For the Argentina national team, some Brazilians joined the fans, causing oddities. After all, rivalry between neighboring countries is old and exists not only in football but also in regional politics.
As the Argentina team eliminated the Netherlands at the World Cup held in Qatar on December 9, some Brazilian fans sent congratulatory messages to their Brazilian and Argentine friends living in Buenos Aires.
“What a game, what a beautiful audience. Congratulations, brothers,” said one of them.
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On Tuesday (12/13), new messages were repeated in tones of admiration as Argentina beat Croatia three-zero. Some even included tango pieces.
One of them wrote “Art and combat in equal doses”, praising the performance of the team led by Lionel Messi and adding a tango by Astor Piazzolla to the message.
With Brazil’s departure from the Cup, did some famous and unnamed Brazilians join the Argentina national team support? He is known for saying, “Winning is good, but winning against Argentina is even better,” including the narrator Galvão Bueno of Rede Globo.
Even Tom Phillips, the Latin American correspondent of the British newspaper The Guardian, was surprised that Brazilians supported the election of a neighboring country. “What’s going on?” on Twitter. he joked.
Is something changing in the historic rivalry between Brazil and Argentina fueled by decades of comparison and World Cup rivalries between the performances of Maradona and Pelé?
To understand this, BBC News Brasil heard analysts specializing in history, anthropology and football have observed that this current sentiment reflects several causes.
Admiration for Messi, who has collected seven Ballon d’Or awards for the best player in the world and is often praised for his “simplicity” and “zero arrogance”, “the determination of the players and Argentine fans” and fan perception. The new generation of Brazilians who identify themselves as Latin Americans are contributing factors to pacifying historical rivalries.
Professor João Manuel Casquinha, from the Federal Santa Maria University (UFSM) Department of History, who does research on football, joined BBC News Brasil as he was just coming out of a meeting with two professors. Three academics support the Argentina national team, which will play against France in the World Cup final this Sunday (12/18).
“I’ll give a fan’s perception. Argentine players have always fascinated us with their dedication and love for their country. Things like playing for the flag, finishing games and going to the stands. Too much determination, too much.” And in addition to all the Argentinian prowess, they have the best player in the world and we’re finally feeling a little bit of envy in Brazil,” said Casquinha.
The professor, who is the coordinator of the Sports History and Gaming Practice Working Group (Stadium), understands that even video games contribute to new Brazilian fans of Messi.
“We see young people who have seen Messi playing for Barcelona, who have played for Paris Saint Gemain, and who have spent four years (until the Cup) playing with ‘Messi’ in the video game. They identify with Messi as well as with Neymar. In some cases, even, “I’d say they identify with Messi more than most Brazilian players they don’t know at all times because they play for smaller European teams and they don’t know them in practice. Playing on Brazilian soil,” he said.
“We have a new generation of fans supporting Arsenal, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona. In Latin America,” he said.
The same generation identifies in many cases more as Latino American than their parents and grandparents might have thought in the past. This sentiment also explains the support of many Brazilians, in Professor Casquinha’s view. He says he wants “a victory for the South Americans” this Sunday.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also tried to develop this.
Scaloni, who is friends with several Brazilian players, declared himself a Brazil “fan” and said it would be “encouraging” to have the support of Brazilian fans and other South American nations in the final. Since 2006, only Europeans have lifted the World Cup trophy.
But to set aside the vendetta, it is necessary to understand their origins.
The Origin of Brazilian and Argentine Rivalry
Some historians find this principle in politics, not football.
Historian Boris Fausto, co-author Brazil and Argentina: An Essay on Comparative History (1850-2002)He says the feud began in the 19th century when the two countries began arguing over regional leadership in South America.
According to Fausto, this political rivalry was assimilated by society. However, it also broke away from historical realities and invaded other sectors such as football.
Argentine political scientist Rosendo Fraga also thinks that Brazil and Argentina inherited the rivalry between ex-colonialists Portugal and Spain that existed during the invasion of South America. The dispute over the area called Cisplatina at the foot of the River Plate plays an important role in this.
This disagreement culminated in the Cisplatine War (1825-28), which pitted Brazil, already independent from Portugal, and the United River Plate Provinces that would later form Argentina.
Brazil suffered heavy defeats in three battles of the war and eventually gave up ownership of the region. Nor did the Argentines stay in Cisplatina, which eventually became another country: Uruguay.
However, bilateral distrust continued despite the absence of hostility or conflict afterwards. Even Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay were allies in the Paraguayan War (1864-1870).
Argentine political scientist Vicente Palermo, writer La Alegria y la Pasión – Reports of Brazil and Argentina in Comparative Perspective (“Alegria ea Paixão – Relatos Brasileiros e Argentinos em Perspectiva Comparada”, free translation) considers it historically common for Argentines to display an air of superiority over Brazilians. This is because of the historical period when Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita and had a stronger middle class.
But he thinks this changed mainly after the military dictatorship established in the country between 1976 and 1983, when Argentines found themselves facing problems similar to Brazilians, or even more serious, such as successive economic crises.
Today, Vicente Palermo thinks Argentines have completely changed their view of Brazil and see the country as a major global player.
But did stereotypes persist, especially in football and even more so in World Cups? with a trophy balance obviously in favor of Brazil.
Messi effect
But now, according to researcher João Manuel Casquinha, Messi’s behavior is helping Brazilian fans become more interested in the Argentina national team.
“One of the things Messi doesn’t do is show off, go to clubs. Meanwhile, our players barbecue, eat meat with gold… So Brazilian fans see that these guys [os jogadores brasileiros] she’s getting further and further away from him,” explains Casquinha.
José Paulo Florenzano, professor of anthropology at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and former advisory board member of the Brazilian Football Reference Center (CRFB), is aware of the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina, despite its history. it doesn’t always show itself in the same way: it has its ups and downs depending on the context.
“Depending on the state of the sport, this sense of hostility and competition intensifies. In some cases, like in 2022, you are likely to have a cross-identification that crosses Nation-State boundaries,” he assesses.
For the expert, this cross-border identification is Messi’s responsibility. “Messi’s Argentina team manages to transcend Argentina’s national borders. In many countries there is identification with the figure of Messi and the football he represents and plays,” he states.
Politics also plays a role in the debate. Neymar conquered critics on one side and fans on the other by declaring support for Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in his 202 presidential campaign.
“Neymar has fans all over the world because of the enthusiastic football he plays. But today I believe it is much easier for a Brazilian to support Messi’s Argentina than for an Argentinean to identify with Neymar’s Brazil,” says Florenzano.
Does the anthropologist believe that Messi’s style attracts more non-Argentine fans than Diego Maradona? Fascinating, it was seen as rebellious and sometimes controversial.
In a Netflix documentary that was recently released shortly before the World Cup, Messi gave a sort of motivational speech to Argentina national team players about the importance of the opportunity to win the Copa América final against Brazil in Maracanã in 2021.
He didn’t talk about the competition and tried to focus on his own team. “We already know who Argentina and Brazil are. I don’t want to talk about it. We made a good team. We will lift this trophy, take it to Argentina and enjoy our team.” “We have always supported Argentina with our families, friends and loved ones.”
Was this the most important achievement of the team led by Messi for Argentina until the 2022 World Cup? It is also a crucial moment to change the perception of Messi, whom Argentine fans admired until then, but was seen as someone who brought victories to European teams rather than Argentina’s national team.
So what was the dominant emotion in Argentina when Brazil was eliminated?
A “relaxation” was seen in some Argentine fans. “Brazil can be a very tough opponent because of the strength of their football,” said one of the sports commentators on Channel 13 in Buenos Aires.
An image circulated on social networks attributed to TV Crónica, whose screen often showed the original headlines in capital letters and read “The Brazilian plane is going (with the cast)”.
Did a commenter say elimination means “one giant less to tackle”? perhaps without thinking that his country’s national team now has the support of Brazil’s own supporters’ sectors.
– This text is published https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-64008317
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.