World Cup | For Argentines drunk with joy, winning, like suffering, was “destiny”

(Buenos Aires) An explosion of joy, releasing 36 years of interminable wait since the last world title in 1986, shook Argentina on Sunday, at the end of the World Cup final, launching a day of jubilation for the country of Messi whose “destiny” it was to win and suffer, again.

“Soooy Argentino, es un sentimiento, no puedo paraaar!” (“I’m Argentinian, it’s a feeling, I can’t stop!”). Barely minutes after Montiel’s victorious shot on goal, songs, firecrackers, concerts of horns, disputed the sound space of the capital Buenos Aires in the afternoon.

From Mar del Plata, on the Atlantic, to Jujuy at the foot of the Andes, and in Buenos Aires of course, millions of Argentines, around giant screens in a park, a stadium, on a seafront, at home , vibrated and first accompanied a euphoric crescendo with a 2-0 advantage at the break. Then anxiety, until the end 2-2, 3-3, shots on goal.

“Epic, it’s epic!” But that’s all Argentine history, to suffer like that! “: a cry, arising from the sky and white crowd of 1500 people at the Parque Centenario in Buenos Aires, summed up the feeling of the vast majority.

Suffering is Argentinian

“It is our destiny to suffer! Condition sine qua non to be Argentinian! “, managed to joke to AFP Joel Ciarallo, between hilarity and emotion, in a bar in the capital near the Obelisk. “Let’s be clear: Argentina is in the m…, economically, socially, we are in trouble. So it’s a well-deserved distraction.”

Without even waiting to see Messi lift the Cup, supporters in their thousands began to converge on this iconic landmark of the capital and traditional venue for sporting celebrations.

“Muchaaachos…”: the song, written this year and which has become the unofficial anthem of Argentine supporters in this World Cup, resounded in a loop, as it had been shouted at the top of the lungs, at the start of the match, to cover the Marseillaise.

Very early in the game, the confidence of the Argentinian supporters radiated. “We hold it [la coupe]. Already four opportunities and only one for them! “, assured AFP Juan Solis, 74, who came with his grandchildren to the Parque centenario.

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As so many times during this World Cup, the chants of the supporters who remained in the country responded, in a moving echo, to those of the hinchas in Doha resounding from the screen: “Volveremos a ser campeones como en el 86” (“We are going again be champions, like in 86”).

Few fans, truth be told, had waited until Sunday to celebrate. From Saturday evening, “banderazos”, in about fifteen districts of Buenos Aires, had rehearsed, like a last training, the songs, the slogans, the joy of the 3^e long-awaited star. As if to send final positive “waves” to the “muchachos” of Lionel Scaloni, 13,000 km away.

“La Seleccion and Messi, for everyone’s dream”, headlined the daily Clarinwhile the special continuous television programs redoubled superlatives in their scrolling banners: “Argentina dreams”, “One step from eternal glory”, “For glory”.

“The Perfect Movie”

The result is deserved. For these two lost finals (1990, 2014) since the coronation of 1986. Because “Argentina is a country which suffers, lives on an economic roller coaster, where it’s always hard to make ends meet”, blew Agustin Acevedo, 25, a construction worker. Finally, for Messi, that “everyone in football, not just the Argentines, wanted to see consecrated”.

But there, “it’s the perfect film. Everything we suffered was worth it! “, he let go near the Obelisk in a bar flanked by the effigies of Messi and Maradona, in front.

Ah, Diego… present too, in everyone’s memory. “First World without you, thank you for everything! moved the commentators of public television, in a total let go emotional.

In Maradona’s old house – which he had bought from his parents – in the suburb of Villa Devoto, a few dozen privileged people, neighbors and friends had been invited to follow the match in the garden, around the swimming pool and of the parilla (barbecue), noted the AFP.

Failing to find a buyer at auction in April, “the house was going to be demolished, so I decided to buy it back and fix it up,” says its new owner, Ariel Fernando Garcia, a 47-year-old lawyer.

“For us Argentines, everything related to Maradona reminds us of our childhood: it was he who gave us the most joy”, he recalled. “Argentina has been sad for years, but it has always been a generous and supportive country. And that, you have to find it,” he said to explain his decision to “open” the house.

Because Diego “who watches us from the sky”, as the song says Muchachoscould not be absent from a moment of eternity in Argentine football.