With galloping inflation, prices increased by 77% so far in 2022, unemployment above 8.5%, and temperatures of 32ºC in the middle of the southern spring, Argentina took a breather with soccer, from the Leo Messi's hand, in the World Cup in Qatar. Once again, the rescuer of a town, as before he was of the culé community.
Saturday's victory against Mexico (2-0) was a balm for a suffocated country, on the verge of social revolt. As the Olé newspaper managed to headline on its Sunday cover, the victory meant “a colossal relief and renewed illusions in Qatar”. Not only for the albiceleste team; also for the 45 million Argentines. And so many others scattered around the world.
Few teams and fans are as cyclothymic as Argentina, capable of swinging its state of mind from dark depression and ancestral pessimism to overflowing euphoria. "Let's go Argentina. Now we're excited again", titled her chronicle Olé de ella.
The albiceleste fans of patiment culer, of the cangueli, the anaconda or the stomach ailment have a lot, what does it matter what it's called: the general shyness, the threat of the precipice, suddenly passes when the savior Messiah appears, the redeeming D10S, who had all his sins forgiven – it was time – with the 2021 Copa América won against Brazil in the Maracana. The crack that changed Barcelona for Paris renewed his credit with the goal that triggered the victory at game time against Mexico; Leo's 8th goal in a World Cup, matching his eternal mirror Diego Armando Maradona.
Transferred the Pelusa, now, to Messi, everything is forgiven more. As was the case at the Camp Nou, he condescended to those walks and long absences from the captain, because he knew that at any moment one of his genius would light the way in the mediocrity of the team. The Argentines have been accumulating over time, from demanding that he be like Maradona to giving him an inexhaustible vote of confidence. "Messi's game: from his little participation to the great goal that turned him on," Clarín analyzed his performance, without omitting that the 10th played "a match without flashes in his debut with a setback."
The day after their first final in the second game, after sleeping with the placidity of a well-fed baby, Argentina woke up with renewed optimism, at the peak of the emotional graph. "Another World Cup begins after the relief, as Leo Messi said (...) Now, the dream continues. And with another mental and emotional strength”, wrote Hernán Claus in Olé, even encouraging himself with “the chance of being able to get into the round of 16 as the leader of Group C”. To do this, Argentina should beat Lewandowski's Poland on Wednesday.
In Qatar, at the sports facilities of the National University, in the center of Doha, Messi and his inseparable Rodrigo de Paul appeared yesterday in the shadows, taking refuge from the 30ºC. Both went to see the training of the reserves, a gesture interpreted in the Argentine press as a detail of union and solidarity because they could stay in the hotel lazing around. The captain is the first to lend his shoulder, honoring the hymn that was sung in the locker room at the Lusail stadium, at the top of his voice, and with Scaloni waving his arms:
"I was born in Argentina, land of Diego and Lionel, of the kids from the Malvinas that I will never forget/ I can't explain it to you, because you won't understand, the finals we lost for how many years I cried for/ But that's over, because at the Maracana Dad won the final with the brazucas again. / Guys, now we are excited again, I want to win the third, I want to be world champion. / And we can see Diego, in heaven, with Don Diego and La Tota, encouraging Lionel”. Encouraging Messi, the World Cup chant.
