To me, Argentina relationship with England is like a good marriage that ends in a bad divorce. It starts out well with lots of love and respect and ends in bitterness and antagonism.
Let's go back to history.
In 1806 and 1807, England tried to invade Buenos Aires and failed. For this, the Argentines still call the English 'the pirates'
Then some English emigrated to Argentina in the second half of 19th century and developed railroad, banking, and commerce. The English played a crucial role in helping Argentina becoming a rich country at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1912, Harrods opened their only department store outside of London, in Buenos Aires.
Harrods in Buenos Aires.
The English also imported rugby, circket, polo and football. Football became very popular in Argentina. At first, the Argentines looked up to the English like a student looked up to a teacher.
monument marking the Cricket ground in BA where the first football match was
played in Argentina (in the background is the Planetarium)
Many English clubs toured Argentina to educate the Argentines on how to play football.
Then in the 1920's with many immigrants from Italia and Spain, the Argentines developed their own style of playing, quite different from England. Still Argentina respected England in soccer.
Many Argentine clubs have english words in their names, River Plate, Boca Juniors, Newell Old Boys, Banfield, etc.
The first England vs Argentina international match took place at Wembley in May 1951. In Argentina, this match was considered very important. The first time Argentina faced their old teachers. For England, it was just another international. England wore red shirt for the first time and won 2-1 with 2 late goals. One of the defenders was Alf Ramsey.
In the mid 50's Argentina won Copa America twice with a very attacking style of playing. They went to Sweden in 1958 for the World Cup full of confidence.
The lost their first game to the defending champions, West Germany and beat Northern Ireland in the next. In the last game against Czechoslovakia, Argentina lost 6-1. This was considered the worst humiliation in Argentine soccer history. And to make it worse, Brasil won the World Cup for the first time.
After this World Cup, Argentina changed coach and switched to a more negative style of play, where winning at all cost was more important than the style (think of Jose Mourinho).
In WC 1962 in Chile, Argentina played the brutal style and beat Bulgaria 1-0 and then met their old teachers England and lost 3-1. After drawing Hungary 0-0, Argentina needed help from Bulgaria to advance.
But the Bulgarians did not have good feeling toward Argentina after the brutal first match. So they played England to a 0-0 tie to eliminate Argentina. This was the beginning of the bad feeling Argentina had toward Europe. Many Argentines believed in an European conspiracy against South America.
The football relationship between Argentina and England reached the lowest point on July 23, 1966 at Wembley. World Cup quarterfinal - England vs Argentina.
Everything that could go wrong for Argentina went wrong. Their captain Antonio Rattin was sent off due to some misunderstanding as the West German referee did not speak Spanish. Then the England coach Alf Ramsey used the word 'animals' to refer to the Argentine players indirectly.
official magazine of Estudianted de La Plata
The football relationship between Argentina and England never recovered. Things just got worse.
In 1968, Estudiantes de La Plata defeated Manchester United in the Intercontinental Cup while playing a very brutal style. One Argentine player said he tried to find out personal things about the English players so that he could wind them up (think of Materazzi). Pulling hair, spitting, and elbowing were all part of the repetoire of Estudiantes.
Ten years later, Argentina won the World Cup for the first time. Right after, Tottenham signed two Argentine WC players, Oswaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa. One of the persons involved in this transfer was Antonio Rattin.
At that time, there were no non-British players in the English League. The arrival of two foreigners from Argentina was greeted with lots of skeptism. But Ardiles adapted well and won over the fans. In his autobiography, Ardiles said he paved the way for foreigners to the English League.
But then came that war between Argentina and England in 1982 over those 2 little islands.
Then came the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and Maradona special goals against England. In Argentina, to score a goal with your hand was considered to be acceptable as long as the referee did not see it. And if you could do that against a hated opponent, it was a goal to be celebrated.
Then came the 1998 World Cup in France and that incident between Simeone and Beckham. Simeone provoked Beckham and then faked injury to get Beckham sent off. I was in St Etienne that night and it was my most memorable World Cup game.
I saw two more England vs Argentina after that. A boring 0-0 draw at Wembley in 2000 and a great match in Genève in 2005 where 2 late goals from Michael Owen led to an English victory 3-2.
Both those matches were friendlies, but not friendly.
In researching about England vs Argentina, I came across 2 players from Huracán that had special relationship with England. One was Oswaldo Ardiles. He played for Huracán before moving to Tottenham.
The other was Carlos Babington. I always remembered the blond midfielder for Argentina in 1974 World Cup. And he had a funny Argentinian name, Babington.
He played only for Huracán in Argentina and later became coach and then President at the same club. Can you name another person who has been player, trainer, and President of the same club?
In Argentina, every famous player has a nickname. In Argentina, people called Carlos Babington 'el Inglés'
el Inglés
Good night from Salta
PS: answer to the quiz above - Franz Beckenbauer, Santiago Bernabeu, and Daniel Passarella.
