There was a time when the discussion about the “big sixth” and locals and visitors coexisted in a good way in the stands, that the fans of Students of La Plata and Velez Sarsfield They formed a great friendship. This story, witness to other times in Argentine football, goes back decades.
The beginning of the brotherly relationship between the two is located in the championship Metropolitan 1982when the match played between the two at 1 and 57 was suspended at halftime due to some firecrackers thrown towards the visiting locker room and with the Toto Lawrence, DT of Fortín, denouncing that two of his footballers were injured. However, those from Liniers, with everything in their favor to take advantage of this unfortunate situation, did not make any formal request and even agreed to play the second 45 minutes right there in La Plata. That’s how it was and Pincha won with a goal from Tata Brown and then became champion with just two points ahead of Independiente. That is, that victory was key.
In 1992, one step further: Vélez beat Gimnasia de La Plata in the pre-Libertadores Liguilla on River’s field and, after the match, Roberto Trotta kissed an Estudiantes shirt and made gestures to the Lobo fans.
And on June 8, 1993, more: the players led by Carlos Bianchi, who that night secured the title of the Clausura tournament thanks to the fact that Independiente could not beat Belgrano in Avellaneda, entered the Estudiantes field with a flag of his rival and vice versa. Totally unthinkable for current times.
Vélez-Gimnasia became a classic in those years, especially after the embarrassing pitched battle of April 3, 1994, when a fight between José Luis Chilavert and Guillermo Sanguinetti generated a major scandal. Since then, the red and white color of Estudiantes was mixed in the Vélez stands every time Fortín visited the Forest.
History changed dramatically already into the current century. As of June 29, 2003, that friendship was broken. One date before the end of the Clausura, Carlos Ischia’s Vélez needed to beat Carlos Bilardo’s Estudiantes at the Amalfitani. Before the game, the fans ate a barbecue together, but everything rotted when the little Prince Sosa, who at that time was taking his first steps in the First Division, made it 1-0 that complicated Fortín and that served the title on a plate to River.
“If we don’t win this afternoon, the friendship is over,” the locals sang. And there were insults for Bilardo, just on the afternoon that marked the 17th anniversary of the 1986 World Cup final. “It’s the Narigón team,” they responded. those of Pincha. And then they raised the tone of those chants: “It seems to me that Vélez is not champion, because Pincha screwed up.” And so the love ended.
