The Netherlands and Argentina face each other on Friday, December 9 in the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. A familiar poster since it is the sixth time since 1974 that the two countries have met in this competition. There were dazzling sporting moments like that Berkgkamp goal in 1998, also in the quarter-finals. And a very political moment during the final of the competition in 1978, in Argentina. The Albicelestes won 3-1 after extra time. Argentinian striker Mario Kempes scored two goals and I’winger right Daniel Bertoni scored one.
A political final in 1978
This final was very political because Argentina was ruled by a ruthless military junta. The power in place had exploited the World Cup to carry out a huge propaganda operation, to consolidate its hold on the country. The image of the dictator jorge rafael Videla raising her arms to the sky at the end of the match remained marked in the memory of the Argentines.
This final was held at the Monumental stadium, just a few blocks from the dictatorship’s worst place of torture, the infamous Navy School of Mechanics. Inmates who were there at the time of the competition and who survived said after the fact that they heard the clamor of the goals. Daniel Bertoni, one of the scorers in the final, will say “we helped the dictatorship to stay in power longer”.
The duel between Boca Junior and River Plate, more than a classico
This final was an opportunity for the dictatorship of the time to afford a huge publicity stunt because football in Argentina is a religion. It’s even dangerous because the passion is so strong. And the passion reaches its climax during the classico. Two Buenos Aires clubs have been nurturing a rivalry for 120 years: Boca Junior and River Plate. The reds and whites against the yellows and blues. 72 league titles between them: 35 for Boca, 37 for River.
It was initially a social rivalry: Boca, poor and popular district in the south of the city, with its incredible stadium: the Bombonera. River, a bourgeois and rich district, located about fifteen kilometers further north, where footballers play at the Monumental stadium, that of the 1978 final. Each club has its emblems: Maradona and Riquelme for Boca, Francescoli for River.
Today, Boca has become a “more bobo” neighborhood. But the nicknames have remained: the inhabitants of the Boca district nickname those who live in the River district “the millionaires”, the inhabitants of the River district call those in the Boca district “the Bosteros”, that is to say those who stink. This rivalry between the two clubs has never stopped since 1913. Clashes between supporters broke out that year. In 1931, with a general brawl took place including on the ground. In 2010, Boca fans threw torches at River fans, etc.
In Argentina, you have to choose: you are River, or Boca
The particularity is that the whole country takes a position in this rivalry. 80% of Argentines have a preference for one or the other. On the day of the Boca-River matches, everything stops from Patagonia in the South to the Andes in the North. And in Argentina, politics is never far from football, the proof: Maurizio Macri, who led Boca for 12 years, ended up president of Argentina a few years later.
Today, all the players of the Argentine selection play in Europe. All but one, one of the guards who plays at River. But they are still 9 to come from one of the two clubs. But it is obviously impossible to have passed from one to the other.