Boca no longer lives and dies by the first 20 minutes: how Arruabarrena built a team that fights back

There's one stat that sums up Boca's season pretty well: the team fell behind six times with Arruabarrena on the bench, and in two of those games it managed to turn the result around. The most recent case, against Racing, was the wildest of them all. Boca went down 2-0 and clawed back to win 3-2 on a hat trick from Enner Valencia. That game, more than just a result, is almost a summary of everything the team has been building.

Because Boca's growth didn't happen overnight. It built up gradually, game by game, even in some matches where the scoreline didn't tell the story. Against Newell's in Rosario, the team showed two faces: stretches of solid control mixed with total disconnection. Against Estudiantes, a more organized version showed up, with better command of tempo. And against Velez came, arguably, the best the team has felt all season on the ball, though with a problem that still lingers: turning all that good play into goals.

The ability to fight back has also become part of the team's identity. Against Deportivo Recoleta, in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana round of 16, Boca fell behind and came back to win. In the return leg in Paraguay came one of the most emphatic performances of the whole process: a 4-0 rout to close out a 7-1 aggregate series and reach the quarterfinals. From there, the team added Sao Paulo to its list of Sudamericana victims, beat San Lorenzo in the Clausura, and then came the epic semifinal win over Vasco da Gama at the Maracana, punching a ticket to the Cup final.

More width, more movement, more midfield control

One of the most visible changes has to do with how Boca occupies the field. It's no longer just about having the ball: the idea is to move it quickly, play vertically, and have the runs match that speed. The midfield has changed shape to make that happen. Flores and Delgado have brought mobility and connection, while Paredes, currently out with an injury, remains the player who organizes everything. Ascacibar, for his part, has stopped being purely a balancing figure and started showing up in the opposing box as well.

Tomas Aranda's injury could have been a bigger problem, but Arruabarrena found answers: sometimes Velasco stepped in, other times he changed the setup entirely. With different names involved, the idea held up.

The squad itself recognizes the change. Leandro Paredes put it plainly:

El Vasco (Arruabarrena) changed our mentality. The idea of how we play, playing the way we want to, always looking to take the initiative, to be protagonists, and I think we've been doing that really well. We're building as we go, there's a lot to improve, but we're on the right track.Leandro Paredes

Ascacibar was even more direct about the personal impact of the coaching change:

It changed things for me compared to how it was before, at least for me.Santiago Ascacibar

The bench has started to deliver too

For a good part of the season, substitutions didn't make much of a difference. That's changed. Against Racing, Valencia came on in the 56th minute with the team down 2-0 and scored in the 72nd, the 80th, and in stoppage time to complete his hat trick. Carlos Palacios, who's coming out of a stretch dealing with injuries, entered in the 70th minute and ended up assisting the third goal, the one that sealed the comeback.

Boca heads into the decisive stretch of the season alive in all three competitions and with a structure that no longer depends solely on how the game starts. There's still work to do, especially in finishing and defensive stability, but the team has shown it can play better soccer, fight back under pressure, and find answers from the bench. The challenge now is sustaining all of that across the three fronts still ahead.