaimed champions after defeating Atlanta on goal average, winning seven out of ten matches and only losing one. Their final Nacional Championship match was played against the old enemy River Plate, it ended 2-2, Boca having done enough to become champions with a record of 29 points, 13 wins, 3 draws and a single defeat. At the dawn of the 1970’s, the team won another title, ending the era with great success in the face of disasterous tragedy.

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Acheivements:
Primera Division-Champions x3
Nacional-Champions x2
Copa Argentina-Winners x1

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Star player: Victor Benitez, 30 October 1937, PoB Lima, Peru, nickname: El Conejo

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Victor Benitez Morales was born in Peru and nicknamed “El Conejo”. He most often played as a defensive midfielder. He is widely considered to be one of South Americas most important defensive midfielders. His career kicked off in the 1950s when he joined Peruvian superclub Allianza Lima. With them, he won back to back Peruvian league titles in 1954 and 1955. Boca Juniors came calling, and Benitez joined the team in 1960, and was part of the team that won the 1962 Argentine league championship, thought to be the greatest Boca Juniors side in history.

His career soon took him to Italy, where he played for AC Milan, Roma, Venezia and Inter Milan. He won the Europran Cup with AC Milan in 1963 and a few years later he won the Coppa Italia with Roma in 1969. In 1970, Benitez returned to Peru and spent the rest of his career playing for Sporting Crystal. 

He represented the Peruvian national team 11 times between 1957 and 1959, playing for his country in two Copa Americas. He also participated in the World Cup qualifiers in 1957. On the 17th of May 1959, Benitez played a blinding match against England, with Peru defeating the Brits 4-1 in Lima.

All in all, Benitez collected three Peruvian league championships, one Argentinian league championship, a European Cup and a Copa Italia over the course of his career.