When the summer season was beginning in January with full sun in
Mar del Plata,
the soccer atmosphere of La Feliz turned its head elsewhere for a few hours, 400 kilometers away, at the AFA grounds
in
Ezeiza.
The draw for the 2024
Primera
Nacional season came with a surprise: there would be interzonal duels and an
Aldosivi
-
Alvarado
match would be played again
after almost 27 years, breaking a
status quo
imposed by the police, the leaders and the clubs themselves for decades.
The return of the so-called
"forbidden classic"
will finally take place
this Saturday at 3:35 p.m.
at the José María Minella stadium.
Located in the hearts of Argentines, owner of a beauty that transcends years, crises and governments, and with a population that places it among the most important cities in the country,
Mar del Plata
has a rather humble history in terms of milestones in big football or teams that have established themselves at the national level.
Although with names that everyone knows,
and two clubs that are in the news today
.
Mardel is called
Dibu Martínez
, a nickname given to him by the last Mar del Plata League tournament in gratitude for the idol goalkeeper's feat in Qatar 2022, and there the
World Cup
stadium , the Minella, which hosted six matches in Qatar, is in a state of semi-abandonment.
Argentina 1978 and experienced its great splendor during the summer tournaments that were all the rage between the eighties and early 2000s.
In La Feliz,
Diego Maradona
scored his first official goal, during a visit by Argentinos Juniors to the local San Lorenzo, which was played on November 14, 1976 at the legendary San Martín stadium, on Champagnat Avenue.
And it is called "mythical" unfortunately because twenty years later, in 1996, he was thrown down to set up a wholesale supermarket, in a decision that was
a symbol of the era
.
One of the last Boca vs River played at the Minella, in 2017. Photo: Jorge Sánchez.
For some time now, and beyond traditional clubs such as
Kimberley
,
Atlético Mar del Plata
or the neighboring
Círculo Deportivo de Otamendi
, the city's link with AFA football became a matter of two teams,
Aldosivi
and
Alvarado
, a rivalry that inland is not as polarized as in
basketball
, where the people of Mar del Plata seem to have only two options when it comes to preferences, being the multi-champion
Peñarol
or the tireless
Quilmes
.
With a lot of roots in their neighborhoods, with very dissimilar origins and identities (and geographies), Aldosivi and Alvarado, the Puerto and the Matadero, is actually
a classic with a brief but very intense history
.
They became enemies after a first bar confrontation in 1989, which was exasperated on a sporting level when in 1990
Alva
took a tournament from him, winning on the second-to-last date.
Another chapter of this rivalry had as its protagonist
Mauro Camoranesi
, who emerged in Aldosivi, when in the middle of a 1994 classic he hit a terrible kick at an Alvarado soccer player, and destroyed his knee, cutting off his career.
The case came to court, with the intervention of the Supreme Court;
Camoranesi had to pay compensation to Javier Pizzo, the 18-year-old attacked, who ended up dedicating himself to a judicial career and is a prosecutor.
Video
It was in the nineties, in a classic between Aldosivi and Alvarado and the episode ended in Courts.
But the pica became
a visceral hatred
in those nineties when Argentine soccer modified its promotion structures and in Mar del Plata they began to dream of the chance of having a team "from the city" to face Boca, River and company.
In October 1994, in one of those competitions that were held throughout the country to federalize it, Alvarado faced Aldosivi but needed Tiburon to
win
by a good goal difference to play a tiebreaker for second place.
Without considering the consequences, he put together a team of kids that
ended up falling 13-0
and even though he achieved his goal, he ended up taking a victory that became a banner, a song and an eternal thread.
Shortly after, in 1996,
Torito
had its chance for revenge and clashed against those from Puerto in two finals to decide which team from Mar del Plata would play in the
B Nacional
the following season.
They were times of restructuring in the second category of Argentine football, as almost always, and La Feliz was one of the five places that would receive that award through a Reclassification in Federal A from which Chaco For Ever, Cipolletti, Gimnasia and Fencing of Concepción del Uruguay and Olympus.
Aldosivi once again frustrated the hopes of the populous fans of the Centenario neighborhood, winning both matches 2-0 and entering a competition that would have him as the protagonist in 1998, when he ran from behind in a Reduced team and was one step away from promotion to A losing in a final against
Belgrano de Córdoba
.
Aldosivi vs Alvarado, the forbidden classic
In parallel to this fervor to become "national" and their obligations abroad, Aldosivi and Alvarado
continued to face other players in the local league
but with the same passion as always.
And in one of those clashes something unprecedented in Argentine football occurred, the need for everyone to agree that this match could no longer be played, not even in the form of friendlies.
It was August 10, 1997, and the classic corresponding to date 12
was played on the Mar del Plata River court
, a stage with rather neighborhood proportions and located a few blocks from the meeting point of the Alvarado fans.
It lasted just 20 minutes and was suspended with the score 0-0 when Aldosivi's bar arrived;
Before, during and after, there were stones, tear gas, runs, injuries and riots that spread to the surrounding streets.
A few days later, the Disciplinary Court of the Mar del Plata League ended up giving the match won to Alvarado over Aldosivi by 1-0 and both clubs had to pay a fine that sounds ridiculous today but dates back to times of convertibility: 1,800 pesos, the equivalent of 300 tickets.
Alvarado and Aldosivi will meet again at Minella.
Photo: Courtesy The Capital of Mar del Plata
Behind that decision was another that would end up being controversial: the Mar del Plata football authorities, together with the political leadership and the police forces, agreed to avoid that confrontation at the local level.
The magnitude of these powers did not justify the deployment that a security operation would generate.
And Aldosivi focused on competing with his youth players in AFA tournaments.
Thus, 27 years passed in which Aldosivi reached A, and Alvarado managed to reach the First National
after battling for years in the Federal Tournament A and B, but they had never met in the same category.
There was also no crossing in the Argentine Cup, a competition in which those from La Feliz usually have a twisted luck.
The
forbidden classic
in Mardel could only take place in 2023, after the relegation of Tiburón, in that season marked by the burning of the players' cars after a defeat in Mendoza, and which was celebrated with ridicule on Alvarado's social networks.
However, the AFA decided that both would march in opposite areas, and they did not reach the Reduced where they could cross paths.
The match was close to happening, and that was what Facundo Moyano
, former president of Alvarado,
felt .
Last December 30, in Mirtha Legrand's last program of the year, he threw a chicane in the air at the classic rival.
“Alvarado is the most popular club in Mar del Plata.
We are with Aldosivi in the Primera Nacional and next year we will surely cross paths.
I hope it is in peace” said who today is a member of the blue cast.
Video
The leader, who was president of Torito Mar del Plata, gave his opinion on the rivalry and spoke of the return of the match that moves the city.
The miracle occurred a few days later, when the Argentine Football Association announced that there would be interzonal matches in the Primera Nacional, with home and away matches between classic or paired rivals from each zone.
In the tournament that began at the beginning of February, Alvarado is seventh in zone A with 11 points, while Aldosivi is sixth in zone B with 12 points.
After 27 years, the classic will be played again this Saturday for the eighth date at the Minella.
There is no doubt, in Mar del Plata it is more anticipated than the Champions League final.