Argentinos Juniors 1 Estudiantes 2
I use this blog as a way of exploring and analyzing Argentina. And I chose football as the vehicle with which to conduct that exploration since I don’t have to be good at it as I would if I’d chosen, for instance, tango. I simply have to stand on the terraces and let myself be subjected to the passion, the abuse, the sun and the rain, the sometimes magical football and the often abysmal.
I had all of that against Estudiantes in a game the home side really should have won. But don’t we always say that? Although the Clarin match report did quote a home fan saying: “If life’s not fair, then why should football be?”
When the referee gives a penalty against your side in the first two minutes you know you’ve got a mountain to climb. Argentinos did their best in what I think is shaping up to be a decent team that at least tries to play football. It often doesn’t work but the team was applauded off the pitch by the discerning home fans who appreciated the effort.
Argentinos Juniors fans...disappeared
That undeserved victory puts Estudiantes on top of the table, ahead of Boca who could only draw 2-2 at home to Lanus, and Tigre who lost 1-0 at Arsenal.
To return to my original point: Does football adequately reflect the society we live in or is society represented in football? A bit of both, I suspect.
Argentina has been marking 36 years since the military came to power and kidnapped, tortured and killed about thirty-thousand of its own people.
Life moves on but the scars remain deep from the human rights abuses committed during and after the dictatorship. Football fans were victims too and were remembered before this game. One of them was Julio Lopez who disappeared in 2007 after appearing as a witness in the trial of one of the worst human rights abusers.
Two other more recent incidents spring to mind. I was just reading about the riots in Egypt after Al-Masry were banned for two years for the violence at their ground in which 78 people died. And last week there were violent incidents at San Lorenzo when the visitors, Colon, were awarded a goal that was obviously off-side to everyone but the referee. That decision resulted in a 1-1 draw when San Lorenzo need the points and need them badly. San Lorenzo lost again this weekend – 2-1 at Atletico de Rafaela to compound their misery.
The referee, Diego Abal, had to be given a police escort from the pitch and extra security for him and his family in the past week. The vice-president of the Argentine referee’s association, Francisco Lamolina, gave an interview a couple of days after last week’s game in which he put the situation into context.
“We’ve got to end this madness,” he said. “If we carry on like this a referee is going to be killed for a game of football. And that is total and absolute madness.”
He, like everyone else, agreed that the referee had made a mistake. But, he said, that’s all it was…a mistake. Abal is still on course to be one of Argentina’s designated FIFA referees at the Brazil World Cup in 2014. “Abal is totally reliable,” he said. “He made a mistake and that was it.”
Football, continued Lamolina, is a piece of the country that we live in. “These things happen,” he said, “because unfortunately there is a lot of aggression in people on the street. You get in your car and every ten blocks you’ll see something. It’s not a coincidence, this violence. This is the country we’ve got.”
Argentina is heading for an economic crisis. It happens every ten years or so with such regularity that for many it’s become a foregone conclusion. Argentines, never mind foreigners, don’t invest here and the economy muddles through on a wing and a prayer and a fiddling of the figures.
The military dictatorship ran the country into the ground between 1976-1983. Hyper-inflation in 1989 left many Argentines in ruin and the scars linger to this day. While 2001-2 saw one of the biggest defaults in history.
Crime is up and inflation is painful. Government subsidies on utility bills are being withdrawn and public transport fares have gone up with more likely to follow. The popularity of President Kirchner’s government is plummeting as it targets all the wrong culprits and trips over its shoelaces in the process.
Julio Lopez - Remembered
There is increased tension on the streets but it’s often an individual thing. But put thirty thousand people together in one place, thirty thousand people with a week’s worth of pent up anger and frustration, and then see the referee wrongly allow or disallow a goal and you’ve all the sparks you need to ignite the explosion.
Worse still, ban your club for two years, deprive the fans of the only outlet many of them have to vent their anger and the resulting violence is often inevitable. And Allah knows that Egyptians have had enough to be angry about these past few years.
Back in Argentina, it’s been interesting to watch how those south of Buenos Aires rivals, Racing and Independiente, have been experiencing both hope and dejection in tandem.
When one wins, the other wins. They both lost 3-0 this time…Racing at home to Union and Independiente at Colon.
Belgrano and San Martin drew 1-1, Banfield and All Boys shared a 0-0. Newell’s suprisingly good form continues with a 1-0 win at always tough to beat Velez. While Godoy Cruz and Olimpo drew 1-1 to round off the weekend.
