Thousands of people celebrated next to the Buenos Aires Obelisk the victory of the Argentine team against its Australian counterpart for the round of 16 of the Qatar 2022 Soccer World Cup, turning the center of the City of Buenos Aires into a great popular party to which groups of fans, friends and families from different neighborhoods and also from towns in the Buenos Aires suburbs joined.
Even before the Australian team scored the discount, numerous fans were already concentrating at the intersection of Corrientes and 9 de Julio avenues, where the Plaza de la República became a light blue and white tide through the shirts, flags and cotillion items that each fan wore.
With the end of the game, the concentration of fans became so large that it forced a complete cut off of traffic in the area, including the metrobus.
A crowd of families, tourists and groups of friends celebrated this Saturday the two goals for Argentina in the victory against Australia in the Seeber square in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, where the City Government set up two giant screens to follow the World Cup matches. Qatar 2022.
In addition to the screens, the park had pingball tables, table football and recreational games inspired by the national team, whose players were also represented in gigantic photographs with which visitors could take their pictures.
Before the start of the game, the different groups of visitors were trying to locate themselves in the few shady spaces available in the park, which were generally on the sides, forcing the fans to choose between suffering the afternoon sun or seeing only part of the screen.
The vast majority of the fans wore different models of the Argentine team shirt and although almost all of them wore the number 10 on the back under the surname “Messi”, they also saw the number 9 of Julián Álvarez, the 11 of Ángel Di María and the 7 by Rodrigo DePaul; in the crowd it was also constant to see shirts from other teams and various languages were heard.
Little Lucía, just 20 days old, experienced the game on the chest of her father Gabriel, who together with his wife Mariana migrated from Venezuela to Argentina in 2018; the three with light blue and white shirts celebrated the victory of the selection haranguing throughout the match.
In dialogue with Télam, Gabriel recounted: “When we arrived with Mariana we didn’t have much interest in soccer but as we began to make friends in Argentina we began to understand and share that passion with which you live this, we knew that the birth of Lucía was going to be very close to the World Cup and we watched the group stage matches at home, but we talked with the pediatrician and this one, which was so important, we chose to live with our Argentine friends here.”
“We knew that Australia is a team that runs a lot, but we were confident that Argentina has Messi and other great players; the Australians’ goal left us breathless until the end, but we knew that this team was going to go through the round in one one way or another,” he added.
Mariana, his wife, added: “Lucía spent almost the entire game sleeping despite her father’s screams and jumps, it’s very nice to be able to experience these joys with so many people and we already want the game against the Netherlands to arrive.”
Seeber Square seemed to suffer an earthquake when the crowd thundered shouting Lionel Messi’s goal, a celebration that included hugs between strangers, passionate kisses, the fluttering of hats, t-shirts and other clothing and even tears in the air.
Fabio, part of a group of young Brazilian friends who are on vacation in Argentina, told Télam: “When we got the tickets we knew we were going to be here during the World Cup, we watched the Brazil games in a bar with other Brazilians but we also came here to see Argentina’s matches against Mexico and Poland; we came to support Argentina because if someone has to take them out of the World Cup, it’s us and not a European”.
“We are about to return to Brazil but having participated in these parties every time Argentina played was a great experience because we had a lot of fun and they treated us very well; many friends had recommended that we visit this country and they were right,” he said.
And, he completed: “Messi is a great player and many things he did today against Australia I think only Neymar could do, it would be sad if he retires without having won a World Cup.”
Julián Álvarez’s goal relaxed everyone present in the square, who cheered up different soccer chants until Australia’s discount, which caused murmurs and gestures of anguish for several minutes in which both teams exchanged dangerous situations, until the crowd exploded. in a celebration like that of a goal with Martínez’s save at the end of the game.
The celebrations of the Argentine players on the playing field were celebrated by all those present in the Seeber square, who lost concentration singing different soccer songs that were accompanied by car and bus horns.
Martín, a hardware store owner from the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Barracas who carried the chairs and the conservative he brought to experience the game with his family, told Télam: “For the last World Cup my children were very young, in this one they already put together figurines and they are fans of Messi and ‘el Dibu’, that’s why my wife and I decided to bring them last Saturday against Mexico and since we won we were condemned to return by cabal”.
“They suffered a lot, but it is an enormous joy; this team deserves it because it shows that they are leaving everything and being able to experience it through the joy and illusion of our children is something that cannot be compared to anything,” he concluded.
While the crowd thinned out, many groups of fans who got into their cars or buses harangued each other to continue the celebration at the Obelisk.