Brazil, Argentina, Dibu and Messi: the story behind the most scandalous South American classic in recent times | CHRONICLE

The facts: after the singing of the national anthems, Argentine and Brazilian fans began to insult and hit each other, while on television it was seen how the police forces of Rio de Janeiro and the private security of the Maracaná Stadium charged and chased away with sticks and pickets. To visitors. Minutes later, the Albiceleste team with Lionel Messi, Emiliano Martínez, Giovanni Lo Celso, Nicolás Otamendi and others at the head, approached the popular stand where they could already see bloody heads, encounters that had become casual, selfies importunate people and people who cared more about imposing themselves on others than watching a football game. Given this, Messi, captain and emblem, showing an understanding discomfort and a fairly broad criterion of protection, said we’re leaving, and withdrew his entire team to the dressing rooms so that, both those who were in the stadium and those watching from home, They thought there was no more playing.

After the images in which the world champion goalkeeper was seen climbing a security fence half-length to prevent a police officer’s blow from hitting a fan, or the one in which Lo Celso hugs a person with terror in the eyes, spectators, journalists and others thought that everything was going for the worse, that the beginning of a tragedy was brewing in the most famous stadium in Brazil and that, once again, a new edition of a match that left The previous tie was incomplete when it could not be played due to alleged breaches in the COVID-19 health protocols imposed by the Brazilian State on Argentine players playing in the English Premier League.

Little by little calm returned and the atmosphere calmed down. The captain of the local team, Marquinhos, did not hesitate to join his visiting colleagues in asking them to please lower the revs so he could play.

The first act was completed, although from that moment one could imagine that the hot night in Rio would not be so normal or, at least, formal. The script, if there had been one, was not going to give rest to the viewer or to the guy who was passing by trying to figure out where everything would go next. A conjunction of narrative threads was merging into the genesis of a meeting whose first half was blocked. So much so that in one interval, Brazil committed eight fouls in twelve minutes, and dedicated itself more to cutting off Argentina’s circuits and preventing Messi from touching it. For example, a button, the one that enclosed the image of the current Ballon d’Or, squeezing his thigh and approaching the edge of the field so that the medical team could check him.

Brazil had become the antithesis of its history: a crude and mean team, whose complete lineup no one knew and whose most famous players, Neymar and Vinicius, became great by their absence. Argentina, on the other hand, had just lost to Uruguay and “not playing well”, “being sloppy and more opaque” in the previous matches (although it beat Paraguay and Peru), according to journalist Julián Giacobbe. Of course, it was neither a stark criticism nor a call for attention, just a note to a natural process of any team or any human social group that after being at the highest point of a performance curve, has no more than start to decline. Of course, nothing better than going down in style or supporting a historic moment: getting Brazil undefeated at home.

The Brazilian team had never lost at home in the playoffs. In almost a century of history, Brazil remained unbeatable. The five-time champion went through more than 60 games without losing, so that Nicolás Otamendi, with a header after a cross from Lo Celso, made the majority of Brazilian fans begin to leave, while the Argentines began with “Brazil, tell me what.” it feels”. Furthermore, it took 14 years, since the qualifier for South Africa 2010, for Brazil, at home, to be down on the scoreboard since it was Paraguay who had scored the first on that occasion. Only four teams (Uruguay on three occasions, Ecuador, Paraguay and now Argentina) managed to score a goal and be ahead on the scoreboard. Nor had it ever happened that Brazil lost three games in a row (Uruguay and Colombia before this one) so the crisis becomes more acute and, in the minds of leaders, players and fans, almost unsustainable. It is worth remembering that the current coach, champion of the Copa Libertadores with Fluminense although interim at the end of the day, Fernando Diniz, is only passing through and that, in an unprecedented way, expectations – and hope – are placed on the Italian Carlo Ancelotti , who would arrive after leaving Real Madrid when the current season ends.

What happened to Lionel Scaloni?

In the book “Junk Culture, Privileged Brains,” Steven Johnson talks about a “more complex and intellectually stimulating” pop culture, where everything happens, nothing is left halfway and you have to be very attentive to analyze and interpret the context. in which the events occur. Well, last night, after a match as historic as it was eventful, after having attended episodes that seemed ordered and diagrammed by a skillful playwright, Lionel Scaloni, who went from “inexperienced young man” to champion of everything, questioned his continuity. The networks exploded, of course. The world of football was left in suspense, the streamers made broadcasts so that we could all accompany ourselves with the same question on our minds: what happened?

In the conference after the game, Scaloni talked about many things, but above all that “the bar is very high” and that he needs to think: “One thing matters, I wanted to say: I need to get the ball. I have a lot to think about. These players have given us a lot to the coaching staff and I need to think about what I am going to do. It’s not goodbye or anything else, but I need to think. I will tell the president (”Chiqui” Tapia) and the players later. “This team needs a coach who has all the energy possible and who is doing well.”

After that, many people were left speechless and more than one felt that the world was collapsing upon them. Scaloni, in addition to having won a World Cup, a Copa América and having made Argentinians and South Americans in general fall in love with his team, has established himself not only as a model coach, but as a mythological figure of the one for whom no one gives a damn, the one who endures with nobility and still moves forward. The legendary animal of a contemporaneity marked by frivolous sensations and liquid bonds, as Zygmunt Bauman theorizes.

There has been speculation about the reasons for Scaloni’s possible departure – because he has not yet left, nor is it known if he will, as several media outlets have speculated – and economic reasons are pointed out (because he has not yet received some prizes for the body. technical), disagreements with the president of the AFA or even pressure from some leaders to take sides in the last presidential elections. Without a doubt, these are things that will not be known due to this particular football secrecy, but it is true that when he was consulted by the Sports Joint Stock Companies (a figure that was rejected by all the first division teams), the coach said no. would speak out, despite the fact that the leaders’ position is markedly opposed to it happening. The field of speculation remains for what is to come, but what is certain is that Argentina closed 2023 at the top, with a very wide universe and waiting for friendlies in March to reach the Copa América 2024 and try to repeat its title. Surely, with all doubts resolved.