The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Argentina - Mexico 1930: the first 'fair play' in the history of the World Cups

2022-11-26T14:56:25.532Z


Faced in Montevideo, the albiceleste soccer team was winning 3-0 when the Argentine Fernando Paternoster delivered the ball from the penalty spot into the hands of the goalkeeper, Oscar Bonfiglio


The Mexican goalkeeper, Oscar Bonfiglio, stretches before the shot of the Argentine forward Guillermo Stábile, in the match played on July 19, 1930 in Montevideo.fifa.com

Argentina and Mexico will define all or a large part of their future in Qatar 2022 this Saturday. suffered in the round of 16 in Germany 2006 and, with controversy included, in South Africa 2010. What few know is that the two countries also staged the most fair play play in the World Cups.

It happened in the first World Cup, in Uruguay 1930. An Argentine soccer player missed a penalty on purpose so as not to take advantage of what he considered an infraction poorly sanctioned by the referee, even if it had been in favor of his team and to the detriment of the rival: without the intention of converting the goal, like a standard bearer of

fair play,

the Buenos Aires native Fernando Paternoster shot it straight into the hands of the Mexican goalkeeper, Oscar Bonfiglio.

When Guillermo Ochoa drowned the goal of the Pole Robert Lewandoski on Tuesday from 11 meters, many experts went to the books to remember that it was the first penalty saved by a Mexican goalkeeper in the World Cups after that feat by Bonfiglio from Sonora 92 years ago.

An added fact, but in this case fallacious, remarked that the Mexican goalkeeper in Uruguay 1930 was the first to do so in the World Cups: actually, two hours earlier, in the match that opened the double shift scheduled for July 19 At the Centenario stadium, the French goalkeeper Alex Thépot had already saved a penalty from the Chilean Guillermo Saavedra.

Even more unknown, however, is that, in the Argentina 6 -Mexico 3 that closed that day, Paternoster deliberately executed his penalty as a pass to the rival goalkeeper, Bonfiglio.

Thus, at least, the Argentine historian Eduardo Cantaro points out and confirms it in his book

Historias Mundiales

, published in 2010: “Incidents: 23 minutes in, Bonfiglio stopped Paternoster from a penalty.

The Argentine player threw it into the hands of the goalkeeper in disagreement with the sanction charged by the referee.

"That penalty was in tune with the football of the time and the first World Cup," explains Cantaro.

“For example, there were not enough referees.

In that Argentina-Mexico, the referee was the technical director of Bolivia in the World Cup, Ulises Saucedo, and one of the linesmen –today called assistants- was the coach of Romania in the tournament, Constantin Radulescu”, he recalls.

Another prominent historian of Argentine soccer, Julio Macías, also contextualizes: "The Argentine captain in that game was the goalkeeper Ángel Bosio due to the absence of Manuel Ferreira, who had traveled to Buenos Aires to take an exam in the Notary's degree that he was continuing in Law school".

In keeping with a game and a penalty of which there are no audiovisual records, the reconstruction of a move that leaves Paternoster, nicknamed

the Marquis

, as an honest, sensitive player with a sense of justice, who even missed the chance to celebrate his only goal in the national team -he was a defender and played 16 games for the albiceleste without scoring so many, although he was champion of the Copa América in 1929 and Olympic runner-up in Amsterdam in 1928 and the World Cup in Uruguay in 1930-, there are also different versions, although historians agree on point out the Bolivian referee-coach as the third protagonist along with Paternoster and Bonfiglio.

A penalty 16 steps away

Oscar Barnade, another of the greatest archaeologists of Argentine soccer, confirms Cantaro's information in his recent book

Myths and legends of the history of the World Cups

: “According to the newspapers of the time, the Argentine kicked weakly into the hands of the goalkeeper in disagreement with the sanction charged by the referee.

Argentina was already winning 3-0″.

According to the magazine

El Gráfico

of July 1930, “the penalty was badly charged by hands (hand) that had not existed.

As the referee was aware that he had made a mistake, he tried to mitigate the issue by extending the distance (from the penalty spot).

He stretched out his steps as far as he could.

The curious thing is that the place from which to carry out the maximum penalty was very well indicated.

Macías added in his investigation: “The decision of the Bolivian referee was not clear and provoked many protests from the Uruguayan fans.

Ulrico Saucedo then counted 16 steps instead of 12″, so Paternoster took the penalty almost from outside the box.

Bonfiglio, who in his military career became Division General of the Mexican Army and was the first goalkeeper to concede a goal in the World Cups – was beaten by Frenchman Lucien Laurent after 19 minutes of France 4-Mexico 1, on the 13th July -, he died in 1987. According to what his grandson, also Óscar, an actor, recounted a few years ago, his save against Paternoster earned him a congratulations from Carlos Gardel, the famous tango singer who was on tour in Montevideo during the first World Cup.

“After saving the penalty, already in the locker room, a world figure came up to congratulate my grandfather on his performance and tell him: 'What I saw on the pitch was wonderful and I would like to give him a gift.

What would you like?'

And my grandfather answered: 'Sing me a song, Mr. Carlos Gardel.'

And he sang

El día que me quieras

, ”said the goalkeeper's grandson, although without taking into account the version that, according to Argentine historians, Paternoster handed over the penalty to Bonfiglio so as not to take advantage of a referee's error.

Idol in Colombia

In turn, according to Paternoster's son, Fernando Félix, now 74 years old, born in Colombia but residing in Buenos Aires, his father and Bonfiglio met again and embraced many years later, in 1962. "In 1938, to my When he was old, he was called by the Colombian government to organize soccer in the country, which did not even have a league.

He was in Bogotá in the early years of Atlético Municipal, which was later refounded as Millonarios.

He later went to Nacional de Medellín and in 1954 he took out Colombian champion for the first time;

in 1962 he arrived at Emelec in Ecuador.

He once told me that, on a tour of the United States, he played against a team from Mexico (Chivas de Guadalajara, in 1966) and Bonfiglio, who worked as a journalist, approached him and said 'I saved a penalty in the World Cup. of the 30′.

They hugged each other."

Fernando Félix Paternoster does not remember that his father revealed to him that he executed that penalty without scoring, but there was a history of that type of honesty.

As published by Macías in the book

Who is who in the national team

, striker Benjamín Delgado had done it in an Argentina-Paraguay match in 1923. “The Argentine captain, goalkeeper Guillermo Magistretti, ordered Delgado to deliberately execute a penalty kick in favor, since he considered that the referee's sanction had been wrong."

As Macías added, "the entire stadium applauded Delgado's attitude, but the referee withdrew to the locker room offended and both captains had to convince him to return."

Many years later, Delgado, already retired, would murder his wife and would be imprisoned in the prison at the end of the world, the one in Tierra del Fuego.

In that same Argentina 6-Mexico 3 of Uruguay 1930, Ulises Saucedo would collect another two penalties, both for Mexico, one converted by Manuel Rosas and the other saved by Bosio before the same performer.

“My old man taught me to kick penalties when I was playing as a striker in the lower ranks of Atlanta.

He told me 'keep this position in mind', 'this way the goalkeeper doesn't know where you're going to kick' and those things”, recalls Paternoster Jr., on days when Argentina needs to beat Mexico at the Lusail stadium, also with a penalty goal, well or badly sanctioned, and where nobody thinks of resuming the righteous spirit of Paternoster.

Subscribe here

to our special newsletter about the World Cup in Qatar.

Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2022-11-26

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-07T23:32:23.974Z
News/Politics 2024-02-14T17:40:55.709Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.