Boca piles up four draws in six games and looks to turn good football into wins before the São Paulo series

The 1-1 draw against Racing left a familiar feeling at the Bombonera: Boca played the better game, created more, deserved more, but once again came away without the three points. That same picture has been repeating itself for several weeks now. The team led by Fernando Gago... sorry, by Claudio Úbeda (with Arruabarrena in charge at this stage), has gotten better on the field, but still hasn't found a way to turn that improvement into the currency that actually matters: wins.

The league numbers back it up. With the draw against Racing, Boca reached four draws in six games, picking up just one win and suffering one loss. It's a steady run of points, sure, but not enough to put the club among the frontrunners in the standings. The question hanging over the Ezeiza training complex is simple: how do you turn all that good football into decisive results?

A costly absence at the worst possible time

Right when the team needed some stability, a tough blow arrived: the absence of Aranda, one of the players who had taken on the most weight in Arruabarrena's game plan. His absence forces the coaching staff to find a replacement right as a jam-packed stretch of matches begins.

Before thinking about the Sudamericana, Boca has to get past Lanús in the league, then face Vélez in the round of 16 of the Copa Argentina, and after that take on Gimnasia de Mendoza. Only then comes the big test: the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals against São Paulo, set for Tuesday, September 8.

A debt that has weighed on the club for almost two decades

And that's where this match stops being just another game. Boca hasn't won an international title since 2008, when it claimed the Recopa Sudamericana, and its last Copa Libertadores dates back to 2007. For a club that built much of its identity on South American fields, nearly twenty years without lifting a continental trophy is a number that carries real weight, and it explains why every international matchup is felt with a different kind of intensity.

The history between the two sides adds an extra layer: they met in the round of 16 of the 2007 Sudamericana, with Boca winning 2-1 at the Bombonera, but São Paulo advanced after winning 1-0 in Brazil on the away goals rule. Almost twenty years later, they meet again in a decisive stage.

Within the squad there's also encouraging news. Ascacíbar is going through his best stretch since arriving at the club, and Merentiel has rediscovered the scoring touch that had deserted him, with goals in his last few outings. Both are trending upward right when Arruabarrena needs them most.

The series against São Paulo won't fix everything this Boca team is missing, not all at once. But it will serve as a concrete measuring stick: whether the footballing growth of the past few weeks is enough to compete on equal terms with one of South America's giants, on the very ground where the club most craves feeling like a protagonist again.