From the suffocating crisis to the 'national holiday'

A few minutes passed after 3 in the afternoon when a human roar went through all the corners of Buenos Aires and the towns of Argentina when Gonzalo Montiel scored the last penalty, 4-2, which made the albiceleste three-time champion against France.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
18 December 2022 Sunday 12:32
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From the suffocating crisis to the 'national holiday'

A few minutes passed after 3 in the afternoon when a human roar went through all the corners of Buenos Aires and the towns of Argentina when Gonzalo Montiel scored the last penalty, 4-2, which made the albiceleste three-time champion against France. "We are world champions!", the speaker shouted in the center of Buenos Aires, which was boiling.

Under a sun of justice in the streets, an Argentine people exploded with joy, maddened and passionate, forgetting for a few moments the galloping inflation, unemployment, political corruption and the eternal economic crisis that shakes it, and cooled the social mobilizations to demand salary increases.

If President Alberto Fernández followed the final with his wife, his son and his dog Dylan from the Quinta de Olivos residence so as not to be a joke with “the boys” (that is, so as not to be jinxed), more than 40,000 Argentines supported Messi's troops from Doha and thousands of compatriots did it from the bars and terraces on the street, taking advantage of the 26ºC of the southern spring.

The government of the City of Buenos Aires authorized 15 flags, the concentrations to encourage the team and follow the game on the screens of the premises, in 15 emblematic corners, such as Corrientes and 9 de Julio, with painted zebra crossings white and sky blue.

In most towns in the country, a temporary closure of the activity had been decreed, with shops closed and public transport suspended from 11 in the morning (one hour before the start of the final) to make it easier for everyone to see the match.

In the Buenos Aires capital, the central Avenida 9 de Julio was left empty, without traffic or pedestrians, during the three hours of the preview and the game, while the surroundings of the Plaza del Obelisco, the nerve center of the celebration, was a mob of fans with albiceleste flags and shirts jumping and celebrating in the bars, the temples of football to suffer and celebrate in community.

The Argentine after-dinner meal buried the yawning, the siesta and the Sunday rest, and the streets were dyed albiceleste, with a deafening noise, which mixed the usual chants such as "Boys, now we are excited again" by La Mosca, the percussion of drums and car horns.

The next day, this Monday, would be a national holiday in Argentina. Official or unofficial, it would be time to continue celebrating.

The Argentine people awaited the decree of President Alberto Fernández to make this Monday, December 19, a national holiday. In both 1978 and 1986, when the albiceleste team won the world title, the day after the final there was no decree of festivity.