San Martin 0 Argentinos Juniors 0
A couple of weeks ago I donned crampons and harnessed the huskies for a trek into unchartered but still familiar first division territory. This weekend I pulled on a wet suit and filled the oxygen tanks for a spot of diving, down into the second division – ‘La B.’
I went in search of goals and a bit of excitement but emerged with not much of either. The justification for my search was confirmed by yet another Argentinos Juniors 0-0, this one away to San Martin in the distant San Juan province. That’s three in a row if you count the dire scoreless draw against Velez Sarsfield last Thursday in the first leg of their South American Cup tie.
Tickets please!
Football without goals is like beer without alcohol or coffee without caffeine. Most of the ingredients are there but you end up asking yourself: “What’s the point?”
Caballito is a densely populated, fairly affluent neighbourhood smack bang in the centre of Buenos Aires. That being said, it was surprisingly difficult for me to get to, taking the Linea B underground to connect with the new Linea H which got me on to the ancient but charming Linea A which landed me about ten minutes walk from the home of Club Ferro Carril Oeste.
For the less Spanish-speakingly inclined readers that translates as the Western Railway Club – a once half decent first division side which won the championship in 1982 and 1984. Their Ricardo Etcheverry stadium looks alright from a distance. But close up it’s a wreck.
Their green and white clad fans were noisy and enthusiastic. But not for long did that hide the rickety nature of the wooden stands, the wood warped and the green and white paint but a faint, flaking memory. There’s a large, curved concrete roof over the stand which to my slightly blurry eyes looked like it had chunks missing.
Proud to be Green.
Much of the ground was empty, partly because travelling fans are banned in the second division but also, I suspect, because it’s simply unsafe for human habitation. Just as well I brought the oxygen tanks.
A friend of mine, who knows about this kind of thing, told me that Ferro is the victim of poor administration, owners that pocketed the cash and put nothing back into the club. Ferro, he told me, should be like Velez, challenging for honours and entertaining exotic visitors from across South America. Instead, it made the games I used to watch as a teenager at Aldershot’s Recreation Ground against the likes of Rochdale and Darlington look distinctly glamorous.
A goal was scored by the home side midway through the second half to give them a 1-0 victory over Almirante Brown, the yellow and black clad visitors. But by that time I didn’t care. This, remarkably, lifted them to second place in the table behind River Plate, who dropped their first points of the season in a 1-1 draw against Quilmes.
Remarkable because the football was dire. Not once did I see three passes strung together. The crowd cheered clunking defensive tackles or balls hoofed up to the safety of the heavens. It might have been an illusion but the defenders to me looked larger and more menacing and the attackers wispier and somehow less relevant than those in the first division. I was often more intrigued by the game being played in the empty space below me by a gang of kids in green and white who had long lost interest in the match.
Needs more than a paint job.
There must come a time when a fan’s love for the club, the sense of belonging, the fading reminiscences of a once fairly alright past cloud the quality of the football. The barra brava, while cajoling the fans to sing louder, had their backs to this game, huddles of women chatted amongst themselves and plenty seemed to arrive late and leave early as if they were just popping in.
This was not my first visit to the ground. I came in 2007 to cover a rally by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The then US president, George Bush, was on a half-hearted tour of Latin America which included neighbouring Uruguay but not Argentina.
Bush and the previous Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner, had never gotten on, Kirchner forming part of that uppity gang of Latin American leaders, led by Fidel Castro but also including Chavez, the Bolivian leader, Evo Morales and the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, that refused to do anything that Washington told it to do.
So while Bush was in Uruguay, President Chavez was in the Ferro stadium haranguing him across the Rio de la Plata about the evils of US imperialism. The crowd, representing the whole spectrum of the Argentine left, was loud, possibly louder and more numerous than the ground has seen since.
Chavez was a good deal more entertaining and his attacks more incisive than anything either Ferro or Almirante Brown could produce.
Returning to the surface, new boys Rafaela keep their top spot with a 1-0 win at fellow promoted side, Union. Boca tail them, also clocking a 1-0 away win, this one at Independiente. That defeat for the reds led to the departure of their manager, Antonio Mohamed. Lanus are equal second with Boca after their 2-1 victory over Estudiantes.
Champions Velez lost 2-1 down south at Olimpo, Godoy Cruz won 2-1 at Arsenal and Belgrano clinched a 1-0 win at fast-sliding San Lorenzo. All Boys against Racing and Newell’s against Colon were both goalless. And Tigre beat the bottom club Banfield 1-0. Banfield have lost all five games they’ve played this season and not scored a single goal. Now that is a team with cause for concern.
