Argentina fans celebrate at the Obelisco the triumph of their team against Brazil.Marcos Brindicci / AP
In another demonstration of the greatest power of football, its ability to make people happy, a crowd of Argentine fans received the flaming champions of the continent this Sunday.
The Albiceleste won the Copa América at the Maracana, but it seemed to have won a World Cup in the streets of Buenos Aires and the rest of the country: the two buses that transported the players had to advance at a snail's pace between the Ezeiza airport and the field training session of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), a three-kilometer journey with people on the side of the road and hitting the windows of the vehicles.
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It was as if a part of soccer Argentina rediscovered joy. The 1-0 against Brazil, which triggered Messi's first title in the senior team and an exorcism after 28 years without Olympic rounds, was especially celebrated by young people who were not born or were very young in the last title, the Cup America 1993, images of a time on VHS or with faded, discolored photos. Messi is no longer only on the posters of the idols but also of the champions: the country wanted both the triumph of its team and that of the 10.
Even the players themselves seemed to be Messi's first supporters. On the triumphant flight back from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires, the champions sang the team's new
internal
hit
, dedicated to Brazil. “Because Messi has the crown on !, oh oh, and the magic of his left foot that makes him fall in love, oh oh. To add insult to injury to Maradona, I know it hurts, that it hurts you, but this Cup is from Argentina! ”, The champions intoned in the corridor of the plane, while the America's Cup passed from hand to hand.
Argentina, a country where the pandemic fiercely hit its cyclical economic crises, celebrated all morning with an unexpected, brutal relief. A procession of honking horns, flags and people climbing over traffic lights, comparable only to the great achievements of the World Cup, shot across the country as soon as the final ended. While Messi and the rest of the players received the Cup in Rio de Janeiro, crowds of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires citizens already lined up in cars and buses to the Obelisk, the usual social meeting point in the capital. At the end of a day with 11,561 cases and 354 deaths from the coronavirus, neither the pandemic nor the cold of the southern winter nor the time, at the stroke of midnight between Saturday and Sunday, stopped the pilgrimage.
Argentina fans celebrate the national team's footballers on the truck this Sunday.Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EFE
The last time thousands of people had gathered at the Obelisk had been last November, after the death of Diego Maradona.
In the midst of the excitement for the victory at the Maracana -and with the memory of Pelusa always present-, sports analysts assured that, after the 1978 and 1986 World Cups, this America's Cup achieved in Brazil deserves a place on the podium of the great festivities for the national team.
Messicanazo
, titled the TyC Sports channel, while repeating images of the captain, sitting on the Maracanazo grass, talking on a video call with his wife and father.
From less to more in the Copa América -after a start in which it was not clear if the Albiceleste could win the first matches and a final in which it seemed that it would not lose against any rival-, the team got the Argentine fan, always more a fan of his clubs than of his national team, he will renew his emotional bond after so many frustrations. "We hit our heads a lot but we kept trying, hitting the wall, and we broke the final," said Ángel Di María, 33, scorer in the final and survivor of past defeats with Messi, Sergio Agüero and Nicolás Otamendi.
The celebration during the early morning and Sunday morning spread throughout the country - Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner showed images of fans waving flags under heavy snowfall in El Calafate, Patagonia - also seemed to respond to Emiliano Martínez's request, the Aston Villa goalkeeper from England who, as soon as the game ended, declared on television: "Let the poor and the rich celebrate, all united, that this shitty pandemic made us unite the Argentines."
Chosen as the best goalkeeper in the Cup, Martínez is one of the many footballers who became known to the general public during the tournament that revived the love of the Argentines for their national team. Trained in Independiente, Martínez traveled to Europe at the age of 16 without having made his debut in the Argentine league. His case is not the only one: Cristian Romero and Nicolás González, who went to Italy and Germany with very few matches in the First Division (and in clubs considered "boys": Belgrano and Argentinos), also began to be recognized during the Cup, a tournament that validated the replacement process initiated by coach Lionel Scaloni, always supported by the figure of Messi.
"I am 30 years old and it is the first time that I have seen Argentina as a champion," said a woman at the door of the AFA property, Inés Schumacher, while the players, after noon, returned to their homes to reunite with their families later from a health bubble that lasted more than 30 days.
“Messi deserved it and we also needed to celebrate as a country, things are not good.
Now we are going for the World Cup! ”, The supporter closed, the day that Argentina finally finished embracing Messi.
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