It’s not just about settling scores: the fan knows when there’s more at stake than a draw
As it happens with those countries that carry with them centuries of disagreements, conflicts and wars, football also has a memory: certain teams faced each other at key moments and the fan – like the footballer – cannot escape a memory that can be humiliated, insulted or includes injustice. . . Sometimes a single, particularly painful defeat is enough to feed the thirst for revenge. But the desire for revenge increases when one of the two teams has invariably succeeded in subduing its opponent. In the nine matches between Argentina and the Netherlands, the South Americans only managed to win once.
The name ‘Clásico’ is justified because the duel between the oranges and the albicelestes is the third most frequent pairing in the World Cups, surpassed only by Brazil-Sweden and Argentina-Germany. The more confrontations, the more chance of mixed feelings.
The resounding defeats are as much or more etched in the memory as the resounding victories. For centuries, the Romans lived obsessed with their most shameful failures. Tito Livio tells how in the Battle of the Gallows of Caudine, in 321 AD. C. the Samnites let the Roman soldiers pass half-naked under the yoke. They didn’t stop until they defeated them years later and returned the attack. Similarly, Argentinian fans don’t forget how Cruyff’s Holland passed them by in Germany 74.
On the other hand, football is a favorable context for all sorts of superstitions and cliques. A well-known Argentinian beer brand launched an advertisement entitled ‘Coincidences’. Argentine fans of all levels show their confidence that they will be crowned champions this year based on certain more or less surreal parallels between this World Cup and the last one they won in Mexico 86: «In the final in Qatar, Jupiter will be in Pisces and at the end of 86, Jupiter was also in Pisces ». In addition, “86 was not a leap year and neither was this one.”
The advertising claim is parodic, but it appeals to a widely held belief: that of revelations shown by improbable coincidences, something that psychologists such as Carl Jung took very seriously. The Argentinians therefore did not hesitate long to announce that they became world champions in their own country the only time they defeated the Netherlands, in 1978.
There are other variables that are relevant to the Argentina-Netherlands of this World Cup. Van Gaal has made no secret of his confidence in becoming the first coach to lead his country to the top of world football. Argentina clings to the fact that just as Maradona elevated them to the football Olympus, it is Messi’s last chance to show why he is similar to ‘Pelusa’.
The clash can also be read in terms of the eternal battle between Europe and America. Morocco has sent Luis Enrique’s students home, but normally only the CONMEBOL and UEFA teams reach the quarter-finals. The money is in the Old Continent and the best South American players land here. Pelé played 19 years with Santos. Today only Franco Armani, the third goalkeeper of the Albiceleste, plays in his country. The rest work in European teams. Argentines take this brain drain badly. And the World Cup is an opportunity to give the European opponents that come within range a blow to the flare.
The media have published that some tickets in the resale reach 7,500 euros. Argentina has an income per capita that is five times lower than the Netherlands. But there are more South Americans willing to go into debt and commit the madness of their lives in the hope that they can tell their grandchildren that they were there on the day when a brilliant game from Messi meant that Cruyff, Bergkamp or Kluivert would never appear again in nightmares. Only Argentines could imagine that the deepest wounds are healed with an endless slalom and a miraculous goal “so that the country is a clenched fist crying out for Argentina”, as Víctor Hugo Morales recounted after the greatest and most meaningful football moment of all time.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
