In Buenos Aires, the mood has been tense in the streets for the last year. The commercial hub of Argentina had recovered from one of the strictest lockdowns anywhere in the world during the pandemic to emerge blinking into inflation that is running at over 80 per cent. The ability to afford basic necessities such as bread and milk, never mind medication cannot be guaranteed for locals.
In the supermarkets, people carry stacks of pesos, knowing that they will likely need a lot more notes than even a few weeks ago to complete the weekly shop. Argentineans are carrying a heavy load mentally, and as ever, they have looked to their football team to lighten it.
There are very few early Christmas decorations in the shopfronts in Buenos Aires at the end of November, instead, almost all bakers and butchers are decked out in the country’s blue and white colours. In the weeks before the game, local schoolchildren have been furiously swapping their World Cup football cards outside the gates hoping to land a coveted Lionel Messi one. Construction sites have large blue and white striped cement bags decorated with Messi’s face and his number on the back.
The human rights violations in Qatar have been given some airtime on local TV, but it is minimal. Argentina is desperate for a distraction from the grind and worry of everyday life and the first game of the World Cup against Saudi Arabia at 7am on a Tuesday after a long weekend holiday in Buenos Aires fitted the bill perfectly.
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Buenos Aires is largely a nocturnal city and completely ill-suited for early morning matches. Sleep does seem to not matter here when there is a World Cup to watch. The city had collectively risen at 6am, and car horns and chanting were heard in the streets in advance of a game that was seen as a complete formality in advance of Messi’s expected coronation as a World Cup winner. The local markets in La Boca and San Telmo have been doing a roaring trade in fake Argentina shirts for weeks after the official Adidas home World Cup shirt sold out completely in the city.
Local cafes had opened early, and lured in bleary-eyed portenos, as Buenos Aires citizens are nicknamed, with the prospect of strong coffee and bread slathered in sweet dulce de leche. Normally Buenos Aires does not excel in easy small talk between strangers, given its vast size and speed, but before kick-off, the mood was light and easy. Tactics were discussed over coffee between businessmen and builders, but little was known about Saudi Arabia. Argentina was getting an easy first paper out of the way, before increasingly challenging exams ahead against Mexico and Poland.
Cafes roared when Messi’s scored his first-half penalty, but it was meant to be the first small step en route to the final stages of the competition. Three goals ruled offside provided frustration, but a reminder that chances would continue to fall for Argentina. The six minutes of madness in the second half with two Saudi Arabia goals and eventually the final whistle did the impossible, it hushed a city that never stops to take a breath. The famous energy of the barrios was sucked out of the city for at least an hour. It had the atmosphere of a funeral reception in a draughty parish hall. Nobody was quite sure what to say.
Messi said the atmosphere in the Argentina changing room was akin to seeing the dead. The streets felt similarly desolate. The connection between the players and their fans is deep in Argentina. The national team is comprised of every part of this diverse nation, from the icy fields of the mountainous south to the selection of poverty-stricken barrios of Buenos Aires. In a country where you cannot predict how much a loaf of bread is going to cost next week, at least the country felt they could be sure their heroes would comfortably beat Saudi Arabia.
The national newspapers here are not known for their restraint in criticising the national team, but even they seem stunned into submission. Clarin, the popular daily captured the mood, “de la euforia a la incredulidad en un santiamén. La sorpresa es total.” “From euphoria to incredulity in a jiffy. The surprise is complete.” Mexico is next, and the tension in the city will crank up another a notch.
