Universitario de Sucre 4-3 Oriente Petrolero, 20/09/14

My first experience of Bolivian Premier League action turned out to be an absolute thriller.

Universitario de Sucre´s ground is a 32,000-capacity bowl, with standard running track round the outside. Sadly, only around 5,000 managed to make it for this game, so the ground looked rather empty, and the corwd did not make much noise.

The game started slowly, and the standard seemed to be alarmingly low at first. However, Universitario soon settled in the game and their Spanish forward Nacho Rodriguez hit the post from distance. Pastor Torrez missed some good chances, but then headed home from a corner to make it 1-0 to the home team. Almost immediately after the restart, he cut it back for his strike partner Rodriguez, who hit the post again.

Universitario´s front four of Rodriguez, Torrez, Mauricio Saucedo and Claudio Mosca looked quite lively. Mosca was playing particularly well. The young Argentine is fast, skillful, two-footed and unselfish. He provided some excellent crosses and passes for team-mates.

Universitario continued to dominate, and after a wonderful passing move, the Petrolero tipped over a shot from distance which seemed destined for the top corner. At this stage, Petrolero had only threatened on the break, and although Quiñones had got through on goal twice, he was let down by his finishing. The score remained 1-0 at half-time.

A Universitario free-kick was followed by several minutes of pushing and shoving, for which only one Oriente player was booked. Shortly afterwards, Diego Rivero cut in from the left hand side and curled a wonderful shot in to the top corner to make it 2-0. However, Oriente gave themselves a chance with a goal from nowhere. The impressive Matias Garcia played an excellent through-ball, which was smashed past the keeper by Ignacio Martinez. Unfortunately for Petrolero, this was met by another goal at the other end. Rodriguez did superbly to beat several defenders and get to the by-line. He cut back superbly for Saucedo, who tapped in to the empty net.

With 10 minutes left, Garcia played another excellent pass to Quiñones. The referee decided that he was fouled by Jorge Cuellar, who received a second booking for the offence. Quiñones took the resulting penalty and put it in the top corner after a stuttering run up. On 87 minutes, Petrolero somehow found themselves level at 3-3 after the referee gave another penalty, presumably for handball. The keeper may have got a hand to the penalty, but Omar Jesus Morales struck it with enough power for that to not matter. At this stage, Universitario had taken of their two main attacking threats in Rodriguez and Mosca and looked like they may have to settle for a point. However, from a free-kick in the 93rd minute, someone in the Petrolero wall handled, and Universitario got a penalty of their own. Saucedo dispatched the kick to send the small crowd home happy.

It was a great game for a neutral like me, especially as it cost about £2.50 to get in. With 7 goals, a punch-up, 3 penalties and a last minute winner, it gave tremendous entertainment. The standard was higher than I had expected and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Claudio Mosca. I might return to watch some more Bolivian football...