It’s been an unusually cold winter here in Buenos Aires, which for a Chicagoan like me has felt like your average October. The temperature briefly fell below zero Celsius the other night, but every day it’s in the 50s Fahrenheit, even the 60s. Not exactly a winter wonderland, but it does keep portenos, as Buenos Aires’ residents are known, from going out as much as they’d like.
Enter futbol, or soccer to you and me. It’s the national pastime, as Argentine as steak and tango, or maybe even a bit more. The national team is currently “El Campeones del Mundo” after winning the 2022 World Cup, and in this city it’s impossible to forget. There’s no bigger star here than Lionel Messi, whose face can be seen all over town, hawking all variety of goods. The list of modern-day Argentine legends is Messi and Diego Maradona, and that’s it. One hasn’t played for decades and passed away in 2020, while the other is 37 and nearing the end. So if Leo’s playing, you can bet portenos will be there, winter chill or not.
La Albiceleste (“the white and sky blue”, in reference to the team colors) has been making a stellar run in this summer’s Copa America, hosted by my homeland, the US. I’d paid little attention until two weeks ago when I was home one night, minding my own business when a blast of noise exploded outside – car horns and joyous shouting followed by chants and cheers. It took me a minute to figure out Argentina had scored in their ongoing Copa America match.
They’ve been scoring a lot of goals lately, and on Tuesday night, when Argentina faced Canada in New Jersey in the Copa America semifinal, locals turned out in droves. I met a couple friends, one Argentinian and one American, at a brewpub in trendy Palermo Soho to cheer on the home team. With a win Argentina would be into the final and have a chance to repeat as Copa America champs, following up their World Cup triumph.
For the casual fan like myself, watching soccer can be a bit like watching paint dry – nothing much to see. The major exception is when either team scores a goal, which usually happens once or twice a game. Of course you need to watch the whole thing to catch those fleeting moments of glory. Argentina-Canada started off like a lot of matches, with both teams matriculating into opposing territory before the assaults petered out near the penalty area.
Argentina had two early shots on goal, but failed to convert. The crowd at the bar’s sidewalk tables grew as the minutes ticked by, and the tension swelled. Then, as an Argentina defender corralled the ball near his own goal a little more than 20 minutes into the match, the street around us exploded with the same blast of sound I’d heard at home two weeks before. A car horn blared up the street and shouts streamed out of a neighboring bar.
Argentina had clearly scored a goal – yet on the screen before us the score remained 0-0 with the ball in the middle of the pitch. What gives?? Turns out that our bar was streaming the game online, rather than showing the live television feed, which meant a game-changing 15-second delay.
Problematic tech infrastructure can be either a feature or a bug of the expat life. Sometimes getting away from the endless stream of email and chat buzzes and dings is just the thing. Other times you find yourself living in the recent past. But given the simple pleasures, such as being able to watch a major national sporting event outdoors in the dead of winter, surrounded by some of the world’s most passionate fans, I’m usually happy to take the good with the bad.
La Albiceleste scored another goal, on a Messi deflection, and outclassed Canada 2-0, so it was a jubilant night. One more win gives Argentina 16 Copa America titles, breaking a tie with Uruguay for the most all-time. For the big final on Sunday, we’ll be sure to find a spot showing the game as it’s actually happening, and avoid being the last to know.
