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
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment