"If we do not suffer, we are not Argentines": a country between the euphoria of victory and the vertigo of defeat

It was the closest thing to an explosion.

In a small corner bar in Palermo, in Buenos Aires, a group of Argentines held their breath and nerves for 120 minutes.

She cried after the penalties, shouted with all the force possible the two saves by Dibu Martínez and went into ecstasy when Gonzalo Montiel holed her under the three sticks.

Then the crying came again.

The feeling that a defeat would be the most unfair thing in the world loaded the relief bomb.

It has been the metaphor of an entire country: Argentina caresses the triumph, sinks, rises again, falls again.

He still awaits the final victory, because in the end a country is not a football match.

Little by little, people leave their houses and populate the streets.

It was no longer possible to walk the main avenues, with so much joy.

People exploded around the Obelisk, the epicenter of the Buenos Aires celebrations.

The party will last for days.

This is how the fans celebrated at the end of the game.

Leandro Teysseire

It has been a roller coaster of emotions concentrated in two hours.

And to top it off, the agony of penalties.

When Messi rubbed the glass as if it were Aladdin's lamp and kissed it like any of his three children, in a small bar in Buenos Aires called Barcelona Asturias they sang "Messi, Messi."

Barcelona Asturias was founded in 1970 and the name responds to the origin of its first owners.

But here you don't eat Catalan or Asturian food.

It is a neighborhood tavern, one of those that resist design sites.

It is a place of "parishioners", and this Sunday brought together young people, old people, entire families and many, many women.

It soon became a small meeting point, where they went from the euphoria of the 2-0 score in the first half to the panic that generated the equalizer of the devilish Mbappé.

In Messi's goal in the extra time, for the 3-2,

he burst with emotion again.

The French tie turned it into a black hole again.

Montiel's penalty was the door to the ecstasy of victory.

Nobody wanted to separate the television.

They wanted to see Messi lifting the Cup denied so many times, the supreme success in the hero's last battle.

Then it was the street, that place where Argentines are so comfortable, either to protest -and they do it a lot- or to celebrate -something they do very little-.

The Obelisk of Buenos Aires was kilometer zero of emotions.

People began to gather after the partial victory in the first half, all convinced that victory was within reach.

Others had chosen nearby bars to watch the game, especially those on central Corrientes Avenue, cut off from traffic ten streets earlier.

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The atmosphere was festive.

Someone anxiously threw off fireworks and the little ones, all wearing Messi's shirts, chased each other throwing foam.

But the two almost consecutive goals from Mbappé froze the atmosphere.

The chants of encouragement continued, but everyone was waiting for some device in which to follow the final minutes of the game.

The cries of joy followed by those of disbelief were repeated in the extension.

Before the penalty shootout, everyone was silent for a few seconds.

Until Montiel scored and joy broke out without any obstacles.

Some hugged each other, others cried and most began to yell "Ar-gen-ti-na, Ar-gen-ti-na" as they ran towards the Obelisk waving flags and replicas of the World Cup that the players, at last, , Monday home.

"If we do not suffer, we are not Argentines," said a fan.

"I'm going to have a heart attack," said another.

The song sung throughout the World Cup, at the foot of the Obelisk had already been transformed: "We already won the third, we are already world champion."

Argentines consider suffering to be part of success, as a way to enjoy victory more.

In a matter of minutes, the surroundings of the icon of Buenos Aires were already collapsed and in the adjacent streets cars passed by honking their horns and waving albiceleste flags.

"It's the happiest day of my life," said an emotional child who was hugged by his parents through tears.

The son had waited as long as a childhood to see Argentina world champion.

Parents spent 36 years, a life of defeats and falls.

The moments of anguish that were living.

Leandro Teysseire

In the Barcelona Asturias bar that was felt in the air.

Those over 50 did not seem willing to accept another frustration, the evidence that a curse has denied Messi, and Argentina, the golden trophy for years.

The youngest, those who did not know the genius of Maradona on the pitch and did not celebrate in the 1978 and 1986 World Cups, this Sunday is a film in pure present.

Argentina is world champion, and that has no past.

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