Thousands of Argentines crowd the center of Doha in banners on the eve of the decision

“Sir, please.”

Wearing a T-shirt that said “Cup security team”, Aboud was desperate. He even turned to his colleague and opened his arms, as if asking for advice on what to do. There was not.

He was supposed to prevent strangers from entering the balcony of The Village Hotel, in Souq Waqif, the heart of Doha. His requests were ignored by dozens of Argentines.

The fans of Argentina had marked a “bandeiraço” in the region. The movement, which takes place at every World Cup, brings together thousands of people to sing songs from the stands and, in the best Argentine style, “encourage” the South American team. A stadium outside the stadium.

In Brazil, in 2014, it was on Copacabana beach, when the refrain “Brasil, decime que siente” (Brazil, tell me how you feel) became popular, a song that became such a fever that it is still sung today.

In 2018, in Russia, it happened in Red Square, despite the embassy in Moscow having warned that agglomeration of people without government authorization is a crime.

In Doha, he went in front of Le Pouce, the sculpture in the shape of a thumb, at Souq Waqif, a permanent market that is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the capital of Qatar.

The place is always frequented by many people. But not as it happened on the night of this Thursday (8). Thousands of fans gathered in a small space and started jumping and singing in honor of “the team that has Messi and Maradona”, as one of the songs says.

“You can’t choose. We don’t choose between the two. Stop insisting!” asked Nicolás Defasio, 27, who showed TV cameras a banner with images of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. A reporter repeatedly asked the fan to say who was better.

“You can’t, sir. Please!”, implored Abud while the Argentinean Daniel Orsini, in a retro River Plate shirt, jumped the wall of The Village Hotel to enter the area that the security guard was supposed to preserve only for FIFA guests and video cameras. broadcasters holding the broadcasting rights.

The fan had waited for more than ten minutes standing on a pilaster (where he couldn’t have been) before getting a gap to jump and get closer to the core of the flag —entering the restricted space for this.

“The flag is a fundamental part of this experience of supporting Argentina in the World Cup. I think they here [em Doha] they’ve never seen anything like it,” said Orsini, who doesn’t have a ticket for this Friday’s match (9), against the Netherlands, for the quarterfinals.

It is possible that he is right. Souq Waqif has never seen anything like it. One day before the quarterfinals, women in niqab (a Muslim veil that only shows the eyes), men in tunics, children in arms and immigrants in Alviceleste shirts mixed with the Argentines.

Community members from Bangladesh, Bahrain and India, split between preferences for Argentina and Brazil, jumped to join the masses but couldn’t follow the Spanish lyrics.

Hours earlier, Louis van Gaal, coach of the Netherlands, had said he was prepared to face the Argentine majority in the tribunes of the Lusail stadium, where the match takes place. He even quoted 40,000 people, which would be half the capacity of the arena.

Part of them were in Souq Waqif.

“It’s just me and my colleague. We need more people here. There are a lot of people jumping. Some I can get out, some I can’t”, complained Abud, the security guard.

In 20 minutes, he couldn’t get anyone out. In front of the security guard, five Argentines jumped non-stop in the place reserved for FIFA officials, shouting and singing that this was “la banda mas loca que hay”.

Others pretended not to hear the pleas of “Sir, please.”