"And to Diego
in the heavens we can see him
with Don Diego and La Tota,
rooting for Lionel...to be champions again..."
-- Argentinian cheer song to inspire the national team in Qatar
The game was won before it started and the fans along the Obelisk in Buenos Aires’ Avenida 9 de Julio knew it. Or at least they thought they did.
In the centre of Buenos Aires and one of the world’s grand avenues, the Avenida 9 de Julio was a sea of blue and white as the Argentine team filled the large screens set for the game, faces up close singing the national anthem.
Messi, and his teammates, with arms interlocked, sang the hymn loud and with military discipline. The collective family of Argentinians below followed with the same seriousness and spirit.
As the strains of La Marseillaise played next, the crowd jumped up and down, pumped their hands and many cried with emotion. On the screens, French President Emmanuel Macron sang with visible spirit, but he would not be playing. Next on the screens, the French players appeared barely mouthing their national lyrics.
The outcome of the game was written in the faces of the people. At least, that is what a woman at the foot of the Obelisk said, "Vamos a ganar, se nos ve en la cara." We’re going to win; you can see it in our faces. "La passion de los Argentinos!" The passion of the Argentinians!
And that was pretty much how the game played out, Argentina with passion, dominated the game and was up by 2 in the first half. Crowds and radio stations were at once on edge and ready to celebrate the world title clamouring for a third goal to sew up the game and to let them breathe. Then came minute 79 when a penalty score by Mbappe, and a second goal 2 minutes later, equalized the score.
“I am going to have a heart attack, I can’t take any more," Carla Cuello Strabinick told THE WEEK from the central Argentinian city of Cordoba. "The heart wanted to stop at moments, and at times to go on a gallop. It was really blood, sweat, and tears," she added after the victory.
Life in her city, as in most of Argentina, had been on hold in expectation of the game. The few businesses that were open closed for half an hour before the game. There was silence in the streets. "There is so much emotion, you can feel it in the air," said Cuello before the game.
At the bar La Poesia in Buenos Aires’s tango district of San Telmo, the crowd were so loud that manager Ezequiel Medina could not be heard, but flags and chants and football jerseys around the big screen created festive chaos that spilt onto the streets of the corner bar.
On the streets and in the plazas in Buenos Aires’s Palermo district, fans hung around trees to watch the game with others, their emotions high most of the game, they became one tense collective nerve when the game was tied. People tried to restart the chants that had inspired the team throughout the cup, but it took a while for them to get their spirit back, despite the superstitious belief that it was their chants that had made the breaks their team needed.
In the Liniers neighbourhood in Buenos Aires Province, María Cristina Mariscotti, became a good luck talisman for the team. Nicknamed La Abuela la la la, the Spanish word for grandmother, she has come out to the streets during games to cheer the national team, and young, shirtless men waiving the stripped blue and white team shirts and flags, have been singing la la la, along with her to send good luck to their team. Their antics helped ease the tension of the suddenly close game.
At the famed El Banderin bar in Buenos Aires’s Old Guard, hands were pumping the air, people were jumping up and down singing the good luck song about seeing Maradona in heaven and encouraging Messi, they did not let down, even when spirits elsewhere were dampened the two times the French tied the score. People at the entrance and perched by the windows are all a part of a united cheering section.
Outside, when the game was won, people filled the streets, "te amo Argentinaaaa," shouted the fans, some of them overcome to the point of laying on the streets.
"This is all very emotional, such a high that there are no words to explain it," said Cuello, who watched the game in Cordoba with her brother who has Down’s syndrome, to keep him from the loud crowds. Juan Jose, her brother, 41, became very emotional at the victory, says Cuello, and he just let loose and cried with joy.
In neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, in cities like Mendoza and neighbourhoods of Cordoba, horn blowing became added to big drums, trumpets, little drums, and people shouting in celebration.
In the centre of Cordoba, the open spaces were filled with people and flags, still chanting of Maradona and Messi. Children dancing with their parents. National pride.
"Soy Argentino!" I am Argentinian, Ole, Ole, Ole chants filled the streets.
Across the border, in Brazil, Argentina’s fierce and storied rival, the chants throughout the game were those of the Argentine fans, "Vamos, vamos, Argentina, vamos a ganar." Let’s go, go Argentina, let’s win. The cheering sections were loud in support of Argentina. Brazilians suffered, cheered, and twisted with their neighbours, erupting in loud cheers that could be heard in the streets when Argentina scored its third goal and then when it came out ahead in the penalty shots.
From the city of Rosario, Adriana Kalaizich wanted to share a posting she received that was passed around that wrapped the day and the emotions:
"Aimar's tears. Scaloni's elegance. Canelo's offensive words and apology. Abuela Lalalá. Bangladesh. The celebrations in India, Peru, Indonesia," recapped the note. “The invocations to Maradona, the Patron Saint...The lump in the throat. The pain in the gut. Happiness and illusions. Pride and feeling. Either you have it, or you lose it. The beauty of collective joy."
From near the Obelisk in central Buenos Aires, over an hour after the game ended, with the streets still full of fans and flags, among chants and happy cheers, Jorge Gonzalez, 37, of the northern city of Salta, shouted, "I told you we would be world champions!"
Indeed. Messi scored a goal, becoming the first player to score in every game of the World Cup. What is more, he added the World Cup to his illustrious list of football accomplishments. It was Messi’s final dance in the striped Argentine jersey at the World Cup.
Argentina won its third World Cup. It had been 13110 days since it won the cup the last time.
