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| Its all over and now |
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| Cheer up - always next season |
As someone once famously said “nothing last forever”. It’s something that sadly River Plate, founded by the Brits in 1901 and arguable the most famous football team in Argentina found out last Sunday. The team had never in their entire 110-year history been in the B league– they had the chance to avoid the drop as I mentioned in my last blog. River of course blew it – it was pretty predictable. This was a team that had only scored two goals against another team twice in the whole season so it was almost a certainty they wouldn’t do it last Sunday and so it came to pass – they drew 1-1. So after 90 minute of torture promotion was won by Belgrano from Cordoba and that should have been the end of it until next season - but this is Argentina where the passion for football is probably only equaled by the Brits love of beer. In fact there wasn’t 90 minutes played there were 89 since the game was abandoned after 89 minutes due to rioting in the stadium and in the streets. That extra minute could have made all the diffence – if it had been Manchester United you could have counted on another goal or two in that extra minute and the added injury time that would have followed but the ensuing riot saw to it that that was not going to be the case in this match. The ref called the game off and handed promotion to Belgano. No excuses for what happened after the game - it was a war zone. Some fans of the team that now were in the B league for the first time in their history were expressing their extreme unhappiness about it in a most unpleasant way and they forget about the expression that nothing last forever.
Now Argentina is a beautiful country believe me but what happened after the game wasn’t beautiful - it was sad and reminded me of the state of football in the 70s in UK where violence was rampant. However, if this has put you off coming here or going to football match here don’t let it please don’t let it. As I mentioned in my last blog this is a country that is passionate about the game and sometimes it spills over onto the streets as it did last week. However, if you go to a game the chances of anything happening to you is slim but the chances of having a great experience with these emotional people is huge so please please don’t let these events or people warning you not to go to a match put you off – 99% of the River fans who watched the game on Sunday in the stadium or in bars or at home were as you can imagine very unhappy - they swore a lot, shouted, they cried a River - but that’s all. I hope they catch the stupid ones who caused all the problems and ban them from games - fingers crossed. As for River there is always hope they will be back and claim their rightful place in the A league – fingers crossed it happens soon - we only have August to wait for the first game and I can’t wait to get to a game and if you are visiting around that time get to game as well (preferable a River game) - you will love the experience – I promise (apart from Gaynor that is!)
Allez River
This is the English Gaucho saying sorry for the football blogs but that’s life in Argentina y hasta pronto
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