I don't pretend to be an authority on football, but when I go to the pub to watch England play in a major championship I can guarantee that the crowd will be vocal. Obviously the crowd cheers loudest for a goal, but a fair amount of noise is made for any decent attempt by either side, if there is a bad miss, or someone fouls one of our players. Whether England is doing well or not, you can hear how the game is going through the reactions in the bar.
From what I had heard about the importance of football in Argentina, and the intensity of the rivalry between the supporters of the local BsAs teams, I expected the Argentinians to be even noiser than the English. So when we went to a bar to watch Argentina play Colombia in COPA America (the South American equivalent of the European Championship), I expected it to be loud. But it wasn't. In fact the Argentinians were remarkably quiet throughout most of the match. There was the occasional shout from one or two people, but mostly they were very subdued. Now in fairness Argentina's performance wasn't great and it ended 0-0 against a team they should have beaten, but then the same is true of many England games and that doesn't stop us.
I was also a bit surprised to see a small group of Colombians in the same bar. And the Columbian fans were louder than the English. They did get a few dirty looks when they cheered an Argentine miss or a foul on an Argentine player, but there was no trouble.
When we mentioned the football to one of our Spanish teachers it was clear that the Argentinians were unimpressed with their team's performance and felt let down by players like Messi. She was surprised when we said Colombians were in the same bar and thought there may have been trouble had a goal been scored. So I'm quite glad there wasn't a goal as we were next to the Colombians and I don't fancy being in the middle of warring South American football fans!
Anyway, having already drawn 1-1 against Bolivia, Argentina have to beat Costa Rica or they won't qualify automatically and risk being out of the tournament at the first stage. So it will be interesting to see if the fans are more animated for that match.
That is VERY surprising; I too would expect all hell to let loose whatever the score. I remember the days when Maradona and Kempes played for Argentina in the World Cup, and the crowd was a screaming mass of white and blue stripes. Days of old I suppose. Perhaps having fallen from the top, it is embarrassment that now suppresses?! I can relate to that. Lisa x
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