Copa America championship, pain reliever for Argentina

Another celebration…

Argentines who poured into the streets to celebrate their Copa America 2024 victory on Sunday night were living in a very different atmosphere to 19 months ago, when their World Cup victory sent millions of people pouring into Buenos Aires' central square in cheers.

Millions of Argentinians flocked to the central square in the capital Buenos Aires to celebrate the national team's 2024 Copa America championship. Photo: AP

“It was amazing,” Diego Cáceres, a 38-year-old Buenos Aires native, recalled Argentina’s big outdoor party on December 18, 2022. “This one was beautiful too,” he said of the cheering crowds and fireworks Sunday around the monument in the heart of the capital after Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in extra time to win its third consecutive major tournament.

Economic crisis has plagued Argentina for years. But today, annual inflation is as high as 270%. Nearly 60% of the country's 45 million people live in poverty.

Argentines have grown weary of the high-stakes anxiety of the news: Anti-government protests are raging, workers’ strikes are paralyzing cities, President Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” is announcing new spending cuts and criticizing feminism.

This week, Argentine television broadcast dire warnings about the peso hitting a new low against the dollar, dragging down the value of people's savings.

The last time Cáceres celebrated his national team in Buenos Aires' central square, he worked as a chef in various restaurants and rented an apartment. Now, he said, he is unemployed and sleeping on the streets.

Unemployed and informal workers set up tents in Buenos Aires to protest, demanding more government subsidies. Photo: Reuters

“Everything is terrible now,” Cáceres said after the 2024 Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia was played in Miami after multiple postponements due to fan overcrowding. “Just when you think things can’t get any more expensive, they get more expensive.”

Some in the superstitious nation joked that they paid a heavy price in Qatar for their first World Cup win since 1986, alluding to the socio-economic crises that followed the victory on the pitch. “Has anyone checked the terms and conditions for winning the Copa América?” read one X post widely shared among Argentines, suggesting that the Argentine people might again “pay the price” for their recent triumph.

But Argentines say they need this tournament, and this trophy, more than they could ever imagine. For Argentina, South America's biggest football championship offers more than just glory, it also offers a glimmer of escape from their grim reality.

Football, with the victories of Messi and his teammates, is helping Argentines forget their economic sadness. Photo: Getty Images

“It’s our greatest form of entertainment, that’s why it’s so important,” said Erika Maya, a 47-year-old homeless mother of six, as she stared at the televised game through the glass door of a locked restaurant. “You can forget everything else that’s going on, just enjoy it.”

When Argentina only has football to be proud of

With each new outrage over the past 24 days, Argentines have found solace in obsessively watching their beloved national team, led by Lionel Messi, play for an hour and a half, creating moments of anguish and euphoria that ripple across this football-mad country.

“Football is the fruit of our society, it is what we are proud of, it is what we give to the world,” 21-year-old private Fabrizo Diaz, who watched the Copa America final with his girlfriend, proudly told the AP reporter.

As the match kicked off at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, restaurants in Buenos Aires were closed, streets were deserted and the vast city was eerily silent, with most Argentines glued to their home TVs as if under COVID-19 lockdown.

Rumours of Messi's retirement have fuelled football fever in recent weeks, with the 37-year-old captain's non-committal stories in television interviews sometimes evoking hope and despair across the country.

“I believe Messi will continue. I don’t know if he can make it to the next World Cup, but this is not the end,” said Adrian Vallejos, 32, as he watched the final with his wife and son. “I mean, God, I hope so!”

Messi's persistent foot injuries - including an ankle injury in the second half of the final that forced him off - have attracted more attention than his performances in this Copa America. But the Argentine breathed a sigh of relief when asked by ESPN this week if this would be his last game in blue and white, and refused to rule out playing in the 2026 World Cup.

Argentine President Javier Milei also needs the national team's championship to send optimistic messages to the people. Photo: Cablenoticas

“We are in a very profound transition period for this team,” said Alejo Levoratti, a sports sociologist at Argentina’s CONICET research institute. “It is only in retirement that Messi reaches his peak and finds this connection with his team, this communion with Argentina.”

Another great Argentine player of the same age, Ángel Di María, has announced that Sunday’s game against Colombia will be his last for the Albiceleste. Di María left the pitch in tears to a standing ovation after Argentina’s decisive goal. “I dreamed of retiring like this,” he told reporters.

After years of disappointment in international tournaments, the Argentine team has recently won one victory after another - Copa América 2021, Finalissima 2022, World Cup 2022 - making this troubled country excited once again.

President Milei, who briefly played as a goalkeeper for professional football team Chacarita Juniors, congratulated the national team with an all-caps message on social media X: “WE ARE CHAMPIONS AGAIN...!!!”.

When the joy of football is over, Argentines can continue to... protest for a better life. Photo: Reuters

In the trash-strewn center of Buenos Aires, the scene of numerous protests in recent weeks, national pride seemed to have been briefly restored. Friends and strangers clad in Argentina flags and jerseys hugged and jumped up and down, some singing “Muchachos,” the unofficial anthem of the 2022 World Cup, others chanting Messi’s name.

Tomorrow, they will return to the burden of food and clothing worries, to increasingly gloomy news about inflation. Tomorrow, President Milei may have to deliver another message, such as the decision he made to cut the number of ministries in the country in half as soon as he took office.

No one knows what will happen to this country in economic recession. But all Argentines know, they have the right to celebrate the Copa America 2024 championship. Everything else will come later!

Nguyen Khanh

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/chuc-vo-dich-copa-america-lieu-thuoc-giam-dau-cho-dat-nuoc-argentina-post303629.html