Soccer literature in Argentina was nourished by great masters but none of them, not even Roberto Fontanarrosa or Osvaldo Soriano, imagined a team that does not win games and still becomes champion.
In what may be a new invention of Argentine football – a team without wins that wins the title – Boca Juniors was on the verge of making that paradox a reality, and not just in a minor, neighborhood tournament. The Argentine club will lift the most desired competition in South America with a dribble to the logic of sport if it first draws and then beats Fluminense, from Brazil, in the penalty shootout series, for the final of the Copa Libertadores. The match that may earn a place in the Guinness Book of Records will be played this Saturday afternoon at the Maracanã, the stadium that the Rio de Janeiro club uses as its home for its country’s competitions.
In reality, Boca did win games in the current edition of the Libertadores, but it happened in the first round, an instance in which they finished first in group F after having added four wins in six appearances. The unique thing is that, already in the decisive stages of the Cup, in direct elimination in round-trip duels, they played six games and did not achieve any victory during the 90 minutes. Even so, first he survived the round of 16 (against Nacional of Uruguay, 0-0 and 2-2), then he passed the quarterfinals (against Racing de Avellaneda, 0-0 and 0-0) and finally left behind the semifinals (against Palmeiras of Brazil, 0-0 and 1-1). There were six consecutive draws later resolved in their favor in the penalty shoot-outs.
Added to the aim of the Boca players, in particular, was the skill of their goalkeeper, Sergio. Tiny Romero, who saved 6 of the 11 shots fired at him in the three instances, two against each rival team, and achieved a formidable 54% efficiency. Boca’s campaign – a team that, it is true, had deserved to win several of those games without resorting to Romero’s mastery – does not record precedents, except for a couple of episodes with certain similarities.
PSV Eindhoven lifted the European Cup – current Champions League – in 1988 without having won any of its last five games, the decisive ones. The Dutch team eliminated Bordeaux in the quarterfinals by the away goal rule (1-1 in France and 0-0 at home) and Real Madrid in the semifinals (also, 1-1 in Spain and 0-0 at home ), before defeating Benfica on penalties in the final after a new 0-0. Their last victory in the tournament had been in the round of 16, when they eliminated Rapid Vienna with two victories in 90 minutes, 2-0 and 2-1. “Unusual,” EL PAÍS began a report titled “Eindhoven won the European Cup without winning since the round of 16.” Although the objective had already been achieved, the Dutch would later bite their own medicine in the 1988 Intercontinental Cup, when they lost on penalties – after another draw in regulation time – against Nacional of Uruguay.
In the 2011 Copa América Argentina, meanwhile, Paraguay reached the final of the subcontinent’s top national team tournament after having played five games… and not having won any. The Albirroja advanced in group B with three draws in a row, 0-0 against Ecuador, 2-2 with Brazil and 3-3 against Venezuela, and then drew the quarterfinals and the semifinals, after 0-0 against Brazil and Venezuela, thanks to the penalties. Already in the final, Uruguay won 3-0 in Buenos Aires and Paraguay finished the tournament as the runner-up who did not win a game.
Tradition and history
The definition from the penalty spot is a system that historically suits Boca well: we cannot talk about luck or pools but about tradition and specialty, without failing to pay attention to intuition, that sixth sense of goalkeepers. The case of Romero – with 96 appearances, the goalkeeper with the most appearances for the Argentine national team – renews a long love affair between Boca and penalties, started and continued by other references in the position such as Hugo Gatti, the Colombian Óscar Córdoba and Roberto Abbondanzieri.
Since he arrived at the club in August 2022, Chiquito blocked 12 of the 26 penalties thrown at him, 46%. Until then, the success percentage in his career – he is 36 years old – was much lower, 19%, with 15 saves out of 79 shots. Romero himself was the goalkeeper in the finals of the 2015 and 2016 Copa América that Argentina lost to Chile on penalties.
Of the 57 definitions it had in history, Boca won 41 and lost 16 with a notable effectiveness of 72%. Many of them were not, furthermore, in trivial circumstances: of their 74 titles, Boca won nine on penalties, six international and three local, a shocking 12%. In this context, of the six Libertadores that the Argentine team won, three came through this type of tiebreaker, in 1977 against Cruzeiro, 2000 against Palmeiras and 2001 against Cruz Azul. Also, it is true, Boca lost the 2004 final on penalties (Once Caldas) and was eliminated in the last two editions, in 2021 (Atlético Mineiro) and 2022 (Corinthians). But the idyll is stronger.
Although it is often repeated that the definition by penalties to break tied matches or series was a Spanish invention in the Carranza tournament, in Cádiz, Argentine soccer historians traced that the first case was for the round of 32 of the Yugoslavian Cup in 1952. The new methodology crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in America for the Mexican Cup, in 1954, in a classic between America and Guadalajara with a 3-2 victory for the team from the Mexican capital.
However, it was still a marginal system. For the qualification for the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, after Spain and Turkey did not take advantage in three games for the last European place in the World Cup, the tiebreaker was in charge of a bandaged child who had to choose one of the two envelopes with the name of the teams in conflict: the Turk took over, a country that would make its debut in the World Cups thanks to that stroke of luck far from the field of play.
FIFA only joined the penalty system in 1970 and began to implement it in the World Cups starting in Spain 1982. The change, however, was gradual and for a time the older tie-breaking procedures continued to be implemented. While in Argentina there were official tournaments in which, with equal goals, the team that had scored the most corner kicks during the match won, the coin toss lasted much longer than is believed.
The 1975 and 1983 Copa América defined two finalists by this type of draw: in the first case, chance favored the Peruvian team over Brazil, while, in the second, the Brazilians had revenge by choosing the correct side of the currency to eliminate Paraguay. In the 1967 South American Sub 20, in Asunción, Argentina was champion thanks to two coins tossed in the air: it eliminated Colombia in the semifinal and the local team in the final because the Argentine captain Jorge Dominichi, after two draws 0-0 and 2- 2, chose “face”.
More traditionally, the British long resisted penalties in the English Cup, the oldest club competition. Until 2020, if a series ended tied, it was played again and only after the second tie were penalties taken. Even until the 90s, the winner had to be defined by goals: the series between Oxford City and Alvechurch in 1971 was only resolved in a sixth match after five games in a row.
Adverse streaks
Fluminense, seeking to win its first Copa Libertadores, reached the final without having resorted to penalties, but with very even proceedings in its series against Argentinos Juniors in the round of 16 and against Inter de Porto Alegre in the semifinals – more It was easy for him against Olimpia, in the quarterfinals. However, it is curious how the two finalists reach the decisive match of the year, and qualifier for the Club World Cup, far from winning streaks.
While Fluminense only won one of its last seven games in the local tournament, Brasileirao, Boca – which is going for its seventh Cup, an amount with which it would equal Independiente de Avellaneda as the most champion club in America – only added two victories in his last 16 appearances, either for the Libertadores and for the two tournaments in which he competes in his country, the League Cup (tenth in a group of 14 teams) and the Argentine Cup.
More than the sum of points, the “mata mata” system favors the current version of Boca, which is also still in the race in the Argentine Cup, a tournament in which it qualified for the semifinals. As in the Libertadores, on the domestic front they advanced thanks to their formula of a tie and penalties, first in the round of 16 against Almagro – the Ascenso team – and then in the quarterfinals against Talleres, always with Romero in a state of grace, imperial.
While in Fluminense Marcelo stands out, the full-back who won 25 titles with Real Madrid between 2007 and 2022, and the Argentine forward Germán Cano – the Cup’s top scorer, with 12 goals, none from a penalty -, Boca contrasts the presence of the Uruguayan attacker Edinson Cavani. A victory for the Argentine team, whose vice president is Juan Román Riquelme – the idol of the fans – would be another political blow to the former president of the country and the club, Mauricio Macri, who will try to regain power in Boca in next month’s elections.
The Brazilians have lifted the Cup in the last four editions. The Argentines have not triumphed since 2018, when River won the final precisely against Boca, who previously also lost the 2012 definition against Corinthians and has been waiting since 2007 to lift their seventh Libertadores title. You can achieve it in 90 minutes or 120 – there will be extension, in case of a tie. Or of course, on penalties, the blessed and at the same time cursed fact of football, which in the Qatar 2022 final already gave the greatest joy to the Argentine team.
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