Argentina and Tuesday the 13th: the cabals of the ‘albiceleste’ to qualify for the final on a day of bad luck

In football everything counts and everything goes. Argentines -passionate like few others in this sport- know it very well. For this reason, this Tuesday the 13th they will take refuge in their numerous cabals to counteract what for them represents a day of bad luck.

Every time a Tuesday coincides with the 13th day of any month, misfortune seizes the most superstitious. Even worse when a football game is scheduled on a date as unfortunate as that, where any way is valid to neutralize bad luck.

In this sense, not only the fans use ‘rituals’ to have a bit of luck in their favor, but also the same protagonists on the pitch do so with the same or similar objective. Argentina will surely need even that to beat Croatia in the semifinals this Tuesday.

From Bilardo to the ‘Scalonetta’

The World Cups have always been everything for Argentina. And that is why the cabals transcend more than ever in this important event. Impossible not to start with Bilardismo, a time in which everything and nothing counted for the ‘Albiceleste’ and rituals were never lacking.

In Mexico 86 ‘, the remembered Ricardo Giusti, for example, left a candy in the middle of the field in all the games as a cabal. But that was not the only one. “We were almost a sect in which Carlos Bilardo was the guru,” the former soccer player described in an interview for La Nación.

“But that was nothing; We always drank mate at the same time, on the bus we went in the same seats, we listened to the same music and when there were a few blocks to go we put on a certain song. Today I find it incredible that we did all that thinking that this way we were going to win a game or a championship. The coaching staff was so involved with the cabals that there was no chance of breaking them or forgetting any of the thousands we had”also expressed.

Whether it was the power of superstition or not, Argentina won that World Cup at the hands of a Bilardo obsessed with cabals. And, since then, different rituals have been carried out by the Argentine team to continue savoring glory, although for many years it did not work.

In the book Cábalas del fútbol, ​​written by Ricardo Gotta, several of these singular actions/beliefs are described. Diego Maradona, for example, made a kind of procession in the 2010 South Africa matches, when he led Argentina: the ‘Fluff’ came out to breathe on the field a couple of hours before the initial whistle.

“The first steps to the sound of applause and encouraging the sound of the blessed and unbearable vuvuzelas. The slow walk and with several stations, in a moment it passed through the central circle and made several turns around it. Only then would he walk towards two appointments that cannot be postponed and always well rewarded: the talk with Fernando Niembro and Sebastián Vignolo for the preview of the Telefé transmission and later with Sergio Goycochea for Public TV ”Gotta says in his post.

In the same way, Jorge Sampaoli and his entire coaching staff fasted in the hope of winning a key game, as revealed in the book. To get to Russia 2018, they had to leave solid three days before the final match for qualifying (against Ecuador). And it ended up working.

“He looked circumspect during the hours leading up to the game. They believed that he was consubstantiated with the situation. Until he vented: “I’m starving.” And he went to drink mate “Gotta narrates.

Now, Scaloni is in charge, but he has not revealed any of his cabals, as well as his own players. Because yes, even Lionel Messi himself has the cabals about him that he prefers to keep secret. Of course, many actions have become distinctive in this group that today is already in Qatar 2022.

Playing poker -or another game with your cards- at concentrations is one of them. Likewise, since the Copa América, it has become customary for Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes and ‘Papu’ Gómez to wander through the midfield while carrying a candy in their mouths as a cabal.

In any case, this has already paid off for the ‘Scalonetta’: two titles (Copa América and Finalissima) and a couple of steps away from being world champions.

The role of the fans

In this same sense, the fans also play an important role in their own way. Cabuleros to the maximum, in each game of the Argentine team there are rituals that should never be violated, like Bilardo. It is, then, the season of cabals.

A very common fact in Argentina is that the fans watch the matches in the same place as always and with the same people as always. Others, for their part, prefer to magically intercede by not washing their shirts while the World Cup lasts.

In the same way, some unique gestures, some curious clothing, some rosaries to support the Rosario and even the same image of the Argentine Pope Francis next to a candle are used to give the team a little luck from their position.

Endless cabals have also abounded on social networks. A few days ago, a boy’s request to his girlfriend to not remove his braces until the World Cup ends was a trend, because somehow he believes that this has given the ‘albiceleste’ a bit of fortune.

Another curious fact that happened was that for the match against Poland, hundreds of Twitter and Instagram users came together to perform a rare superstitious practice, which somehow gave positive results in the match.

These people wrote the names of some Polish figures on a piece of paper, such as Robert Lewandowski or the same Szczęsny who saved Messi a penalty, to then freeze them in their refrigerator and cause these players to “cold” and not be able to transcend during the match. . That match was won by Argentina 2-0.

And we cannot fail to mention the “annulo mufa”, two words repeatedly pronounced by Argentine fans on social networks to prevent any action from spelling bad luck for the team.

Thus, the cabals have filled most of the Argentine people and it is not for less. It is, then, Messi’s last World Cup, so passions are exacerbated more than ever. This Tuesday the 13th, again, everything will go and many rituals will be done.