Argentina and England football rivalry
The
Argentina and
England national
football teams have shared a fierce
rivalry for many years, and matches between the two teams often have a particularly competitive and sometimes bellicose edge. It is unusual in that it is an intercontinental rivalry; typically, footballing rivalries exist between countries that are close to one another, for example
Franceâ€"Italy or
Argentinaâ€"Brazil.
Argentina is regarded in
England as one of the fiercest rivals of the English football team, along with such rivals as
Scotland and
Germany; the rivalry is also keenly felt in Argentina with the fixture commonly described as a
clásico. Although the rivalry originated in a match at the
1966 FIFA World Cup, it was particularly exacerbated by a non-footballing event, the 1982
Falklands War between the two nations, and has been propagated by various controversial or notable incidents in subsequent matches, for instance the "
Hand of God" goal at the
1986 FIFA World Cup.
In the latter half of the
19th century, the Argentine capital
Buenos Aires had a large
expatriate British community of some 40,000 people. As in many other parts of the world football was introduced to Argentina by the British and the first recorded football match played in Argentina was organized by the
Buenos Aires Cricket Club in
Palermo, Buenos Aires on
20 June 1867 and played between two teams of British railway workers, the White Caps and the Red Caps
["Early History of Football in Argentina'" - RSSSF. URL accessed on June 6 2006.] (it was common in the early days of football for teams to be distinguished by caps rather than jerseys).
The so-called "father of Argentine football" was a
Glaswegian schoolteacher,
Alexander Watson Hutton, who first taught football at the St Andrew's School in Buenos Aires in the early 1880s. On
4 February 1884["Alumni Athletic Club" - RSSSF. URL accessed on June 6 2006.] he founded the Buenos Aires English High School where he continued to instruct the pupils in the game.
["Buenos Aires English High School" URL accessed on June 6 2006.] In 1891 Hutton established the Association Argentine Football League
.["]Argentina 1891
" - RSSSF. URL accessed on June 6 2006. Five clubs competed but only one season of games was played. A new league, the The Argentine Association Football League'' was formed
February 21,
1893 and this eventually became the
Argentine Football Association. In these early days of football in Argentina nearly all of the players and officials were expatriate Britons or of British extraction and the oldest football clubs in Argentina like
Rosario Central,
Newell's Old Boys and
Quilmes Athletic Club and were all founded by British expatriates. As the popularity of the game increased the British influence on the game waned, and by 1912 the Association was renamed
Asociación Argentina de Football.
However the British influence on the Argentine game shows in much of the Argentine footballing terminology, which uses
English language terms such as "corner" and "wing" rather than
Spanish translations. The names of several famous teams in Argentina are also English in origin such as
River Plate or influenced by the language such as
Boca Juniors.
The national teams had met before their 1966 clash — Argentina were the first team other than Scotland to play England at
Wembley Stadium in 1951. They also played two matches in 1953 in
Buenos Aires. The first, a 3-1 victory for Argentina, counted as an unofficial international for England, who fielded a second string team dubbed an
FA XI. However, this match appears in Argentina's list of official internationals, and so Argentines consider it to be their first ever victory over England. Afterwards one Argentine
politician stated that "we nationalised the railways, and now we have nationalised football!".
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.] The second 1953 international was an official match for both teams: England playing with a stronger line-up involving
Alf Ramsey,
Nat Lofthouse and
Tom Finney; Argentina sticking with the same line-up used in the first match. The game was abandoned after 36 minutes due to torrential rain, with a 0-0 scoreline. They also met in the
1962 FIFA World Cup, where England beat Argentina 3-1 in the group stage. Argentina's first victory over England in a full international, recognised as such by both teams, occurred in a 1-0 win in Brazil in June 1964.
In spite of all of this history, it was not until the
1966 FIFA World Cup, held in England, that the rivalry picked up the fierce edge and sometimes bitterness which it retains to this day. The two teams met in the quarter-finals of the tournament and England won with a combative 1-0 thanks to a goal from striker
Geoff Hurst.
However, the game was particularly noted for the sending-off of Argentina captain
Antonio RattÃn, which Argentinians considered to be unfair, including RattÃn himself who had to be escorted from the pitch by police before he would leave. According to
The Observer newspaper, "with 10 minutes left in the first half, a German referee sent Rattin off for 'violence of the tongue', even though the referee spoke no
Spanish."
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.]The Englishman
Ken Aston, supervisor of referees, entered the field to try to persuade Rattin to leave, in a way the Latin American teams have since concluded that the English and
Germans were collaborating to eliminate them from the competition.
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.]It is also believed that RattÃn even sat down on the
Queen's red carpet on his way to the locker rooms, to express his frustration. After the match, England manager
Alf Ramsey refused to allow his players to swap shirts with the Argentinians — as is traditional after the conclusion of a football match — and later described the
South Americans as "animals" in the press.
The Argentinian press and public were outraged, and one Argentinian newspaper published a picture of the official
World Cup mascot,
World Cup Willie, dressed in
pirate regalia to demonstrate their opinion of the England team. As
The Guardian newspaper later described the Argentine view of the English: "Many Argentines read this as classic British racism... England has since been the team they most want to beat. One bumper sticker for the
1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina showed the tournament's mascot,
Gauchito, posing with his foot on a British lion. England had not even qualified for the competition."
[ ] (the only British team that qualified for the competition were Scotland, and as there was no rivalry between Scotland and Argentina, it was immediately thought that it must be an attack on England)
On
May 13 1980, Argentina — who were at the time the world champions, having won the
1978 FIFA World Cup in their own country — visited
Wembley Stadium for a friendly match, which England won 3-1. This was the first time that England had played an Argentine team including
Diego Maradona, who showed many of the skills he would demonstrate in a more important match six years later.
The next game between the two teams occurred at the
1986 FIFA World Cup in
Mexico, again at the quarter-final stage. The encounter was made particularly incendiary by the
Falklands War which the two countries had fought four years previously, and many in Argentina saw the game as being an opportunity to exact revenge upon England for their loss of that conflict, and incidents during the fighting such as the sinking of the warship
General Belgrano in debatable circumstances.
Argentina took the lead through a highly controversial goal from their star player
Diego Maradona, who punched the ball into the England net with his hand. The goal was allowed to stand by the referee, much to the fury of the English team and its fans. The goal, dubbed the "
Hand of God goal" after Maradona's tongue-in-cheek description of how it was scored, has become infamous in England, particularly as England went on to lose the game and were knocked out of the tournament. Also in this game, Maradona scored a second goal, voted in 2002 as the
best goal in World Cup history, before English striker
Gary Lineker pulled one back, but England could not score again and lost 2-1. Despite the skill of his second goal, Maradona wrote in his autobiography that "I sometimes think I preferred the one with my hand... It was a bit like stealing the wallet of the English."
[ ] He also wrote, in reference to the Falklands conflict, that "it was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team... Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge."
[ ]The game added hugely to the rivalry between the two teams in England where they felt that they had been cheated out of the competition by Maradona's hand ball. Meanwhile in Argentina, the game was not seen just as revenge for the Falklands War but mostly for what they still see as the unfair game in the 1966 World Cup.
It is close to inevitable that, whenever the two teams play, this game (and particularly the Hand of God goal in England) will be referred to by the sports media in the build up to the game.
On
May 25 1991, a friendly match between the two teams was played at Wembley. Argentina, now under the management of
Alfio Basile, were preparing for the forthcoming
Copa América 1991, which they went on to win. The South Americans had a new generation of players mainly playing locally, replacing the very successful group of the previous two World Cup tournaments. The game was mostly under the control of England, but near the end Argentina came back from two goals down to draw 2-2. In spite of not being a victory, the result was celebrated in Argentina, especially due to both Argentine goals coming from corner kicks, which in Argentina were seen as being a part of the game at which the English usually excelled.
The next meeting between the two countries came in the second round of the
1998 FIFA World Cup, held in
France. The game had many noteworthy aspects including a goal that is also considered
one of the greatest of all time by young striker
Michael Owen.
However, the incident in this game that most exacerbated the rivalry was when
David Beckham received a
red card. Beckham had been fouled by
Diego Simeone and the two players were lying on the pitch in close proximity to one another. As Simeone attempted to raise himself from the ground, he placed his hands on Beckham's back; Beckham was seen to wince in pain as Simeone regained his footing. In what Simeone himself described as an instinctive reaction, Beckham, still laying face down on the pitch flicked his leg towards Simeone striking him on the calf. Simeone later admitted to trying to get Beckham sent off by over-reacting to the kick and then, along with other members of his team, waving imaginary red cards at the referee, urging him to send Beckham off.
Playing with ten men, England held out against the Argentinian attacks and, in the dying moments of the game, during a scramble in the Argentine penalty area,
Sol Campbell headed the ball into the back of the Argentine net. As the England players began to celebrate a winning goal the referee blew for a foul and disallowed it. The consequent Argentine free kick was taken very quickly, while the England players were still celebrating, and they had to rush back to successfully prevent the Argentinians from scoring themselves. The scores stayed level at 2-2 until the end of extra time. In the ensuing
penalty shoot-out that decided the game, Argentina won 4-3 after two English kicks were saved by their goalkeeper
Carlos Roa.
There was heavy criticism in England about Argentina's "theatrics" which many fans held responsible for stealing the win. When Argentina faced
Holland in the quarter-finals, Argentina star
Ariel Ortega unsuccessfully sought to draw a penalty which instead earned him a yellow card. When Dutch goalkeeper
Edwin van der Sar confronted Ortega on the latter's play-acting, Ortega reacted and head-butted him, promptly receiving a red card.
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.] The English media delighted in the irony of this, especially when Holland's winning goal came shortly after Ortega was sent off.
Immediately following the game, Beckham was vilified by the English press for his perceived petulance and naivety on the international stage. The headline in
The Daily Mirror the following day described the England team as "10 heroic lions, one stupid boy". Soon however, the initial reaction was tempered by analysis of the incident and the game is now principally remembered in England for the sense that Simeone had cheated in prompting the Beckham red card and that, again, a victory had been "stolen" by the Argentine team. Argentines, in contrast, still think that Beckham's reaction deserved the red card and Simeone's act was rightly to demand the deserved card, although most admit that it was also partly
gamesmanship. In the end, most people on both sides agreed that Beckham should have kept calm and avoided the incident altogether.
Another friendly was played in 2000, again at Wembley, but ended 0-0 without incident. However, the teams were drawn to meet once more in the group stages of the
2002 FIFA World Cup, Korea-Japan. Having been knocked out by Argentina in two of the previous three World Cups they had competed in, tension in England was high. This tension was raised by the
England team only gaining a draw in their opening match, meaning that they needed a good result against
Argentina to avoid being eliminated from the competition.
The meeting between England and Argentina was one of the few times there had been so much attention given to a first round match. Commentators described the match, which began at twelve noon UK time, as the "longest lunch break in history" as millions in England and throughout the world stopped their jobs and activities to watch the game on TV.
David Beckham, now England captain, scored the only goal of the match, a
penalty kick which many felt redeemed him in the eyes of the English sporting public for his dismissal four years earlier. As
The Times newspaper described it in their match report, "vilified for the red card that helped to usher England out of the 1998 World Cup at the hands of Argentina, he wakes this morning with his halo brighter than ever."
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.] Despite a late onslaught from the Argentinian players at the end of the second half of the game, England maintained the scoreline and won 1-0, and partly as a result of this Argentina (one of the pre-tournament favourites to win) were knocked out in the first round.
Although the Argentinian players and public criticised the awarding of the penalty kick — given for a controversial foul on Michael Owen, whom they felt had dived — the game was generally played in a good, if highly competitive, spirit, and there was none of the bitterness that had affected the 1966 and 1986 meetings.
The most recent game between the two nations occurred on neutral ground in
Geneva,
Switzerland on
12 November 2005 when the two teams, having both already qualified for the following year's World Cup, met in a friendly. Both teams selected strong sides. England twice came from behind to beat Argentina 3-2 with goals from
Michael Owen from crosses by
Steven Gerrard and
Joe Cole. The result and performance were welcomed enthusiastically by the English public, although the Argentinians were dismissive of any wider significance of the result, having withdrawn many of their first-choice players when they were in the lead.
The Times reported: "by the unpleasant standards of previous confrontations, the skirmish between England and Argentina edged towards the saccharine, although the concept is deeply relative. The latest encounter featured punches on the terraces, songs about the Falkland Islands, jibes regarding players' sexuality and general churlishness that (sic), believe it or not, represents a significant thaw in diplomatic relations."
[ URL accessed on June 6 2006.] This game followed the general tone of the last one (
2002 FIFA World Cup), with players focusing more on trying to play football and less on getting revenge on one another.
At the club level, matches have also been heated. Argentine and English clubs have not had many chances to play against each other, but when they have done so there have been notable incidents. The most memorable matches happened in the now defunct
European/South American Cup. In 1968
Estudiantes La Plata played against
Manchester United for the cup, then known as the "Intercontinental Cup". The first leg was in
Buenos Aires where Estudiantes' supporters were highly vocal and the game was played in a very physical manner, as is frequently the case when South American teams play against a European team, with a disputed red card and physical injury.
Manchester United could not recover the 1-0 deficit in the replay and Estudiantes won the title.
Nine years later, in 1977,
Liverpool FC refused to play against
Boca Juniors, so Boca played against European runner-up
Borussia Mönchengladbach and obtained their first cup. In 1978, Liverpool alleged "scheduling conflicts"; the cup was not played.
In 1984
Independiente played Liverpool for the trophy that, by this point, had been renamed the "
Toyota Cup". The format had also changed, to a single game played in
Japan, making it easier for teams to attend. Independiente won 1-0 with a goal by Percudani; this was the last time Argentine and English clubs met in a championship.
Much of the colour and intensity in this rivalry is added by the fans themselves. The early matches generated interest and emotion but it was the 1982
Falklands War that fuelled passions and elevated this rivalry. Before the
1986 game ultras from both countries (
Barra Bravas and
Hooligans) had a fight in a
Mexico City street
[. Please see sidebar, "Presencia repetida".]. During games, though, behaviour so far has been generally peaceful on both sides; probably because of the heightened security in the stadiums.
In the 21st century, fans in Argentina still use anti-English chants. The most used one is "El que no salta es un inglés"
[. URL accessed on June 6 2006.] (The one not jumping is an Englishman). This chant is used to rally the whole stadium into jumping, threatening ridicule to those not jumping with this perceived insult. English fans, on the other hand, frequently mock Argentines with references to their nation's defeat in the 1982 Falklands War.
*
England and Germany football rivalry*
Argentina and Brazil football rivalry*
England v Argentina: A history,
The Observer, Sunday
19 May 2002.
*
England v Argentina revisited,
bbc.co.uk, Friday
29 March 2002.
*
A comprehensive list of the results of the football matches between Argentina and England, last accessed
15 November 2005.
*
Match report — Argentina 2-2 England (Argentina win 4-3 on penalties), bbc.co.uk,
30 June 1998.
*
Match report — Argentina 0-1 England, bbc.co.uk, Friday
7 June 2002.
*
Match report — Argentina 2-3 England, bbc.co.uk,
12 November 2005.
