How it all started - World Cup 2006 Germany

On July 1974, West Germany beat Holland 2-1 in Munich
to win the World Cup. In Saigon, Vietnam, a 10 year
old boy was curious why his father spent a lot of time
watching on TV a group of men in shorts running and
kicking a round thing. He asked his father to explain
the game and soon fell in love with football.

That WC made a lasting impression on the boy and he
became a fan of the West German team. He did not do
well in foreign language in school (English) but he
could memorize the long strange names of the 11 German
players in the Final: Maier, Beckenbauer, Vogts,
Schwarzenbeck, Breitner, Bonhof, Grabowski,
Holzenbein, Overath, Hoeness, and Mueller.

Throughout the fall of 1974, the boy would buy all the
football magazines he could and spent a lot of time
dreaming about being a football player. One day in
early 1975, his father came home with a film reel. The
West Germany Embassy in Saigon had loaned the South
Vietnamese Army a film of the highlights of WC 74. As
an officer and a physician in the SV Army, the father
could use his influence to borrow the film for a few
days to bring home to show his friends and families.

With evryone gathering in a large dining room, the
highlights of WC 74 was shown. The boy was in
paradise.

A few months later, the Vietnam War came to an abrupt
end. The SV Army lost and the father was taken away to
a reeducation camp. With no future, the mother took
the boy and his sisters and they escaped Vietnam on a
boat. The boy never saw his father again.

32 years later, the World Cup is back in Germany. And
the Vietnamese boy will be there in person. And his
father will be there with him in spirit.

Copa America Day 16 - Where are the children?

I read in the match program that in the last 20 years, Argentina has met Uruguay 13 times. Argentina won 7, tied 5 and lost only ONCE.

Officially, last night's match in Santa Fe was a tie. But with the penalty shoot-out, Argentina is OUT of Copa America 2011.

I had a ticket in the main tribune so I could hang around the press area and met the Argentine Federation President Julio Grondona and former Boca Juniors and WC 1986 winner Carlos Daniel Tapia and many other celebrities.

My seat was in the front row behind a corner flag and this was my view.

the Higuain goal that was called back for offside

Argentina has not won the World Cup since 1986. They have not won the Copa America since 1993. With so much talent, how could this be?

How could a country that was so rich not so long ago became what it is today?

When I was here 10 years ago, when I came back 5 years ago, and now, everytime I was here, I saw signs of an once great country and the word that kept coming to my mind was DECAY.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of this trip for me took place on my second day in Argentina. It really illustrated that Argentina was like an illusion.

On a sunny Saturday I visited a place called República de los Niños, near La Plata. It was a themed park for children, built by Eva Peron and opened in 1951.

The official brochure said that Walt Disney visited this park and got the idea for Disneyland (opened in 1955).

well I got there early in time for the opening of the park and I was the only customer.

I stayed for about one hour. But during that one hour, no one else came. And this was a sunny Saturday.

Most of the stores were closed. the two that were opened were more like kiosks that sold snacks and drinks.

Later I read more about this park and Disneyland and read that there was no record of Walt Disney ever visiting Argentina.

may be one day, Argentina will be rich again and the national football team will win the World Cup or the Copa America again and the children will go to República de los Niños again.

I really enjoy this trip. Today is my last day in Argentina. Like Ross and Thomas said, the football quality of Copa America 2011 left a lot to be desired but the romantic and adventurous essence of the tournament, that was what we came for.

from el Cementerio de los Elefantes in Santa Fe, buonas noche.



Copa America Day 15 - El Cementerio de Los Elefantes

6 hours to kick-off for Argentina vs Uruguay.

I took the bus from Rosario to Santa Fe (150 km or 2.5 hours), slept great in the bus, and arrived around 10.30 AM. Took city bus number 16 to the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (UTN) where the ticket collection office was located.

again this was nowhere near the stadium and a bit far from the city center to walk. The Copa America organizing committee really wanted the fans to experience different parts of the city.

well at least there was NO line.

I got my ticket in no time. I will be in row 1 at the Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López. This stadium has a nickanme I really like, El Cementerio de Los Elefantes (the graveyard of the elephants). This came about because the local team Club Atlético Colón beat many big clubs here.

When I got back to the city center, everywhere I could see Argentine flags, street vendors, and people wearing Argentine football shirts.

even one fountain had blue water.

on the major pedestrian street San Martin, many people were out walking and shopping and many political parties had their booths with the local election a few weeks away. Some politician gave out Copa America schedule with his picture on it. Other hired these girls to give out free face paintings of Argentine flag.

I got one on my left cheek and as I walked further down San Martin, I came across these friendly Uruguay fans. They were tickled at my request for foto. Then one girl pulled out her yellow paint jar and converted my Argentina flag to one of Uruguay.

One of the boys said that I looked like Alvaro Recoba (a former Uruguay player of Inter Milan) whose nickname is el Chino because he has an Asian face. Then the all danced and sang around me '´Celeste Celeste´and ´Recoba Recoba´. I like Uruguay.

I think the Argentine defense (Zanetti, Burdisso and Milito) is too slow for Forlan and Suarez. The Argentine coach Batista had replaced the whole defense that Maradona used last year in South Africa but they still looked vulnerable. And their only victory so far in the tournament was against the Under-23 Costa Rica team.

I wonder if the President Cristina Kirchner will be in the stadium tonight. She is up for reelection in the Fall and politicians like to associate themselves with sports teams.

Bu if Argentine loses tonight, may be the politicians will distant themselves from football.

will Messi and companies be the elephants tonight?

off to El Cementerio de Los Elefantes







Copa America Day 14b - Waiting in line

one of the things I see all the time in Argentina is a long line of people waiting at banks to pay bills.
I read that this is a way of life in Argentina.

well the organizing committee of Copa America made sure that the foreigners who came for the tounament to not miss out on this Argentine way of life.

for foreigners, we could buy the tickets on the internet and paid with a credit card and got charged just a small fee (30 pesos, about 7 USD) for each ticket.

we were then offered two choices of how to pick up the tickets in Argentina:
1) to pick up all the tickets in Buenos Aires or
2) to pick up the tickets at each host city.

option 1 was not so good as only one match, the Final, is played in BA. Most of the foreign fans flew into BA international airport and went straight to one of the other 6 host cities.

option 2 - wel if you have 5 matches in 5 cities, you have to pick up your tickets in 5 different locations. if you choose this option, every host city has your ticket for that city already printed out, waiting for you in a nice Mastercard envelop.

I chose option 2.

I got to La Plata in the afternoon of the first match and got an email telling me the ticket location had changed. no problem. I got to this dilapitaded stadium (on the opposite side of the city from where the match was payed) and only had to wait 90 minutes in the cold.

next was San Juan. There were a lot of Chilenos and we had to wait 2 hours but I was with Juan and Ross so we talked futbol and I could go get snacks whie they kept my place in line.

in San Juan, there was only one ticket window with 2 or 3 people working behind it.

Salta was much better. almost. Here the ticket office was inside a big hall. When I got there, there were 2 lines, one long and one short. I asked and found out the long one was for picking up tickets and the short one was for buying them.

with the cheapest ticket costed only 40 pesos (10 USD). I thought about just buying one ticket to avoid the long line. then I found out the short line was to buy a voucher and one still had to join the long line to exchange the voucher for a ticket. I like Argentina.



so I rejoined the long line and luckily, I had a book with me (Borges). but the line was moving quite fast. it seemed that if you had a voucher, it took 5 seconds once you got to the window (and there was only one window)

I waited for about 20 minutes before getting to the window. but since I bought my ticket on the internet with a credit card, they had to look something up on their computer and the connection was slow.

so all the people behind me with vouchers got their tickets and I waited for another 15 minutes with the other foreigners. finally I pleaded with them 'look, my ticket is in one of those envelopes behind you. please give it to me. I am hungry. I want to go to dinner (at 5pm)'

they took pity on a hungry foreigner and gave me the envelop.

next was Mendoza. It was Chile vs Peru and I was hoping the Chilenos had all picked up their tickets as this was the second of 2 games Chile played in Mendoza. I was right. on the day of the match, I went to the suburb of Godoy Cruz and there was no line.

and I got to see another stadium

my luck continued in Cordoba. again here I had to go to a suburb (far from the center and no where near the stadium of the game) and again there was no line. and again I visited another stadium.

tomorrow Argentina vs Uruguay in Santa Fe. Sold out. I still have to go to the University of Santa Fe to pick up my ticket.

I hope my luck continues. but if there is a line, I am ready. I am bringing with me these books.

I got these books free at all the matches. They are literature books about football from writers of different Copa America countries. 

only in Argentina one gets free literature book at a football match. amazing.

Copa America Day 14 - 2 stadiums and 2 surprises

What happened when one discovered a famous football team one never heard of?
and what happened when one discovered a famous football player one never heard of?

well it happened to me today and I am not sure most football fans (including those in Argentina) have ever heard of Central Cordoba or Tómas Carlovich.

it happened in Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe.

when I told an Argentine friend that I will go to Rosario, she said 'be careful. It is a city of mafias'

when I arrived early this morning, there was a fog and a mist and the city looked deserted and sinister.

I was really looking forward to this visit as many great players and coaches came from here:
players like Leopoldo Luque, Jorge Valdano, Gabriel Batistuta, Javier Mascherano, Lionel Messi, and more and coaches like Cesar Luis Menotti and Marcelo Bielsa

Many Argentines said la nuestra (the Argentine style of attacking football with short passes and dribbles) originated from Santa Fe.

before arriving in Argentina, I made mental plan to visit the stadiums of the 2 big clubs in Rosario: Newell's Old Boys and Rosario Central.

Newell's Old Boys (NOB) was formed by the former students of an English high school in Rosario in 1905. They named the club after their football coach, an Englishman named Isaac Newell.  Their stadium is located in a big park in the middle of the city and the name of the stadium is Estadio Marcelo Bielsa.

Rosario Central was formed by English railroad workers in 1889 and their stadium was used in the 1978 World Cup. Only 3 matches were played there and all 3 involved Argentina. They were the matches of the second round and Mario Kempes (who played at Rosario Central before moving to Spain) credited the local crowd and the intim(id)ate atmosphere in helping Argentina win their group and advance to the Final.

Argentina beat Poland 2-0, drew with Brasil 0-0, and then beat Peru 6-0 at Estadio Gigante de Arroyito.

It was the Argentina-Peru match (which was played after Brasil vs Poland so the Argentines knew exactly what they needed to do to top their group) that led to the rule about last group matches playing at the same time

in between mzy visit to these 2 famous stadiums, I went to a park where there was a statue of Ernesto, that Argentine who loved motorcycle. He was born in Rosario. But more interesting to me was the 2 buildings next to the park.

The first was an abandoned railway station.

The second was a delapitaded stadium of Club Atletico Central Cordoba. It was founded in 1906 by railway workers and named after their company, Cordoba Central Railway, that had a train line from Buenos Aires to Cordoba, via Rosario.

I had never heard of this club before and had to look them up. None of their former great players sounded familiar to me. But one got me interested. Tómas Carlovich, el Trinche, was considered by Maradona (who played one year at NOB) as one of the best Argentine players ever. He played in the 70-80´s mostly for clubs in the interior of Argentina.

I found this 8 minute documentary by 2 young fans about Carlovich. He was apparently a real genius but who did not like to leave the province for fame and fortune in Buenos Aires or abroad. He said once he got offer from the Cosmos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZB3GmoC-0&feature=related

off to Santa Fe tomorrow for the quarterfina between Argentina and Uruguay. A clasico.

Copa America Day 13 - Football Carma

I really have football carma.

I am writing this story from Sierras Hotel in Alta Gracia in the Province of Córdoba. Every guidebook will tell you to visit Alta Gracia if you are in the area.

There are the house where Manuel de Falla chose to spend his last years, the house where a certain Argentine named Ernesto lived for 11 years (Ernesto loved to ride motorcycle around South America), and the old Jesuit residence.

The minibus from Córdoba took about 1 hour and costed me 10 pesos (less than 3 USD)

I started my visit in the Old Jesuit Residence and was fascinated to find out that one of the owners was the Viceroy Santiago de Liniers. He was born in France but served in the Spanish army. His claims to fame was in the battle in 1806 to reclaim Buenos Aires from the English invasion.

After the visit to the Old Jesuit Residence, I walked to the House of Falla. According to my map, I would pass a magnificent English style hotel built in 1908. The name was Sierras Hotel.

I walked past the hotel and saw that it is part of Howard Johnson chain. It has a casino as well as a golf course. It looks luxurious.

Then it hit me. This was the hotel that I have read about in the 2 books written about Scotland at World Cup 1978. It got terrible reviews from the players.

I went in and saw a lot of old photos. I asked the receptionist about World Cup 1978 and Scotland and she had no clue.

I read the hotel brochure and found out the hotel was renovated in 2006 so what I saw now was not what the Scotland team experienced in 1978.

Still I tried to imagine the coach Ally MacLeod, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Jordan, Bruce Rioch, Archie Gemmill, Willi Johnston and others sitting in the bar or walking the ground of the hotel.

I decided to stay for lunch. I wished I had something from Scotland with me to take a photo with the hotel.

Toward the end of my lunch, I got an idea. I asked the waitress to bring me a few things from Scotland. She did and I chose this.

Ally's Tartan Army (Scotland 1978 World Cup song)

We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,

    We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
    When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,
We're representing Britain,
    And we're gaunny do or die,
England cannae dae it,
    'Cos they didnae qualify!
We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
    We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
    When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team

from the Sierras Hotel in Alta Gracia, cheers.

PS: Scotland was not alone in having a disaster WC in 1978. Mexico lost all 3 games to Tunisia, Poland and West Germany. The Mexico-West Germany match was in Córdoba and the Mexican team also stayed in the Sierras Hotel. They had a 19 year old player named Hugo Sánchez and the final score was West Germany 6 Mexico 0.

Copa America Day 12 - Great Scot!

One of the great things about Copa America is that the European fans I meet here are for the most part the real dedicated fans. You read about Thomas the German. Well there is also Ross the Great Scot.

After arriving in San Juan, I was approached by Ross outside the airport. He was asking to share a ride to the ticket collection place. Along the way, we talked and found out we had a lot in common. We have been to every WC since 1994 and every Euro since 1996 but Ross has been to 3 Copa Americas and 2 African Nations Cups plus more.

Ross is here for the entire tournament but we do not have the same schedule. Often he was ahead of me in getting to a new city. So he would write emails to me with great tips.

Ross is a big Leeds United fan as well as fan of Scotland. Of course I had to ask him about the 78 WC.

In 1978, Scotland came to Argentina for the World Cup and many Scots believed they would win it. About 600 Scots made their way to Argentina. Some of them went the long way to save money: by air to the US and then by land south to Argentina.

Their first game was in Córdoba. June 3, 1978. Scotland vs Peru. And I just love the name of the stadium, Estadio Chateau Carreras.

The Scot team underestimated Peru and lost 3-1. It was so tragic that for Scot fans of a certain age, they can tell you exactly where and what they were doing on June 3, 1978. It was their JFK moment.

After the loss, things got worse for Scotland. Back then it was not usual for fans to wear football kits. But some Scot fans did and when they caused trouble in town, the local media assumed they were the players.

This afternoon, I went to the stadium in Córdoba. The name has changed.

I came for Brasil vs Ecuador.

It was a very entertaining match. Brasil scored first and then Ecuador and then Brasil and then Ecuador and finally Brasil scored twice to put the game away. 4-2 and first place in Group B for Brasil.

As I sat in Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, I thought how Córdoba had a tragic meaning for Scotland. But for another European country, Córdoba was their defining moment.

On June 21, 1978, Austria met West Germany in a meaningless second round game. Both teams had been eliminated. With the game tied 2-2, Hans Krankl scored in minute 87 to win the game for Austria.

It was a rare occasion that Austria beat their neighbors so the Austrians celebrated like they won the World Cup. The Austrians still celebrate today, as seen in these stamps.



Greetings from Córdoba!

PS: in 1980, Switzerland came to Córdoba to play a friendly against Argentina. You can see a short video of that game. Led by Maradona, Argentina won 5-0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zSSsGQzxxU