Boca plays the Professional League like someone who walks down the street thinking about how to make ends meet, or how to pay for that unforeseen expense that arose during the week: the broken refrigerator, the washing machine that stopped working. Boca – this Boca by Jorge Almirón, who lost again last night at La Bombonera, this time against Estudiantes – participates in the League, but he no longer cares: he only thinks about the Copa Libertadores. The local tournament only serves to rehearse, or to distract, or to receive insults and anger from fans who are already beginning to show a higher level of annoyance than they have been for all these years.
Last night, after Mauro Boselli drew a perfect scissors that broke the apathy that had dominated the game, the Bombonera showed her sharp teeth: whistles when touched by some players like Facundo Roncaglia, frustration and murmurs at each bad pass or wasted cross.
Boca lost the last three home games at La Bombonera: against Instituto, Colón and last night against Estudiantes. Nothing like this had happened since the 1970s. It is logical that the fury of the people is breathed in the stands.
After having won the Cup + League in 2022, the libido is in the Cup that the club has not won since 2007, when Juan Román Riquelme, today vice president and probable candidate at the end of the year, became the emblem of the team led by Miguel Ángel Russian. Everything indicates that it will be difficult again. That if the Brazilians distanced themselves a lot these years, the level of this Boca increases that disadvantage. He had a relatively simple group, but in the Cup, nothing is predictable.
Almirón put on a substitute team last night, so any tactical or game analysis is relative. Undoubtedly, it was a more daring team, with an offensive vocation that he had not had in recent months. It is a characteristic of this coach: his teams usually attack, although sometimes that makes it a mess, as happened in San Lorenzo or Independiente.
On the other side, Estudiantes, another Estudiantes compared to the one from the first dates led by Abel Balbo, contributed their own so that the game did not have too many plays near the goals. It was in crescendo: at the end, when the fatigue was accumulating and the changes in the premises had already been made, he advanced on the local terrain. The clearest was a free kick from Zuqui that grazed the crossbar, but he controlled the ball and mounted his game much closer to the goal defended by Chiquito Romero. Those were the conditions of possibility for Zuqui to measure an exquisite center and Boselli to score a great goal with scissors. The Pincha forward did not yell at him because of his past xeneize, but he felt – he too – how the Bombonera, far from beating or trembling, became enraged.
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