Argentinians Hoping Soccer Joy Will Redeem Their Country

BUENOS AIRES — While in Qatar the Argentine soccer team is a step away from capturing the World Cup title to be decided Sunday, the atmosphere here at the Argentine capital is vibrating with expectation — and adoration of a team that promises to accomplish a long-awaited dream. At 2 a.m. Wednesday night, Argentinians were wandering the streets chanting team songs and sporting jerseys with the number 10 of captain Lionel Messi. The Obelisk, which is situated at the city center, is lit up in the country’s blue and white colors. It is a gathering spot for locals anxiously awaiting the final game at Doha. Franco Lopez, who works at a convenience store near the Obelisk, says that since Argentina has moved to the finals — by beating Croatia Tuesday by three to zero — Buenos Aires has become the city that never sleeps. “People are finally happy,” Mr. Lopez says. “After everything that happened in the country, economically and politically, we need this triumph.”Mr. Lopez’s convenience shop has an Argentinian flag hanging on it, just like nearly every store, balcony, or building in Buenos Aires. Some flags have Mr. Messi’s face printed on them as locals brag about having one of the best soccer players in history.Mr. Messi, who has declared 2022 might mark his final World Cup, is expected on Sunday to lead the team in the match against the defending champion, France. Yet, superstar Kylian Mbappe and his French teammates will not be easy to beat.The battle of giants started long before Argentina and France reached the final game by beating Croatia and Morocco, respectively. Messrs. Mbappe and Messi are teammates at a French League club, Paris Saint-Germain, and many expect the 35-year-old Messi to hand the “world’s best” title to the 23-year-old Mbappe once he retires.Just before the Qatar games began, Mr. Mbappe, who won the World Cup in 2018 and eliminated Argentina during the round of 16, said that South American teams, including Argentina and Brazil, “don’t have the quality to reach the World Cup.”“In South America football isn’t as advanced as in Europe,” he said. “That’s why, if you look at the last World Cup, it’s always the Europeans that win.”While relations between the world’s top soccer stars have not been harmed, Argentinian fans will not let Mr. Mbappe off the hook that easily. Some say that they “are not surprised” that the French forward made those comments, while others call him “arrogant.”Zay Rojas, the manager of one of the most frequented pubs in Buenos Aires, “Locos por el fútbol,” or “Crazy for Soccer,” says she often has fights with French people who frequent her bar and question Argentina’s way of celebrating.On Tuesday, as Argentina beat Croatia three to zero in the semifinals, Buenos Aires’ streets were taken over by a wave of white and blue flags as thousands of Argentinians celebrated at the city’s obelisk.At Ms. Rojas’s pub, people shed tears as they watched forward Julian Alvarez make the third goal and secure a spot for Argentina in the final. Yet, a group of French people, who had attended the pub to experience the Argentine passion, told Ms. Rojas they found it “funny” that the country was celebrating the semi-final triumph as if they had just won it all. “It’s the way we celebrate in Argentina,” Ms. Rojas said. “It’s as if they were questioning our culture and traditions.”With mere days before the final match Ms. Rojas and her staff are hard at work preparing the venue for more than 70 people expected to watch the Sunday game at their pub. Even though she was booked out minutes after Argentina beat Croatia on Tuesday, people keep calling her each day, offering top peso to secure a spot at the pub.During the World Cup, many Argentinians are superstitious. Some eat the same food or wear the same clothes as they watch each game. Ms. Rojas too mostly hosts the same people that had watched previous matches at her pub. “Around 70 percent of the people who will come on Sunday have been watching the matches at my pub since the first game,” Ms. Rojas said. Then there is Hugo Tomas, who works at a convenience store in the neighborhood of Recoleta. He watched Argentina’s first match, a shocking two to one loss to Saudi Arabia, in the store’s basement because his Uruguayan colleague refused to switch shifts with him. Since then he has watched every match in that basement. While bettors make France a slight favorite to take the cup and become the first to capture back to back titles since Brazil did so in 1962, Argentinians are desperate for a win. After 36 years of watching the title slip away, the country has never craved it this badly. Argentina’s current annual inflation rate is 92.4 percent, as month to month prices rose 4.9 percent in November, according to the Argentinian National Institute of Statistics and Census. Annual inflation is expected to reach 100 percent this month, according to the institute, which also reports that more than 36 percent of Argentines live below the poverty line. Yet, this week Argentinians could care less about such statistics. They will be screaming as loudly as they can to let Mr. Messi and his teammates know they are counting on them to bring the cup home, so they can forget all their troubles for a day. Or a month. Or for as long as soccer joy can last. Soccer fans gather at the Obelisk at the Plaza de la República of Buenos Aires. Clara Preve-Durrieu/The New York Sun

Argentinians Hoping Soccer Joy Will Redeem Their Country

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