Aldosivi vs Alvarado, the forbidden classic that returns after 27 years and arrives on Mirtha Legrand’s table

The summer season has begun but this sunny Wednesday in Mar del Plata has brought the La Feliz football scene with its head elsewhere, 400 kilometers away, to the AFA stadium in Ezeiza. The Primera Nacional draw comes with a surprise: there will be interzonal duels and Aldosivi – Alvarado will be played after almost 27 years, breaking a status quo imposed for decades by the police, the managers and the clubs themselves. It is the return of the so-called “forbidden classic”, and it has already made waves.

Located in the heart of Argentines, possessing a beauty that transcends years and governments, and with a population that places it among the most important cities in the country, Mar del Plata has a rather humble history in terms of football milestones. teams that have established themselves at national level. Even if with names that everyone knows and two clubs that are in the news today.

Mardel is called Draw Martínez, the name given to the last Mar del Plata League tournament in gratitude for the feat of the idol goalkeeper in Qatar 2022, and there the World Cup stadium, which hosted six matches in Argentina 1978, it is in a state of semi-abandonment and experienced its maximum splendor during the summer tournaments that were popular between the 1980s and the early 2000s.

In La Feliz, Diego Maradona scored his first official goal, during a visit of Argentinos Juniors to the local San Lorenzo, played on 14 November 1976 in the legendary San Martín stadium, in Avenida Champagnat. And it is unfortunately defined as “mythical” because twenty years later, in 1996, it was demolished to make a wholesale supermarket, with a decision that was a symbol of the era.

For some time, and beyond traditional clubs such as Kimberley or Atlético Mar del Plata, the city’s link with AFA football has become a question of two teams, Aldosivi and Alvarado, a rivalry that is not present in the hinterland, so as polarized as in basketball, where Mar del Plata seems to have only two options: the multiple champion Peñarol or the tireless Quilmes.

With deep roots in the neighborhoods of origin, Aldosivi and Alvarado became famous after a first confrontation in a bar in 1989, exasperated on a sporting level when in 1990 Alva snatched a tournament from them, beating him in the penultimate round.

Pica became visceral hatred in those nineties when Argentine football changed its promotion structure and in Mar del Plata they began to dream of the possibility of having a “city” team to face Boca, River and their companions.

In October 1994, in one of those competitions that were held throughout the country to federalize it, Alvarado faced Aldosivi but needed Tiburon to win with a good goal difference to play the playoff for second place. Without considering the consequences, he put together a team of boys that ended up falling 13-0 and, although he achieved his goal, he ended up taking a worn flag that became a flag, a song and an everlasting graffiti.

Shortly after, in 1996, Torito had their chance for revenge and clashed with the Portuguese in two finals to decide which Mar del Plata team would play in the B Nacional the following season. They were times of restructuring in the second category of Argentine football, as almost always, and La Feliz was one of the five places that would receive that award through a reclassification to Federal A from which Chaco For Ever, Cipolletti, Gimnasia and Scherma di Concepción of Uruguay and Olympus.

Aldosivi once again frustrates the hopes of the populous fans of the Centenario district, winning both matches 2-0 and entering a competition that will see him protagonist in 1998, when in a comeback in a Reduced team he was one step away from promotion to Serie A, losing in the final against Belgrano de Córdoba.

Aldosivi vs Alvarado, the forbidden classic

Parallel to this fervor to become “national” and commitments abroad, Aldosivi and Alvarado continued to face the other players in the local league but with the same passion as always. And in one of those clashes something unprecedented happened in Argentine football, the need for everyone to agree that this match could no longer be played, not even in the form of friendlies.

It was August 10, 1997 and the classic corresponding to the date 12 was played on the Mar del Plata river field, a stage with rather close proportions and located a few blocks from the meeting point of the Alvarado fans. It lasts just 20 minutes and is suspended at 0-0 when Aldosivi hits the crossbar; Before, during and after there were stones, tear gas, running, injuries and riots that spread to the surrounding streets.

A few days later, the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Mar del Plata League ended up awarding the match win to Alvarado over Aldosivi 1-0 and both clubs had to pay a fine that sounds ridiculous today but dates back to the days of convertibility: 1,800 pesos. , the equivalent of 300 tickets.

Behind that decision was another that would become controversial: the football authorities of Mar del Plata, together with the political leadership and the police force, decided to avoid this confrontation at the local level. The scale of these powers did not justify the deployment that a security operation would generate. And Aldosivi has focused on competing with his youth team in AFA tournaments.

Thus 27 years passed in which Aldosivi reached the A, and Alvarado managed to reach the First National after having fought for years in the Federal A and B Tournament, but they had never met in the same category. No crossing even in the Argentine Cup, a competition in which La Feliz players usually have bad luck.

The forbidden classic in Mardel could only take place in 2023, after Tiburón’s relegation, in that season marked by the burning of the players’ cars after the defeat in Mendoza, and which was celebrated with mockery on Alvarado’s social networks. However, the AFA decided that both would march in opposite areas and that they would not reach the Redoubt where they could cross paths.

The match was about to happen and this is what Facundo Moyano, former president of Alvarado, thought. On Saturday 30th, in the last program of the year, Mirtha Legrand launched a chicane in the air against her classic rival.

“Alvarado is the most popular club in Mar del Plata. We are with Aldosivi in ​​the First National and next year our paths will surely cross. I hope he is at peace” said the person who is now part of the blue cast.

The miracle arrives in 2024, when the AFA announces that there will be interzonals in the First National Team, with home and away matches between classic rivals or pairs from each zone. There is no doubt, they will be more eagerly awaited in Mar del Plata than the Champions League final.