Yesterday, we were playing for little more than pride. As of last weekend, the league winner was already decided, Boca was crowned champion, and River was yet again forced to watch the celebrations from the outside. Thus, our main motivation for our last game came from a desire to prepare for the upcoming season and solidify our spot in the starting lineup. A weak UBA team served as our opponent, providing some competition in the first half while only allowing one goal from the penalty spot. In the second half, UBA more or less stepped aside in the second half and served as a practice squad as my teammates passed circles around them and scored three goals. The final scoreline could have been much closer to 10-0 had our attackers been slightly more effective with their goal scoring opportunities. Let's just say in the second half, I did not touch the ball once with my hands...
In the time between lunch and warm-up, usually a couple of hours spent relaxing and focusing on the upcoming match, our coach took our team, and my dad (who, along with my mom and sister, is in Argentina for a couple weeks), to see the River Plate Museum. The museum is right next door to the stadium and, for soccer fans, is definitely a place worth visiting while in Buenos Aires. Though I am not a massive River Plate fan, as in I don't live or die based on the weekend's result nor do I know the names of all the great (and not-so-great) players who have passed through the club, it was impressive to see the number of league championships and international cups the team has won since its birth in 1901.
Watching clips of games throughout the past century, triumphs and defeats alike, I thought about how, in comparison to the time and energy spent in training and preparation, the celebrations after winning a big game or even a championship last only an instant – a night, a day, a week at most – before the team must begin getting ready for the next challenge. The fans who witness the victory also celebrate, perhaps for a bit longer than the team itself, but only until the next season begins and the incessant desire for silverware drives them to hate and curse the players they were hailing as heroes only moments before.
For big teams like River Plate, one season without a trophy seems like a decade and two seasons is already an eternity. Greatness is expected, and the failure to succeed results in sackings of managers and players alike. In Argentina, teams even suffer violent attacks at the hands of their adoring fans. When River Plate was relegated to the second division a couple of years ago, fans (some of whom were not part of the Barra Brava, the thugs who are behind most soccer-related violence) ravaged the Monumental, vandalizing the cafeteria and tearing apart the seats in the stands among other things. The players and team staff had to be escorted out of the stadium with extreme levels of security for fear regarding their personal safety.
My coach, a product of River Plate's youth development program, wrapped up the idea with this roughly translated phrase, "You only celebrate championships until your next training session, but the bitterness of defeat lingers longer, at least until you win a trophy." It's a phrase which rang true as I saw videos and pictures of Boca's celebrations all last week. It's a phrase which reflects something simultaneously glorious and awful in soccer: last season is over, the results are in the past, the achievements and failures of the year are in the books and serve as little more than a memory, and every team begins the new season with 0 wins and 0 losses, an equal shot at glory. Now, keeping my coach's words in mind, River has a couple of weeks to prepare for the new season, to incorporate a few new signings, and adjust to the absence of a few former starters who will not be returning to the team. I'm more than slightly excited.
"Vamos, vamos, vamos River Plate!" Here's to another opportunity for growth, for new experiences, and for a championship, however brief the celebration might be.
Also, this is not exactly related to my post, but below is a very interesting short video (with English subtitles) about women's soccer in Argentina produced by Univision News. A few of my friends and teammates from River and the National Team are featured.
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