December 17, 2022, 3:32 PM
December 17, 2022, 3:32 PM
The clothes backwards, the stamp of San Expedito, the photo of Maradona or the grandmother in the same chair as last time. The Argentines fulfill their cabal ritual and beat the final against France in Qatar 2022 with more joy than anguish.
“In the match we lost against Arabia I put on the light blue and white (jacket) with the number ’10’, then with Mexico I turned it around and we won. From then on I always wore it backwards and we didn’t stop winning. When it turns out, the cabal is never broken, it’s a football thing”, Julio Tresto, a 55-year-old fan of Boca Juniors, tells AFP with a gesture of obviousness.
In his neighborhood of Flores this Sunday “there are no barbecues”, Sunday ritual of meat cooked on the grill, explains Julio.
“The schedule of the game (at noon in Argentina) does not allow it, who stays glued to the grill? Nooo, you have to put up with it, a little beer and something light to snack on if you have a bite to eat,” he says.
At the house of Graciela Castro (58, designer) in Almagro, where there are plenty of San Lorenzo fans, the love club of Pope Francis, the soccer rituals are followed to the letter.
“I guess? A few: same pants, same shirt, I don’t go to the bathroom throughout the game and, of course, whore (insult) the enemy finely, because he is French”he says mischievously and with a smile.
Alma Mauri, 15, is a high school student from Avellaneda who is a fan of Racing. “For the matches I wear the same unwashed Argentina shirt from the second match and I put all the World Cup figurines on the table,” Explain.
For Guillermo Martínez, partner and fan of Boca, the ritual is very particular: “I sit cross-legged with my foot pointing towards the rival goal, in other times I cross my legs for the other goal”, Explain.
Her partner, Mónica Gómez, carries with her two images of San Expedito, a pagan saint who is often asked for “urgent favours”, a photograph of his daughter and an autograph from Diego Maradona that he treasures with passion.
Daniel ‘La Rana’ Valencia, who was part of the world champion team in Argentina in 1978, rejected an invitation from FIFA to go see the final in Qatar. “My son got angry, he didn’t understand why he wasn’t traveling and I told him that he would understand me when he was a father,” he told Radio AM750.
The world champion prefers to see him as a family, a ritual that is impossible to break. “We always watch the games in the same place. I think that this tradition is crazy because the years don’t go by in vain and one thinks ‘look what I’m doing’, but I continue to wear, for example, my underpants backwards and we sat in the same place, even my children caught that habit,” he revealed.
Cristian Oberosler (54) and Lucrecia Airaldi (50) are divorced but will see the final together. She saw the first game with her current partner and Argentina lost. The second she saw him with her ex-husband and their daughter in a bar in Palermo and it was victory. She has since followed the ceremony and will repeat it “on Sunday at the same table reserved for the occasion”. explains she.
At the home of Ignacio Farone, a 24-year-old university student, friends were summoned. “As I am the only one who lives in the Capital, we see it at home, a touch (near) from the center”explains Ignacio from the Boedo neighborhood, 15 minutes from the Obelisk, the epicenter of all soccer celebrations in Buenos Aires.
“The team is playing very well and Messi is showing why he is from another planet”Ignacio says that he avoids talking about possible results “because it is ‘mufa'” (it brings bad luck), he warns.
Also in his house there are cabals. Grandma Clara (86 years old) in the patio “he sits in the same chair with a photo of Maradona”, refers Ignacio.
Mario Losada (44), on the other hand, is one of those who suffer every game. “I get very nervous, I prefer to see him alone, I am very sick of football”, admits this River Plate fan.
Giant screens were set up in different parts of the city “but the day and time conspires a bit, people watch it at home with friends and family” says Juan Martín Graciano, a 63-year-old merchant from Parque Chacabuco.
In the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada (government), and Occasional sellers of Argentine flags multiplied along the central 9 de Julio avenue.
Last Tuesday when Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 in the semifinals, a light blue and white tide overwhelmed the main Argentine cities with celebrations that lasted for hours. “We hope to repeat,” says Mario.
