Minutes had passed since Argentina’s victory. Minutes had passed since the start of the 48th edition of the Copa América. The seventy thousand fans who filled the Mercedes-Benz Stadium of Atlanta were losing concentration and Tato Aguilera, a journalist for the TyC Sports, began filming an analysis of the national team’s debut. “Let’s go Argentina. The Scaloni National Team, the world champion, won two to zero here in Atlanta,” were the first words of his presentation.
At that moment, a fan with a Mexican shirt coming out of the bowels of the stadium approached the camera with the intention of making him uncomfortable, interrupting him. He made a confused gesture, the journalist noticed that behind him there was a fan who was trying to bother him, so he emphatically repeated the last words he had said: “world champion, Argentina”. She said it, shouting, four times, to try to cover with his voice what the Mexican was trying to say. In the audio of the video you can hear him saying “they gave him the penalty”, perhaps in relation to the alleged infringement by Lisandro Martínez against Jacob Shaffelburg not sanctioned by the Venezuelan referee Jesús Valenzuela or by the VAR in the second half, or in in relation to the five penalties awarded in favor of Argentina in the World Cup in Qatar.
The journalist and his interlocutor continued arguing loudly. Aguilera asked him with sarcasm how many world championships Mexico has, but the debate had already been diluted. She then posted that half-minute clip on her Twitter account, with a caption: “This happens when a Mexican tries to play nice with you and I wonder: how many World Cups does Mexico have?”. The video quickly went viral and had the support, in the comments, of Argentine followers. He repeated the procedure on his account. instagramwhere he classified the scene as a “viral moment.”
Is one more chapter of the dispute between Argentines and Mexicans that football usually unleashes. In strictly football statistics, Argentina is largely dominant. They faced Mexico 31 times, of which they won 16they tied 11 times and there were only 4 wins of the tri. But in world championships, the national team won all four games they played. The first crossing occurred in 1930, in the first World Cup organized by FIFA. It was Argentina’s second match in a World Cup: on July 19 of that year they beat Mexico 6-3 in a Group A match in the tournament in which the National Team finished runners-up.
They then faced each other in two consecutive World Cups. On July 24, 2006 at the World Cup in Germany they met in the round of 16 at the Leipzig stadium. Maxi Rodríguez scored an agonizing and anthological goal to establish the final 2-1 in overtime. Four years later, in South Africa 2010, they met again in the same final stage: the team led by Diego Maradona won 3 to 1 with goals from Carlos Tevez in duplicate and Gonzalo Higuaín in Johannesburg. Just as Argentina repeated the rival and the result in the round of 16, the opponent and the winner in the quarterfinals was also the same: Germany. The last match between Argentines and Mexicans happened in the last edition of the World Cup: Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernández scored the goals with which the Scaloneta won at the Lusail stadium for the second date of the group stage, in a competition that they would later end up winning.
