Boca Juniors has gone from a club shaken by early exits to one still alive in three competitions, and Rodolfo Arruabarrena has done it with a run that now stretches to 15 matches without defeat. The turnaround began after a 0-3 loss to Riestra at the start of the Clausura and has carried Boca from damage control into genuine contention.
That is why the search for Boca Juniors Vs Vasco Da Gama now carries real weight. Boca is one tie from the Sudamericana final, and the team’s form since 30 July has been nine wins and six draws across the Clausura, the Sudamericana and the Copa Argentina. On Sunday, it also came from 2-0 down against Racing in the final 20 minutes, with Enner Valencia scoring a hat-trick in a 3-2 win that sent Boca into the semi-finals of the Copa Argentina.
The scale of the recovery matters because it follows a first half of the year in which Boca reached the round of 16 of the Apertura and was eliminated from the Libertadores in the group stage. After Claudio Úbeda left, Juan Román Riquelme brought in Arruabarrena, and the change quickly showed up on the field. Boca eliminated O'Higgins of Chile on penalties in the Sudamericana play-offs after losing the first leg in regulation time on 30 July, then steadied itself into a team that has not lost since.
Arruabarrena has also widened the squad in ways Boca had not seen before. Facundo Herrera, Tomás Aranda and Leonel Flores have all been given playing time, with Aranda, 19, carrying that progress while injured. The coach has been direct about what he sees from the bench, saying he has solutions there to change matches. He has also made clear that unbeaten runs are not the finish line, saying Boca must become champions of something while moving forward calmly.
That is the friction inside the story. Boca has already shown it can survive pressure, erase a 2-0 deficit and stay unbeaten for 15 matches, but Arruabarrena is asking for more than momentum. He wants a title, and the numbers say the club is close enough to believe it can still reach one: it sits five points clear in the local league and third in the annual table.
The immediate test is obvious. Boca still has the Sudamericana path in front of it, with Vasco da Gama waiting between this revival and a final. If this run is going to become something more than a comeback, that is where it has to happen.
