A Tale of Two Matches

I've mentioned that it's cold in Buenos Aires.  I realise that it's probably about the same temperature as Melbourne (or today, Hobart) but then I don't have any warm clothes...  And it's not just me thinks it's cold.

Anyway, cold or not, it was back down to the fan-fest area to watch Argentina take on Switzerland.  By now, we knew the drill.  Get a good spot with an uninterrupted view and wait for someone to stand right in front of you...

The Argentinians make a great deal of noise during their national anthem but they don't sing the words - they chant "Oh, oh, oh" to the tune of the anthem.  Watch the team - they also don't sing the anthem although sadly, they don't jump up and down and chant "Oh, oh, oh", which would look pretty cool.

I'm actually rather sad about this because it's come to my attention that my name is in the Argentinian national anthem.  See 4 lines up from the bottom - pretty sure that's me doing something for eternity with Laurel...

The game was another nail-biting affair, with the winning goal only coming in the 118th minute, just 2 minutes before the dreaded penalties.  Messi, finally, had some space in front of him, surged forward and slipped a pass through to di Maria, who duly slotted it home and, given that, by some counts, di Maria had previously lost the ball on 50 separate occasions, this was by no means a certainty!  So, it was yet another jubilant but very relieved fan-fest crowd that streamed out of the park.

This hadn't left us with a lot of time before the next game started, an intriguing fixture between USA and Belgium.  Thankfully, we decided to watch this one indoors - I couldn't have taken another 2 hours standing outside!   So, we made our way to the Alamo sports bar - an appropriately named bar if I've ever been in one.

The bar was packed and a voucher system was used to procure jugs of beer.

Americans are raucous sports fans.  Even as their team is patently being outclassed, they are chanting:

"I!
 I believe!
 I believe that!
 I believe that we!
 I believe that we will win!
 I believe that we will win!
 I believe that we will win!"

It's more martial than most of the more familiar chants, very intense and, for me, more a statement of personal affirmation than a team thing,although it has some serious people doing it.  I could have also definitely done without the "Don't F&#K with the USA" number although, come to think of it, that one might sound good coming from the State Department.    Throw in all of the uniquely American phrases,  "Come on rookie" or "Come on old timer", as the case may be, along with mention of the game going to PK's, and suddenly you're not actually sure what sport you're watching!  That said, it was great fun and not like watching any other team.  Little wonder that their fans and their matches were immensely popular during the tournament.

Just possibly, no-one's a winner

We had a few Argentinians standing nearby, who were just loving the atmosphere and occasionally broke into a more melodic Argentinian song which was well received.  Someone had even brought a football to the pub, you know, in case we wanted to get a game going...  In all seriousness, after polishing off several jugs, they were going to play football somewhere, albeit, as they confessed, very badly...

But, sadly, as has increasingly been the case in this world cup, the underdogs went down and this was in spite of their keeper making a record 15 saves during the game.  Remember the Alamo, indeed!


Post Script - I know this is late and even more recent scorelines have alreay consigned these matches' outcomes to pub trivia oblivion, but when most of the time is spent trying to get an internet connection, wi-fi being some kind of distant dream, it's hard to stay current...