Boca Juniors are the winners of the Primera, but their victory was just as much about rivals failing to deliver when it mattered
San Lorenzo’s victory over Banfield on Tuesday evening in Bajo Flores sparked wild celebrations outside a hotel, 650 kilometres south in Bahia Blanca, where Boca Juniors’ preparations ahead of their match against Olimpo on Wednesday were disrupted by that result clinching them a 32nd league title.
There is no doubt that over the course of the year-long season in Argentina, Boca are worthy champions; the league table doesn’t lie after all, but there is perhaps something fitting about Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s side being crowned without kicking a ball themselves and instead the failure of a rival, sending the trophy to La Bombonera.
With the more familiar system in Argentina of two short championships a year providing scope for greater surprises, Juan Roman Riquelme admitted this week in an interview with Fox Sports that, ‘with long tournaments, we’ll have to get used to Boca and River always winning’ and his old club immediately backed up that claim.
