Ex-Villarreal player scores a “perfect hat-trick” against Boca Juniors

BLAST FROM THE PAST—Marco Rubén scored a hat trick as CA Paranense defeated Boca Juniors (!) 3-0 in a Copa Libertadores match. Not only was it a hat-trick, it was a “perfect” hat-trick with goals from head, left foot and right foot.

For those of you more recent Villarreal fans who might not remember, Rubén joined us from River Plate in 2008, and he was one of the stars of our Villarreal B side in 2009-10 which did very well in the Segunda, eventually finishing seventh. He scored 18 goals that season, only bested by Cristhian Stuani (Albacete, now Girona) and Jorge Molina, still banging them in at age 36 for Getafe.

Rubén did his best to keep us up in the 2011-12 season; he scored nine goals, but his last-second snapped header, which would have earned us a valuable point against Atleti, was just wide of the far post in the dying seconds—and we went down. HE was sold to Dynamo Kyiv (for a profit) but after bouncing around a bit returned home to Argentina and his boyhood club, Rosario Central. Now 32, they sent him on loan to CA Paranense this season.