Don’t Cry for me Argentina…

Roaring Hanna is a Slugger reader from Belfast

Well alas for our ‘nearest and dearest’ neighbours once again the World Cup isn’t coming home, that’s this year just as it didn’t every year since ’66 and ’62, ’58, 54 & ’50 before that. You really do have to wonder at the mentality of all the little Englanders who have a sense of entitlement that they seriously believe that their team really have a chance to lift the Jules Rimet? Of course for the rest of us in Ireland and the Scots it’s brilliant viewing every 4 years as we embrace our long lost ‘cousins’ in Panama, Croatia, Ghana, Mexico and Norway as they tangle with the tournament favourites according to SKY and BBC pundits who should have more cop on?

That they managed to overcome these opponents wasn’t through sheer brilliance a la Messi or youthful dynamic from Yamal, powerful leadership from Mbappe or intricate classic play from Vinicius Jnr, no it was just dogged English football, Bournemouth v Brentford, hardly PSG, Real Madrid, AC Milan or Boca Juniors? They survived to the last four with a combination of luck and strange referring and while they mightn’t have needed Trump to bend Infantino’s ear as he did to give the US a dubious decision, Engerland made it to Wednesday night against old adversaries Argentina. Now while my football experience might have been confined to the realms of junior football I think I know enough to understand that England would never defeat Argentina? Why would anyone with a rational thought pattern think otherwise? To win the World Cup you need to be extra special a bit like the Champions League? The great teams have gold stars on their jerseys to signify that; Brazil have 5, Germany 4, Italy 4, Argentina 3; England have one solitary star won in ’66 after a dodgy Russian linesman awarded them a goal which didn’t cross the line! We have never heard the end of it since with repeat viewings shown on BBC every xmas for 60 years.

The past 40+ years the football dynamic between England and Argentina has been compounded by the war in the Falklands/Malvinas in the early 80’s when the mad witch Thatcher sent an Armada half way around the world to claim British sovereignty on a group of islands which house more sheep than people. 900 were killed during the short conflict including 300 Argentine naval cadets who went to a watery death after their ship was torpedoed by a British warship in Argentine waters. This was the period when Thatcher let the hunger strikers die and destroyed Mining villages all over England, Scotland and Wales, so the Malvinas fitted into the colonial pattern and she was a lady not for turning. That young Irishmen and Argentine sailors, Miners and their families, British police and soldiers, all working class and used by a Tory Govt. to suffer and die, it was a horrendous time.

The Islas Malvinas was colonised by Europeans as far back as the 1700’s, France and Spain had control for a period but they eventually came under British rule. Argentina took control in 1830’s but Britain regained control in 1840’s, colonialism was in its heyday, they had taken Malta in 1800 after removing Napoleon from the little island. Britain has held control of the Malvinas ever since but it has always been disputed by Argentina thus the war which broke out in the 80’s. Ironically the first inhabitants were Scottish planters just as we witnessed in Ireland before that? The population has never been above 3,500 with 40% born there and the rest immigrants, interestingly many Irish workers went out there after the war to help rebuild destroyed buildings. The islands are known as the Falklands in Europe but Islas Malvinas in Latin America, the Spanish speaking world and in Ireland. During the Falklands/Malvinas war Ireland were the only European country who refused to back the British armada travelling 7000 miles to lay claim to islands so obviously belonging to Argentina.

So when Argentina and one Diego Maradona faced up to England in the ’86 World Cup in Mexico it was much more than a football game and indeed it has been remembered ever since as the crowning of Maradona as the best player in the world just as Messi has confirmed that accolade during the present tournament. Maradona scored two goals, one remembered as the ‘Hand of God’ and the other the greatest goal of all time as he beat half the English team to score. In this year’s semi final little genius Messi provided inspiration and ball delivery to win the game for Argentina which led to amazing scenes on the terraces and streets après match and Argentine players holding a banner in the middle of the field saying that the Malvinas belonged to Argentina. They say we should keep politics and sport separate but when it comes to England and Argentina that’s not possible?

For Irish people the similarities are apparent, and we understand that just as they hold the Malvinas, so they hold the 6 counties as a colonial project. So, when Argentina played England all Irish people were supporting Argentina and celebrated wildly as the Latin Americans won through.