The irresistible madness of Boca Juniors

New York Times

9 hours ago

Boca Juniors storm beaches. They plant their flags and wade through water. 'The biggest popular movement on the planet' is how they define themselves — and when they move, they move.
They occupied Copacabana before the 2023 Copa Libertadores final against Fluminense. A sunburnt kid leant out of the crowd, his hair wet and eyes clear. His father had sold his motorbike so they could be there. The boy had also given up his PlayStation to pay for the journey to Rio de Janeiro. They didn't have tickets but they didn't care because, as he said, 'Look around you! Look at this! This is Boca! Come on, Boca!'
A club for the people, made great by its people.
🗣️ 'RIFÉ MI PLAY PARA VENIR ACÁ, Y MI PAPÁ LA MOTO. NO TENEMOS ENTRADAS'
La LOCURA de este pequeño hincha de #Boca en Río de Janeiro, en la previa a la final de la #CopaLibertadores, no podía faltar en los #30AñosTyCSports. pic.twitter.com/5XpPPJti9d
— TyC Sports (@TyCSports) January 1, 2025
On Monday, Boca took Miami Beach. They lit fireworks and uncorked flares. Plumes of yellow and blue smoke twirled into the sky. They sang an apologia to Miami's resident football king, Lionel Messi. 'You'll have to forgive us!' went the chant.
Jamás se vio algo igual en el mundo. A más 7 mil kilómetros, la gente de Boca hace ver que Miami es Caminito. pic.twitter.com/6ugcfVIARE
— Seba Infanzon (@sebainfanzon) June 16, 2025
For Boca fans, the greatest isn't Messi. It's Roman. Juan Roman Riquelme — the club's current president, the star of the show when Boca beat Real Madrid and their Galacticos to become the first world champions this century, winning the Intercontinental Cup, the forerunner of the Club World Cup, in Tokyo in 2000.
Boca una locura; a mad, inexplicable, head's-gone kind of thing. Different from any other club in the world.
The kid from the Copacabana was chosen by Boca to launch their jersey for the Club World Cup in Miami — the face of la Doce's next generation. The most important player at Boca after the 10 of Maradona, Roman, and Tevez: the 12th man, the extra man, the soul of the barrio that sails out of Boca, the mouth of Buenos Aires, and takes it to the world.
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The Estadio Alberto J. Armando is Boca's home but everyone knows it as the Bombonera — or chocolate box — for its tiered stand, the ticker tape, and the kid-in-a-sweetshop feeling that sweeps over every football fan who visits it.
But the architecture resembles the hull of an ark — like the boats in the paintings of Benito Quinquela Martin, like the liners that brought in the Xeneizes or Genovese immigrants who founded the club 150 years ago, and the steamer that came into the port of Buenos Aires bearing the Swedish flag, which, for a bet, became the club's blue and yellow colours.
Those colours, that noise…
'Soccer fever has truly taken over the United States of America,' FIFA president Gianni Infantino commented upon seeing the Boca fans' gathering on Miami Beach.
Boca fever, more like.
Not even a plane flying over their fan-fest killed their buzz. The banner fluttering from its tail carried the date of the second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores final. 'You died in Madrid,' it read — paid for by fans of Boca's rivals River Plate, who got the better of them that day at the Bernabeu in the final of finals.
✈️🇵🇱 La cargada de un hincha de River desde una avioneta a los hinchas de Boca en el banderazo en Miami pic.twitter.com/gSFUEGoOqJ
— Diario Olé (@DiarioOle) June 15, 2025
Reports of Boca's death were exaggerated, however, as their fans breathed life into this newborn tournament in Miami. They shook up the ersatz and snapped people out of their ennui in the way only they know how — their passion undiminished by an otherwise disappointing year in which Alianza Lima knocked them out of the preliminaries of the Copa Libertadores.
Edinson Cavani, who fluffed an embarrassing sitter in that tie, became a meme for missed chances. River then outclassed them in the Superclasico, a defeat that cost Fernando Gago his job, even though Boca were top of the regular season championship at the time. Independiente then eliminated them in the quarter-finals of the play-offs, which were won by tiny Platense — an embarrassment for Argentina's giants.
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It has left Riquelme, the untouchable, besmirched. He can't feint or nutmeg the criticism. He can beat it only by a better-than-expected performance in the Club World Cup.
Riquelme needed this tournament. Boca need a win against Benfica. Boca gave us the game of the tournament so far.
A competition devoid of meaning to some is meaningful to them. It could dignify their season and make them worthy of these fans again.
At the Hard Rock, the players did what was demanded of them. They showed huevo — those hard-shell eggs so evocative of the machismo Boca fans expect. Skipper Miguel Merentiel and Ayrton Costa, a late visa approval, body-slammed their compatriot, Benfica's Angel Di Maria, early on — a reminder of what awaits him when he returns to Rosario Central, his boyhood club, after this tournament.
Ander Herrera, an early casualty through injury, was sent off from the dugout for challenging a VAR decision. All because Boca have to ganar. Win. Always win. Anything less is unacceptable to the Bosteros, as Boca's fans are known.
Miguel Russo knows this better than anyone and yet he doesn't wear it like other Boca coaches. This job ages people but Russo — in his third spell — seems to get younger when he is in charge of the team. Riquelme brought Russo back to roll back the years. The 69-year-old was his coach when Boca won the Libertadores in 2007.
As a choice, it seemed regressive and yet hiring Russo was never about the future. It was about today. Winning now.
Boca knew that if they won against Benfica, their chances of following Bayern Munich out of this group were very high. It was old-school at times — route one, stop-start, blood and thunder.
The opener came from a goal kick, a flick-on, and then a moment of class. Lautaro Blanco poked the ball through his opponent's legs and supplied Merentiel with a tap-in in front of the Boca faithful. The second was a Rodrigo Battaglia header from a corner. It felt like it might be enough. Alas it wasn't. Benfica pulled one back through a cooly struck Di Maria penalty and, regardless of going down to 10 men, they found an equaliser through his compatriot and fellow World Cup winner Nicolas Otamendi.
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This defiant act had the effect of turning a Club World Cup full Copa Libertadores and, boy, did the Club World Cup need that…
A 2-2 became 10 against 10 when Boca's Nicolas Figal was shown an early bath for a stud-ups reducer on Florentino Luis. The two-goal lead, the win and maybe qualification were gone. Boca maybe showed too much huevo, their eggs scrambled in the end. They will probably need to score more goals than Benfica against Auckland City to progress, entertainment guaranteed.
And yet as the sun went down in Miami gardens, the Hard Rock still pounded to the rhythm of their fans and, as Miami knows only too well that, in the end, the rhythm is gonna get you. Boca is great: not because of the team but because of its people, and its people were great on Monday night.