Summer Break: Reds v Yellows

The Feminine Touch

Reds  4   Yellows  2

In Argentina they call them Villas Miseria – Misery Towns – rambling, ramshackle communities built on somebody else’s land with stolen bricks and cement, corrugated iron roofs and poor drainage.  Spider webs of electricity and telephone cables criss-cross the sky.

The oldest, biggest and most firmly established shanty-town [...]

Game Nineteen v Huracan

Argentinos Juniors  5  Huracan  1

And so ends this journey through an Argentine first division football season.  But my word, what a way to end it! The sun was shining, the Argentinos Juniors fans were in fine voice, Huracan supporters had travelled in numbers and there were goals galore. The home side went ahead after just [...]

Game Eighteen v Independiente

Independiente  1  Argentinos Juniors  1

This game entailed a trip across the stinking Riachuelo river that marks the border of the city of Buenos Aires with the Avellaneda neighbourhood in the province of Buenos Aires. I was at the home of Independiente whose brand new stadium is right next door to rivals, Racing Club.

And a fine [...]

Game Seventeen v San Lorenzo

Argentinos Juniors  2  San Lorenzo  1

How I’ve reached the seventeenth game of the Argentine football season without mentioning tango I really don’t know. It’s either a gift or I’ve been criminally negligent. But the time has finally come for me to pull on my fishnet stockings and stiletto heels and rectify my lapse to a [...]

Game Sixteen v Gimnasia y Esgrima

Gimnasia y Esgrima 1  Argentinos Juniors  2

Phew! What a relief. The Red Bugs finally returned to winning ways after six games. And well deserved it was too. However they play out the last few games of the season, Argentinos are assured of comfortable mid-table safety but nonetheless played this one with passion. Gimnasia fear relegation [...]