Last Sunday was one of the best days here… Argentina was set to play against Mexico in the “octavos”. We decided with other students in my class to go to the plaza San Martín to watch the game because there they had HD screens for the public to gather and watch the game. In reality they put screens up all over the city, well 3 but if you included every TV that you can see from the street in every restaurant on every corner, it is a lot. They also opened movie theatres and people could watch the game in HD there. We wanted to be in the center of it all, to have the best experience possible since we were in the heart of Argentina! We arrived at the plaza by subway and upon making it to the street we saw a big tent. There were promoters and advertisement people everywhere and people roaming about with the celestial blue and white colors. Amazed we moved inside the tent to find multiple plasma tvs everywhere with pre-game coverage and people roaming excitedly about. There was a kid sections with games and mini chairs and tv´s at a lower level and an area for old people with chairs. We made our way through the tent looking for our friend Ayumi that was there already. Upon exiting the tent we entered yet another phase of the excitement, an extremely large HD screen at the bottom of the hill with tons of spectators taking their positions. The music, the costumes the drums, it was as if we had arrived to the field itself with the yelling and the worries and the excitement being expressed! Argentina started off the game playing not so well and the atmosphere was tense. Everyone worried by every goal Mexico almost made. The seleccion nacional this time did not seem as prepared or read as they did in the other 3 games. However, after waiting a period of time, goal Argentina! The screams and the relief filled the air. Yes it was an offside goal no one refuted that but as FIFA does not approve the use of technology to review plays and remake decisions as in other sports, what could they do? Argentina was winning 1-0! Mexico was so mad they fell apart it seemed. When the second goal occurred once again the entire plaza celebrated and we, my friend Grace and I, almost ended up at the bottom of the hill! From all the excitement the crowd moved about like a mosh pit and a landslide of people almost occurred and we were almost all toast-wheh! With the third goal by Tevez and that one this time, was fair- take that Mexico- everyone k new the game was ours but still waited till the final whistle to celebrate! With the rest of the people we walked down the middle of 9 de Julio, an avenue otherwise always occupied with traffic towards the Obelisco where everyone gathered to celebrate things. Everyone was hugging, cheering and beeping their horn- the walk was almost magical as if we had already won the world cup! As Maradona said, today we celebrate the victory and tomorrow we worry about Germany! People kept coming as dusk hit and the celebrations continued. People brought their dogs dressed in Argentina little puppy jackets! As the news said that night, in that moment we were all Argentina, we were all one!
So today, in less than 2 hours is the next challenge for the seleccion nacional. Since last night everyone has been very nervous and tension is high… vamos Argentina! VAMOS!!! Please please don´t let the journey, or as Maradona says, the story or the history in the making, end today…
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