Lanus drew 0-0 Saturday with Velez Sarsfield. In other games Saturday, Gimnasia La Plata beat Newell's 3-2 to move into third place, p***ing River Plate, which fell to fourth with a 2-0 loss to Racing.
Elsewhere Sunday, it was: Banfield 3, Argentinos Juniors 1; Arsenal 1, Instituto 1; Tiro Federal 1, Quilmes 1; Olimpo 1, Gimnasia Jujuy 0.
Later Sunday, Estudiantes hosted Rosario Central and Colon visited San Lorenzo.
With striker Sergio Aguero suspended, Independiente set up two defensive lines and employed only one attacker. However, it was able to create and several runs down the flanks, forcing Argentine national team keeper Roberto Abbondancieri into acrobatic saves on shots by Esteban Bujan and Gaston Machin.
Rodrigo Palacio and Martin Palermo scored one goal apiece and traded ***ists for Boca. Palacio put the Buenos Aires side ahead in the 38th with a shot from outside the penalty area after a long p*** from Palermo, who added the insurance in the 47th with a header off a cross by Palacio.
In the oldest derby in Argentine soccer, Racing beat crosstown rival River Plate, which played with a mostly reserve team to rest its regulars for the first leg of Copa Libertadores quarter-finals against Paraguay's Libertad on Thursday.
Maximiliano Moralez headed in a cross from Juan Manuel Torres in the 38th, and Claudio Fileppi made it 2-0 in injury time.
River midfielder Lucas Pusineri was red-carded in the 88th.

Lanus is giving leaders Boca Juniors and River Plate a run for their money as they defeated Colon away 3-1 to get within four points of the league lead, and closer to their first championship.
In the 50th, trailing 0-1, Diego Lagos stole the ball from Federico Lusenhoff and ran away to score the equalizer.
Leandro Giola reached up for a free kick in the 57th and headed home the go-ahead goal, which likely earned him a penalty kick four minutes later for the icing on the Granate cake.

Crew coach Sigi Schmid is not one to gush over his or anyone else’s players.
His assessment of talent is usually concise and straight to the point. Superlatives are rarely a part of his vocabulary. In his seven seasons in Major League Soccer, Schmid has seen them come and seen them go. Too many times, he has seen today’s can’t-miss turn into tomorrow’s big bust.
But asked about the potential of defender Marcos Gonzalez, Schmid made it known that he has big plans for the Chilean, one of the Crew’s four senior international players.
"I’m confident he’s going to be a good player for a lot of years here," Schmid said. "Sometimes you bring in foreign players and it’s a one- or twoyear fix. People forget that he’s only (25). He’s got a lot of good years ahead of him in this league."
For Gonzalez, the opportunity to sign with the Crew was "a chance to get outside of Chile. When I go back, the teams will be looking for players who have international experience."
Told that Schmid had said he sees him sticking around for a while, Gonzalez grinned and quickly backtracked.
"If that’s what Sigi said, then I plan on playing here a long time," he said.
Gonzalez has settled into a starting spot as central defender alongside Chad Marshall and brings a wealth of South American experience to the back four.
Born in Brazil, Gonzalez and his family moved to Chile when he was 2. He discovered his talent at an early age in Santiago and made his debut with Universidad de Chile of the country’s first division when he was 18. In 2003, he signed with Colon de Santa Fe of the Argentine first division, then returned to Chile to play with Palestino.
In January, Gonzalez was poised to sign with Chilean power Catolica, which was gearing up for the prestigious Copa Libertadores tournament, the continental championship of South America. Instead, he chose the Crew.
"I really wanted to get out of Chile and play someplace else," Gonzalez said. "I’m very happy here. Things are much better off the field here — the travel, the stadiums. On the field, things are different. In Chile, soccer is very technical but the pace is easier. In Argentina, the pace is similar, but it’s still more technical. But the game is coming very easy to me."
Gonzalez was injured in the season-opening loss in Kansas City and left the game with a hip contusion in the 47 th minute. The injury kept him out of the lineup during a loss at Colorado on April 7, but he returned and played the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 tie with Chicago on Saturday.
Gonzalez has yet to fill the sizable void left by the retirement of 10-year veteran and five-time All-Star Robin Fraser, but his potential remains. As his English improves, so will his on-field verbosity, an important task for him and the often soft-spoken Marshall.
"Between those two, we definitely need someone to step up and talk," Schmid said. "Marshall has been in the league for a while and hopefully that will come more from him. I think Marcos is willing to talk, but he just needs to learn the language a little better."

SIXTEEN people have been injured, three of them seriously, in a brawl which included gunshots between rival fans of Argentina clubs Boca Juniors and Rosario Central.Police said 121 people also were arrested after the free-for-all broke out on a motorway where the rival fan buses crossed paths not far from Rosario, about 300km north of here.
Three Boca fans were wounded by gunshots to the head and one other had a stab wound, police said. Other injuries were described as less serious.
"It was a real battle," said police inspector Miguel Angel Rodriguez.
Boca Juniors fans on four buses were returning to Buenos Aires from Santa Fe after seeing their side defeat Colon 2-1. Rosario's fans were returning on two buses from Buenos Aires to Rosario after seeing their team fall 2-0 to Banfield in the capital.
Rodriguez said the buses stopped near a toll plaza around midnight when trouble began.
"First they threw rocks at each other, and then things started escalating and it ended in gunshots," he said.
A police car was escorting the Rosario Central buses home but the patrol members were unable to halt the fighting and called in reinforcements, he added.
Police said they seized four guns during the arrests.
Feuding between rival fans in Argentina is commonplace inside stadiums and occasionally on the streets. Since 1939, fan violence has led to 138 registered deaths and periodically forced the suspension of regular first-division play, the last time in 2003.
Before the brawl, authorities said some Boca fans had fought rival fans from Colon during Sunday's game, leaving nine injured.
Police said a group of Rosario Central fans had also fought among themselves at the Banfield match, leaving two injured and 28 detained during that game.

The Colorado Rapids signed Argentine striker Nicolas Hernandez Thursday in preparation for the start of the regular season.
The 26-year-old striker has been with the club since the start of the preseason, and is expected to make his MLS debut Sunday, April 2, when the Rapids open the season in Houston against the Dynamo.
Details of the contract were not released.
Hernandez is known for his work with Colon de Santa Fe and Ferrocaril Oeste in Argentina. The striker has also spent time with Italian side Cremonese, and most recently with Chilean club Cobreloa in 2005.

Independiente´sArgentina youth internationals Oscar Ustari and Sergio Aguero played their part in a 1-1 result at Colon. An own goal from Martin Pautasso in the 13th minute gifted Colon the advantage but the same player had a hand in his side´s equaliser crossing the ball for Bayern Munich target Aguero, 17, to head home. Goalkeeper Ustari, 19, made a string of second half stops to secure his side a point. Elsewhere, Tiro Federal succumbed 1-0 to visiting Lanus, Banfield lost by the same score against Olimpo and Estudiantes got past Arsenal.

German Denis scored twice and Colon de Santa Fe defeated Banfield 4-2 Tuesday to reclaim the lead atop the Argentine Clausura championship.
Colon, which last led after the fourth round, improved to 15 points, two more than River Plate, which visits third-placed Velez Sarsfield in its seventh-round match on Wednesday. Racing, in its second game under former international star Diego Simeone as manager, was trounced 3-0 at Olimpo.
Quilmes held host Independiente to a goalless draw in a late match. Independiente has 11 points and Quilmes 10.
In Santa Fe, Denis' pair in the fourth and 27th and Franco Gangele's in the 20th put Colon ahead 3-1.
Jorge Sand closed the gap in the 45th, but Cristian Zurita scored again for Colon in the 88th.
Javier Paez, Ezequiel Maggiolo and Jesus Mendez scored for Olimpo, which moved away from the relegation zone.
Racing is in last place with one point in seven games.