Argentinean Futbol

Friday, Buenos Aires 10 am –In a café resting on the corner of a cobbled-stone street sat about twenty people planted in front of a flat screen television waiting for the world cup game between Argentina and Serbia to begin.
Inside were us three –a UVM student, UVM alum, and an Isreali engineer from brazil- along with locals dressed in fashionable sport coats, sweater vests and ties and the staff watching while they worked. Looking out the window past the patriotic blue and white post-it notes the city had ground to a halt, put on pause for the duration of the game.
We expected to find half-sane hooligans, tables covered with chicken wings and lager but were just as happy to watch futbol with these fans, who conversed politely and dunked crossaints in their espressos.
Sliding into the comfortable and dark hardwood chairs we acclimated ourselves to surprisingly refined surroundings and breathed in our neighbors ciggerette smoke and enthusiasm for soccer.
We opened our menus amidst quiet speculations that the recent German national team´s victory was the worst defeat Poland had suffered on the field since 1939.
Periodically the muffled conversations exploded into short hearty cheers, like when Argentina´s Maxi Rodriquez scored the first goal only six minutes into the match. Soon after the initial excitement died down, the quiet ebb and flow of conversation returned.
By the time Esteban Cambiasso scored the game´s second goal, bringing Argentina up to a 2-0 lead, the environment had loosened up with the patrons erupting into prolonged cheers and hand-clapping.
Seconds after Cambiasso´s goal the cafe patrons´ conversations reached a temporary high-point, heard even above the honking horns of the passing taxi-drivers.
As Argentina continued to dominate, Maxi Rodriguez knocked in his second goal, delivering a padded 3-0 lead. At this point, the prospect of a close game vanished and phrases like ´és todo´´ or ´´that´s all´´ were heard from the cafe´s satisfied patrons.
More individual athleticism and team work lead to goals by eighteen year old Hernan Crespo, Carlos Tavez, and Lionel Messi, and brought the game to a close with a lopsided score of 6-0, delivering the worst rout yet seen in the 2006 World Cup and a resounding victory sending Serbia home, eliminated from the tournament.
Cries of ´´Vamos a salir campeonatos, como en ´86´´ (We´re going to leave champions, just like in ´86) were heard from the audience on the live television broadcast, but inside the cafe, after allowing themselves a brief congraduatory cheer, a few women shuffled out the door and the silent and serious middle aged men returned to reading their papers.
With the game over, people began trickling and then streaming out of the neighborhoods´ apartment buildings, pubs, and cafes, returning the city to the drone of late morning hustle-and-bustle--- the Argentinians proud of their victory and content with the sentiment that they had not seen a worse collapse since their country´s 2001 currency crisis.