Argentina’s victory releases the cry of ‘let’s be champions’ in Buenos Aires

With his face all painted in white and blue, an Argentine national team shirt and his son, Thiago, 4, in his hand, Alex Mendoza, 31, spent practically the entire first half of the game against Poland, this Wednesday (30), banging her vuvuzela on the corner of a bar table in the Palermo Soho neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

“It’s very nervous, I can’t stand it, I always suffer so much. And it was clear that Messi was going to miss the penalty. Giving Messi a penalty to beat in a World Cup is inviting bad luck”, he told the Sheetduring half-time.

At the beginning of the second half, when the team opened the scoring, Alex shouted, with force, as did many around him: “Let’s go, Argentina, carajo”.

The end of the struggle brought Buenos Aires out of the nervous silence it had been in since the beginning of the day. Just after noon, traffic started to get rough. There was a lack of taxis, and the buses were crowded from one side to the other.

Those who managed to leave work early went to bars, squares and, above all, the space in Palermo, where a gigantic screen and a food court were set up. Although the trade has not officially closed, many stores had their metal doors down in the center. The threat of rain didn’t seem to deter anyone, not even the 30-degree heat.^OÇ.

Carolina Castaño, 22, painted the faces of her classmates with her fingers dipped in azure white paint. “I hope the sweat doesn’t ruin the makeup, I want to stay like this until the evening,” she said.

Shortly before 4 pm, before the match started, silence reigned among the fans in the street. “It’s a lot of apprehension. Starting the Cup with a defeat was very demoralizing. But we’re going to move forward,” said Maria Pia, 19, who with a group of friends was waiting for the game drinking a beer on the sidewalk in front of a bar in the Recoleta neighborhood.

The silence and serious faces of the first half contrasted with the moment of the first goal, when MacAllister opened the scoring. After the second, it seemed that it no longer mattered to pay attention to the game. Fans sang, jumped and hugged.

“We are going to be champions, we are going to be champions,” shouted shirtless youths in the crowd in the park in Palermo, playing drums and vuvuzelas.

On the way out, on Avenida Libertador, the cars had trouble dodging the crowd that crossed the road, happy, on the way home.