A Brazilian family watching their country’s team play a match.
By Osmel Almaguer
HAVANA TIMES – In Brazil, people rooted for Algeria and Austria against Argentina during the group stage, celebrated the lone goal Jordan scored against them, and cheered every time the beloved Cape Verde national team managed to level the score in the Round of 32 before ultimately being eliminated.
At first, I didn’t notice. It began with a message, half-jokingly, from a Brazilian friend listing the teams it was forbidden to support. Argentina was among them. Then came another comment, and another, until it became obvious.
Brazilians have elevated their soccer rivalry with Argentina to the point of regretting any success by the rivals. “We don’t want them to go any further and have the chance to face us and beat us,” a coworker explained.
In my country, Cuba—which has appeared in only one World Cup, nearly 90 years ago, when the tournament comes around, we divide ourselves according to the national teams we love.
While the vast majority gravitate toward traditional powerhouses like Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina, another increasingly large group supports more recently successful teams such as Spain and France. Then there are those of us who cheer for romantic footballing nations like England, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Uruguay.
In general, there’s also a tendency to support another Latin American team when your own favorite fails to qualify. If the final is between Europe and the Americas, the entire country tends to turn either green and yellow or sky blue and white, depending on the matchup.
For someone accustomed to thinking this way, the average Brazilian fan’s sporting antipathy toward Argentina can seem absurd. But rivalries are not built in a matter of weeks.
These two national teams share a long history that began in the last century, encompassing not only World Cup clashes but also regional competitions, where they often face even stiffer resistance from teams with far less pedigree.
How many defeats have these two footballing giants inflicted on each other? How deeply have those losses marked their supporters?
Fortunately, in other areas of life there is no such rivalry, much less any real antipathy, between the two peoples—although Brazilians aren’t especially fond of the Argentines’ flair for drama.
For now, both teams continue to advance, keeping alive the possibility of a semifinal showdown. Although I’m a fan of Messi’s Argentina, I could celebrate a Brazilian victory—out of gratitude.
Read more from the diary of Osmel Almaguer here on Havana Times.
