Diego Maradona always considered himself betrayed by Julio Grondona, former president of the AFA (Argentine Football Association) who died in 2014. All because of the 1990 World Cup final, when Argentina was defeated by Germany after a penalty was awarded. doubtful.
To illustrate his revolt at what he considered a ruse made by FIFA with the support of the manager, he used a comparison that, for his compatriots, did not need to be explained.
“Grondona delivered to us as Chile did in the Falklands.”
In search of votes in last year’s Chilean presidential election, Republican candidate José Antonio Kast found an easy target.
“Argentina was a European country. Today it looks like a National Geographic documentary,” he said.
The expression “more than a game” has been used so much that it has become a buzzword in football. But Chile and Argentina, opponents this Thursday (27), at 21:15, will play one of the most rivalry matches on the planet for reasons that go far beyond what happens on the field.
The clash, for the Qualifiers for this year’s World Cup, will be in Calama. In second place, Argentina is already qualified for the World Cup in Qatar. In sixth position, Chile is at risk. The four best qualify. The fifth will play in the repechage.
Lionel Messi, injured, was out of the squad. There won’t be a reunion with Gary Medel, the Chilean defender with whom he starred in the exchange of pushes in the dispute for third place in the 2019 Copa América. The two were expelled and the Argentine, angry, criticized the organization of the tournament. He said, among other things, that everything was set for Brazil to be champion.
If friendship never prevailed on the field, the animosity between the teams became more pronounced after 2007, when they played the semifinals of the U-20 World Cup in Canada. Chile already had players who would later be a reference in the main squad, such as Medel, Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sánchez and Mauricio Isla. Argentina had Sergio Romero, Ángel Di María, Sergio Agüero, Papu Gómez and won 3-0.
What remained of the confrontation was the violence. Chile had two expelled and athletes from both teams said they were looking forward to new meetings to settle accounts.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that this is a football game. Not a war. There’s a lot involved. You have to be calm,” asked Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano before the 2015 Copa América final against Chile in Santiago.
In a tense atmosphere, the home team won the continental tournament for the first time in its history, on penalties. He would do the same again the following year, in the United States, also against Argentina. Match that resulted in Messi’s announcement that he would no longer play for his national team. He later changed his mind, but it was the revenge desired by rival fans.
In both finals, the team won with Argentine coaches: Jorge Sampaoli (2015) and Juan Antonio Pizzi (20The neighbors had already played out historic battles on the field before that. The biggest of all was the 1991 Libertadores semifinal between Boca Juniors and Colo Colo, played in the Chilean capital, in a game that was immortalized as “The Battle of Macul”, with dozens of people on the edge of the field, including police disguised as photographers, the owners of the house qualified.
The players of the Argentine team fought with opposing athletes, the police and accredited professionals to photograph the game. Uruguayan coach Óscar Tabárez (from Boca) left with a bloody face. Goalkeeper Navarro Montoya was bitten by a police dog.
In 2015, Argentines who attended the Copa América created and sang a song that the authorities considered offensive. The lyrics mocked the Coquimbo earthquake, which happened that year and which triggered a tsunami off the Chilean coast. The song ended with the advice to enemies to ask the English to teach them how to swim.
This is one of the reasons that causes rancor between the two nations off the field. In the Falklands War, between Argentina and the United Kingdom, 40 years ago, Chile collaborated with the British and offered its air bases. After the victory, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) thanked the dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) for the “information, communication and welcome” to the English forces.
Many Argentines refer to their neighbors as “traitors” because of this.
“Today, with every second that passes, we are bigger. We went to Azteca and became world champions. We didn’t go to play against Chile. We went there and beat Germany,” Maradona said in audio to his former teammates, remembering 1986 in Mexico.
The Argentines mention that their neighbor has not had any World Cup and has not even reached a final. The answer comes with the two recent Copa America decision victories.
Enmity is also territorial. They share the world’s third-longest land border, spanning some 5,300 kilometers from north to south in the Andes Mountains to the southern tip of America.
“Diplomatic relations between the two countries took place for decades under suspicion because in each nation it was taught in the history books that the neighbor is an expansionist and usurper of territory”, wrote Pablo Lacoste, professor and director of the Center for Trasandino Studies at the National University of Cuyo, Argentina.
This continues. The Chilean government decided to extend its maritime limits last year. Argentina reacted and said it was an appropriation of an area that belongs to it. Both claim to own 5,500 square kilometers in the Drake Passage region, which separates South America and Antarctica.
For a similar reason they almost went to war in 1978. The conflict was only avoided through the mediation of Pope John Paul II and resulted in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed in 1984. The nations were committed to resolving their differences peacefully.
It is difficult to find harmony. For the Andeans, Argentina took much of Patagonia through extortion. In 1881, the country’s government gave Argentina one million square kilometers in that region just to keep it neutral in the War of the Pacific, which Chile was fighting against Peru and Bolivia.
In the past, history books used by students in Argentina said that until 1810, a large part of the territory that is now southern Chile belonged to the viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, which would have been ratified by a treaty signed in 1856, but dominated by even so for the Chileans.
The classic, in the view of the players, started this Wednesday (26) at night. The Argentines complained about being held up for more than an hour at the Calama airport. They said there were no employees to inspect the luggage and carry out the procedures against Covid-19. With a positive test, coach Lionel Scaloni will not be able to manage the team.
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