Argentinos Juniors 1 Estudiantes 0

If it keeps on like this, we’re going to have to start mumbling about perhaps winning the championship. Don’t forget, Argentinos Juniors is the team that finished in last place last season. Estudiantes, from the city of La Plata, were not only top of the table and unbeaten this season, they’re the South American champions, the holders of the Libertadores Cup. This was a big test and a huge scalp.

For no other reason than that they make up fifty percent of the population, women in Argentine football is a subject that must be covered. And since I’m neither a woman nor an Argentine and couldn’t make the game, I don’t feel worthy. So I’ve contracted my wife Claudia to do this piece. I, in return, will do some quality dish washing and perhaps some top of the range ironing in return.   Over to you, Claudia:

I love football.  I am a Boca Juniors fan and always have been – thanks to my mum being one (albeit in name only, since she never went to a game in her life.) I love an exciting game of live football but most of those I have seen haven’t been that good since all I’ve been to is about a dozen West Ham matches and one or two at Boca.

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to land a job as a producer for a TV company covering the quarter-finals and one semi-final at the Copa America, the South American national championships, in Venezuela. I was supposed to be neutral but couldn’t restrain a cheer when Leo Messi scored a fantastic goal against Mexico.

I listen to football matches on the radio while I cook, no matter who’s playing – the commentators always giving away their preferences when they scream their team’s goals.

The only other game I had seen at the Diego Maradona Stadium was last April, when Argentinos Juniors met Independiente in a disappointing game of two very mediocre halves which ended in a 1-1 draw.  The result didn’t matter too much because the sun shone, the atmosphere was good and we had gone as a gang with some family friends.

Daniel couldn’t make this game and I thought I might be a bit conspicuous as a single female. So I took our twelve-year-old son, Benjamin, along with me. But there were, I was pleased to see, quite a few women in the crowd.

The game got off to a good start, even though the fans around us didn’t seem to think so. It’s just that maybe I’m not used to that amount of swearing at people you’re supposed to be supporting.   Fifteen minutes into the first half, the Estudiantes goalie had to be replaced after a bad collision with an Argentinos Juniors forward and ten minutes after that the bichos went one up.  A tall, muscular player managed to head the ball into the net after a scramble near the post.

See them? One, perhaps two, women in the crowd?

The Estudiantes players claimed it was offside, but the score remained 1-0 for Argentinos.  – “So,” I asked the man sitting next to me, “who scored?” –  “No idea” he replied.  Aren’t the men  supposed to know that kind of thing, able to answer the women’s questions?

Football in Argentina is all testosterone with little room for anything else.  There are very few women’s teams and a smattering of women referees.

It was big news when last June Estela Maris Álvarez de Oliveira was appointed as the main referee at the match between San Martín de San Juan and CAI in the Nacional B (the Argentine second division).  I’m not sure if she ever appeared again after all the abuse she took.

There are no women sports commentators on radio or television, something we share with the rest of Latin America.  At the Copa America in Venezuela, there were maybe two or three female producers in a sea of male journalists and photographers.  In most people’s imagination, women in football can only mean one thing – botineras. These are the invariably blond leggy starlets seeking fame and fortune by hanging on to the arms of Argentina’s  well-heeled and well-oiled footballers, preferably those playing abroad.  They’re the local equivalent of footballers’ wives.  And they’re so popular in our gossip magazines that there is going to be an Argentine version of that TV soap, called, well, Botineras, what else?

He's got nice legs...

However, what I saw today is simply women who like going to watch football, especially as the atmosphere was relaxed and they didn’t feel threatened.  So maybe I was the only crazy one shouting at Hauche and Ortigoza to get a move on and clapping and chanting ORTIGOOOO, ORTIGOOOO, But I believe the others were grateful, in their own quiet way, for the opportunity to see the beautiful game, and some not bad looking men to boot.

While we waited for the hordes of disappointed Estudiantes fans to leave the stadium, I watched some of the other women and girls standing around.  One pair struck me as different from the rest – they were about 20 years’ old, well groomed and carefully dressed, in a sort of casual but showy way.  There were no dads, brothers or boyfriends lurking around, so I can only assume they were on a fishing trip to see what could be had from among the crowd.  As we filed out of the stadium, I saw them again, standing near some fans who were looking at them like they were a couple of juicy steaks. The girls’ attention however was directed towards another group of better looking males.  So this, I realised, was like a prelude to tonight’s club scene.

More and more women these days are going to football.  We all want to share in our team’s successes and in some stadiums the atmosphere and other women help us to feel secure. Although I wouldn’t go to Boca Juniors since it’s too intimidating (even though I’ll always be a bostera).

But I enjoyed being at Argentinos Juniors and soaking in the enthusiasm of a crowd that just loves the game.  For ninety minutes it was great being part of that today.

[Ah, you want to know who scored... Matias Caruzzo, at 27’ in the 1^st half, apparently off-side.  The referee, who at moments seemed to have little control of the game, showed seven yellow cards, six to Estudiantes players.  Veron, despised by Argentinos fans, had a few chances on goal, but Argentinos managed to hang on for their fourth consecutive win this season.  They have now moved second in the table.]

Tags: botineras, caruzzo, copa america, copa libertadores, estudiantes, women

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Home Matches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.