Aldosivi vs Alvarado, the “forbidden classic” that returns after 27 years: what time is it and how to watch it

When the summer season started in January with full sun Mar del Plata, The football atmosphere of La Feliz moved for a few hours elsewhere, 400 kilometers away, to the pitch AFA in Ezeiza. The draw for the 2024 season of First National it came with a surprise: there would be inter-zonal duels and the match would be replayed Aldoses – Alvarado after almost 27 years, breaking a status quo imposed for decades by the police, the managers and the clubs themselves. The return of the call “forbidden classic” it will finally happen this Saturday at 3.35pm at the José María Minella stadium.

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

From Mardel is the Draw Martineznickname given to the last Mar del Plata League tournament in gratitude for the feat of the idol goalkeeper in Qatar 2022, and there the stadium is in a state of semi-abandonment world CupMinella, which hosted six matches in Argentina 1978 and experienced its great splendor during the summer tournaments that became popular between the 1980s and the beginning of the 2000s.

A La Feliz scored Diego Maradona his first official goal, in 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 called “mythical” because twenty years later, in 1996, it was demolished to make a wholesale supermarket, with a decision that was a symbol of time.

For some time now, and beyond traditional clubs, people have liked it Kimberley, Atletico Mar del Plata or the neighbor Otamendi Sports Clubthe city’s connection with AFA football has become a matter of two teams, Aldoses AND Alvaradoa rivalry that is not as polarized in the hinterland as in basketballwhere the inhabitants of Mar del Plata seem to have only two options in terms of preferences, being the multiple champion Penarol or the tireless Quilmes.

With many roots in their neighborhoods, with very different origins and identities (and geographies), Aldosivi and Alvarado, the Puerto and the Matadero, are actually a classic short but very intense story. They clashed as enemies after a first fight in a bar in 1989, which became exasperated on a sporting level when in 1990 alva He took a tournament away from him by beating him in the penultimate round.

Another chapter of this rivalry took center stage Mauro Camoranesi, emerged in Aldosivi, when in the middle of a 1994 classic he delivered a terrible kick to an Alvarado player, destroying his knee and ending his career. The case reached court, with the intervention of the Supreme Court; Camoranesi had to compensate Javier Pizzo, the 18-year-old who was attacked, who ended up dedicating himself to a judicial career and is a public prosecutor.

But the pike became a visceral hatred in those nineties when Argentine football changed its promotion structure and in Mar del Plata people 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 are organized throughout the country to federalize it, Alvarado faced Aldosivi but he needed the Shark they will win with a good goal difference and play in the play-off for second place. Without measuring the consequences, he put together a team of guys who ended up falling 13-0 and even though he achieved his goal, he ended up achieving a victory that became a flag, a song and was worn eternally.

Shortly thereafter, in 1996, the little bull had his chance for revenge and clashed in two finals against those from Puerto to decide which team from Mar del Plata would play the match National B of 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 of Cordoba.

Aldosivi vs Alvarado, the forbidden classic

Parallel to this fervor to become “national” and obligations abroad, Aldosivi and Alvarado They continued to face each other in the local championship with other players 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 date was the 12th It was played on the Mar del Plata river pitch, a stage of rather neighborhood proportions and located a few blocks from the meeting point of 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 Serie A, and Alvarado managed to reach the First National Team after having fought for years in the Federal Tournament A and B, but 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.

He forbidden classic It could only happen in Mardel 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 how Facundo Moyano felt, former president of Alvarado. On December 30, in the last program of the year, Mirtha Legrand launched a chicane into 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 occurred a few days later, when the Argentine Football Federation announced that there would be inter-zonal matches in the Primera Nacional, with home and away matches between classic rivals or pairs from each zone.

In the tournament that started at the beginning of February, Alvarado is seventh in zone A with 11 points, while Aldosivi is sixth in zone B with 12 points. After 27 years, the classic returns this Saturday for the eighth appointment at Minella. There is no doubt, in Mar del Plata there is more anticipation than the Champions League final.