“You’ll see Messi. The World Cup will betray us. Maradona is bigger than Pelé!” Thousands of Argentine fans in unison sang this hot Sunday (21) at Klyde Warren Park, in downtown Dallas, the provocative song for Brazilian fans “Brasil, decime qué se siente”.
The Argentine fans’ anthem, which gained considerable popularity during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, recalls the painful elimination of the Brazilian team to Argentina in the 1990 World Cup, with a goal from Claudio Caniggia, an assist from Maradona.
“I swear that, even as the years go by, we will never forget. That Diego dribbling you. That Cani scoring against you. That you cry from Italy to this day”, sang loudly the “hinchas” (as Argentine fans are known), accompanied by instruments and flags in honor of Messi and Maradona.
The song also exalts Albiceleste’s current Argentine star —”Messi, you’ll see, he’s going to bring us the World Cup”—, in a kind of omen eight years before he would win two World Cups later, in 2022, in Qatar, leading the team towards their third title with goals in all phases of the tournament.
Other songs that were very popular in the Argentine stands, such as “El Que No Salta”, commonly used by River Plate fans to refer to rivals Boca Juniors, and the classics “Olé Olé Hello, soy de Argentina” and ” Vamos, Vamos, Selección” were also repeated to exhaustion by the fans, as they competed for the few spaces of shade under a scorching heat of 33°C, but with the thermal sensation approaching 40°C.
After having already been a majority in the current champions’ debut against Algeria at Arrowhead, in Kansas City, with a capacity for around 74 thousand spectators, the expectation — based on what is seen of Albiceleste shirts on the streets of Dallas and surrounding areas — is that Argentine fans will once again color the stands of the air-conditioned AT&T Stadium, with 94 thousand seats, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, located in Arlington, in the metropolitan region of Dallas, blue and white.
Amid controversies involving his father’s health, Messi and company return to the field this Monday (22), at noon local time (2pm Brasília time), to face Austria, who are also coming off a 3-1 victory over Jordan.
The team that wins the duel will be practically guaranteed a place in the second phase of the competition. In the first leg of the knockout stages of the expanded World Cup with 48 FIFA teams, Spain and Uruguay emerge as possible opponents of the Argentine team in defending the title.
