Qatar World Cup Reflections: Day 11

"El grito gol," is Spanish for when the crowds all burst into a goal cry after one has been scored. It's not just any cry, it's one that comes from deep inside the gut and is released together with thousands of others around the stadium. It is one that releases tension and fills the place with energy. The depth of such a cry is directly proportional to the tension; with the 2010 final between Spain and Holland a prime example. The game was goalless but end to end for most of the game. In extra time, the game was heading to penalties, when a typical Spanish team tiki-taka move led to a 116th minute goal by Andres Iniesta, exploding in a massive cry by the fan-filled Joburg Soccer City stadium. Argentina would have three such cries today in the semifinal against Croatia that would entitle it to a place in the World Cup final. The Argentinian fans have been waiting for 36 long years to win the Cup again, and their deep cries were but a reflection of it ...

The day started with me looking for a barber. As it happens, I was told one was very conveniently located in the hotel complex to the side of the pool. When I got there, I saw a big poster of Diego Maradona with a barber. As I took my seat, I asked what it was about. Turns out the barber was Maradona's a few years ago in Dubai. "He was one of the kindest stars I've ever met. And he always hugged me after giving him the haircut."

Outside the barber, Argentinians would pass by and snap photos next to the poster. By now the hotel was full of them. By pure chance, I bumped into one whom I knew from back in DC and whom we had scrimmaged often on Sundays together with other nationalities. He was here for the semi-final and would be touring around the region.

All around the Olympic sized hotel pool, Argentinians had already put up their large banners, and in the afternoon would start prepping their voices chanting famous national team support songs. This would continue everywhere we went. Even in the Katara cultural village, the artistic heart of Doha, where we were having dinner at an Armenian-Lebanese fusion restaurant with some Colombian friends, loitering Argentinian fans chanted in between Qatari military bands marching with colonial-era-remnant bag pipes in the main square overlooking the Bay.

Only the deeply hidden alleyways of Katara offered some quiet. Taking one of them as we headed to the Lusail stadium, we stumbled upon an 'Oud academy which we were invited to enter to listen to a touching Oud performance. At one point, I asked the Oud player why he wasn't playing outside for more people to hear. He looked at me and smiled as if to say, "What about all those chanting Argentinian fans?!"

Along the routes to the Katara metro station, inside the metro cars, and once outside the metro in the tunnels leading to the stadium, the chants were heard as the Argentinian fans all descended upon Lusail with Croatians few and far in between.

Football songs are usually simple and easy to memorize and sing by fans. Songs like Ole, Ole Ole Ole and its tune as well as Allez Les Bleus can be pretty much memorized in seconds. Argentina's chants are a bit more complex with the fans singing their hearts out linking the highs and lows of their footballing history ... As an example, these are the lyrics in Spanish of one very famous Argentinian chant, and one that is usually sung while waving the hand in the air with or without a light blue handkerchief (or rolled up Argentinean national team jersey) ... and sometimes while jumping up and down in the stands in a constant motion:
En Argentina nací
tierra de Diego y Lionel
de los pibes de Malvinas que jamás olvidaré.
No te lo puedo explicar
porque no vas a entender
las finales que perdimos, cuántos años las lloré.
Pero eso se terminó
porque en el Maracaná
la final con los brazucas la volvió a ganar papá...
Muchachos, ahora nos volvimos a ilusionar
quiero ganar la tercera, quiero ser campeón mundial
y al Diego, en el cielo lo podemos ver
con don Diego y con la Tota, alentándolo a Lionel.

This is its English translation:
In Argentina I was born
land of Diego and Lionel
of the boys who went to Malvinas (Falklands), who I will never forget
I can’t explain this to you
because you won’t understand
how many years I’ve cried over the finals that we lost.
But it’s all over now, because at the Maracana
in the final with Brazil, Papá (dad) won once again
Boys, now we’re dreaming again
I want to win it for the third time, I want to be world champion
and Diego, we can see him up in heaven
with Don Diego (his dad) and La Tota (his mom), cheering on Lionel.

On this day, the Argentina fans had much to celebrate with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Croatia, in which striker Alvarez went on a marauding run from his own half to score the second, and Messi weaved his magic in front of our very eyes to setup the third. The very same Croatian defender, Gvardiol (#20), who had stood up to Brazil, had capitulated to Messi's start-stop-start blistering acceleration.

The win would send the Argentinian fans into a wild frenzy of celebrations in and around Lusail all the way to Lusail Boulevard and Lusail Marina, where the street audio systems had started playing audio recordings of the very same Argentinian chants repeatedly, at times even clashing with the music of an amazing drone and fire show in the marina.

As we headed to the bus that would take us back to West Bay, I couldn't help thinking, that this is probably the most entertaining and organized world Cup I'd ever been too ... 











































































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