The mood around Boca Juniors has flipped completely in little more than three months. What began with a miserable 0-3 defeat to Riestra and a shaky first half of the year has turned into the kind of run that restores belief, sharpens pressure and changes the conversation. Rodolfo Arruabarrena has not just steadied the ship; he has dragged Boca into a position where the season looks alive again.
That is the central truth of this story. Boca Juniors are unbeaten in 15 matches across three competitions, with nine wins and six draws since 30 July. They are still fighting on three fronts, and they are doing it with a confidence that was nowhere to be seen earlier in the campaign. In a footballing environment that often rushes to panic, El Vasco has found a way to make patience look like a plan.
From a weak first semester to a real challenge
The first semester told a much harsher story. Boca Juniors reached the round of 16 of the Apertura, then were eliminated in the group stage of the Libertadores. That was not the profile of a team in control of its season. It was the profile of a club drifting, with too much talent and not enough direction.
Then came the change. After those results, Claudio Úbeda left and Juan Román Riquelme hired Arruabarrena. The decision has worked because it has been practical rather than theatrical. Arruabarrena knows this club, having played as a left-back during the Carlos Bianchi era and later winning the championship and the Copa Argentina in 2015. He understands the demands, but more importantly, he has made Boca harder to shake.
Arruabarrena’s own words explain part of the shift. He said there had been a while since he could look to the bench and feel he had solutions to change matches. That matters. Boca are not just surviving games now; they are changing them.
Results are doing the talking
The evidence is impossible to ignore. On the start of the Clausura, Boca lost 3-0 to Riestra. That would have felt like a warning sign in a different version of this season. Instead, it became the last obvious sign of a team still searching for itself.
Since then, the results have stacked up. On 30 July in Chile, Boca lost in the Sudamericana playoffs to O'Higgins and still advanced on penalties. That was the sort of night that tests nerve rather than style, and Boca passed it. Since then, they have built a sequence that has kept them alive in the Clausura, the Sudamericana and the Copa Argentina.
Sunday’s comeback against Racing only reinforced the point. Boca came from 2-0 down in the final 20 minutes and reached the semifinals of the Taça Argentina. That is not the work of a team merely going through the motions. It is the work of a side with momentum, belief and just enough edge to make opponents uncomfortable.
Still not complete, but clearly dangerous
None of this means Boca Juniors are finished products. Far from it. They were still set to host Unión de Santa Fe at the Bombonera on Friday night in the 11th round of the Clausura, and the league table still demands attention. But this is the point: the season no longer feels like one long rescue mission.
Boca are one tie from the Sudamericana final against Vasco da Gama and two wins from lifting the Taça Argentina. That is not a bad place to be in September, or any month for that matter. The broader picture is simple. Arruabarrena has taken a team that looked exposed and made it look capable of delivering something meaningful. The next step is the hardest one of all: turning a revival into a trophy.
For now, though, the verdict is clear. Boca Juniors are no longer a side asking awkward questions of themselves. They are a side asking uncomfortable questions of everyone else.
