Grieving Boca Aim To Finish 2025 On A High | OneFootball

It was intended as a public show of unity. Mendoza may be over 1,000 kilometres from Buenos Aires, but Miguel Ángel Russo wanted his whole squad to make the trip. That meant all of the Boca Juniors players boarding the flight for the trip to play Independiente Rivadavia, regardless of whether they were injured or unavailable.

The decision wasn’t incidental: Boca were on the worst winless run in their history, having gone 12 matches without a victory inside ninety minutes. That sequence included tough ties against European sides Bayern Munich and Benfica at the Club World Cup, but also a 1-1 draw with Auckland City, a team made up of part-time players who had lost their previous two matches by an aggregate score of 16-0.

The Auckland tie, in particular, set off a wave of self-flagellation back home that seeped into Boca’s domestic form and soon left them outside the top eight spots necessary for qualification to the mid-season play-offs. Olé spoke of a “tense climate”, while the round-the-clock sports channels – such is their way – engaged in interminable debates about the how, why and what of the crisis.

The run confirmed a disastrous six months for Boca. At the start of the year, they were knocked out of the Copa Libertadores in the qualifying rounds by Alianza Lima – “one of the biggest blows in the club’s history”, as La Nación described it – before suffering an agonising superclásico defeat to rivals River Plate in late April, a game that, incidentally, kicked off their long winless run. Coach Fernando Gago went, and his interim replacement did little beyond oversee elimination from the apertura play-offs.

With just nine days until the team headed to the US for the Club World Cup, president Juan Román Riquelme turned to legendary ex-Boca coach Miguel Ángel Russo, who had led the club (with Riquelme as his number 10) to Copa Libertadores glory in 2007. Russo, back for a third spell at the club, was a popular choice and seen as somebody with the calm authority necessary in a crisis.

But things continued to go wrong. The Club World Cup was an embarrassment, and the hangover left Russo under pressure. The team were knocked out of the Copa Argentina by Atlético Tucumán, closing off another route to Copa Libertadores qualification. “We have to improve and continue improving, lift our heads, work, and think about what’s to come,” said midfielder Leandro Paredes as the winless run ticked up to 12 games.

Slowly but surely, though, Boca got better. Whether it was down to Russo’s decision to travel en masse to Mendoza is debatable, but Boca won that game 3-0 against Independiente Rivadavia and have only lost twice in 13 games since. That may seem a fairly unremarkable run for a domestic giant, but the achievement shouldn’t be separated from its context.

After a 2-2 draw with Central Córdoba on September 21, the club announced that Russo had been hospitalised following some tests. It was the second time that month he had required treatment, and the news generated concern. Russo was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017 and had become noticeably frailer in the last year, but remained bullish whenever questions were raised about his health. “They say a lot of nonsense about me, which goes in one ear and out the other,” he had said a week earlier. “Only you know your own health. If I’m working, it’s because I’m completely healthy.” A fortnight after his hospitalisation, however, the worst possible news was confirmed: Russo had passed away at the age of 69.

The club and its fans grieved. The match against Barracas was postponed while, as the columnist Ezequiel Fernández Moores put it, Russo’s enormous legacy “succeeded in making us talk about his life, not his death.” Having started his coaching career in 1989 and passing through 16 different clubs, there were plenty who lamented his loss. A public wake was held at Boca’s stadium and tributes poured in. “He has left a mark that will be indelible,” reflected national team coach Lionel Scaloni. “When different teams and different fans all agree on what a person is like, that says a lot about them.”

When Boca did return to action ten days later, they were beaten at home by Belgrano on an emotional evening at La Bombonera. “Love is repaid with love,” said the tarpaulin stretched across the centre circle, while a shirt with Russo’s name was released into the sky (which, curiously, turned up a couple of weeks later in a field in neighbouring Uruguay).

“Every time we turned up to training, we’d glance at the bench and see if he [Russo] was with us,” said assistant Claudio Úbeda, who has led the team since. “It’s very difficult to quickly assimilate the departure of a person like Miguel. We spoke with the players about fostering what’s happened and transforming it into something positive.” And Boca have managed to do exactly that, winning three straight games since, including a comprehensive 2-0 win over rivals River in the second superclásico of the year.

On Sunday night, they picked up their latest victory, 2-0 over Tigre, confirming top spot in their qualification group for the end-of-season championship play-offs and with participation in next season’s Copa Libertadores already secured. Russo’s son, Ignacio, was in the Tigre line-up and received a warm welcome from the Boca faithful before being presented with the commemorative shirt recovered from Uruguay. Next up for Boca are Talleres in the last-16 of the play-offs as they go in search of their first title since 2022.

As the fans filed out along the myriad streets that lead away from La Bombonera, overhead, strung between trees and lampposts, were banners that all read the same thing: “Miguel, forever in our hearts.”

Miguel Ángel Russo may be gone, but his legacy continues to unite in La Boca.