Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

October 16, 2008

Last night I witnessed something so beautiful, so touching it brought me to tears. This was an event that may never happen again in my lifetime, a historic moment that will live on forever.

Chile beat Argentina mother truckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-0, may not sound like much to you, but for people who follow Chilean soccer, the last time we even scored on Argentina was 11 years ago during Salas’ reigning years. The last time we won was….never. Ok, well that might not actually be true. I’m not sure, it’s what S. told me and I take everything he says with a grain of salt because he has a slight tendency to over exaggerate. Any Chilean futbol fan out there know if that’s a real stat or not?

I’m not even joking when I said I was so happy I cried. I LOVE soccer. So naturally it was easy for me to make the transition to becoming a fan of the national team here. The U.S. will always be in my hearts and if they ever match up against Chile we all know who I’d be rooting for — Go red, white and blue! Wait a second…hahaha, but yes, U.S. is always my #1 team. But, their games aren’t shown here. And Chile is my adopted country so they’re also my adopted team.

This is a team that was literally a joke last year. They went to one an important, prestigious tournament (Copa Sudamerica) and were accused of damaging hotel property and sexually harassing female hotel workers. The press complained that the players showed up late to practice, and stayed out partying until 4am on the night before gameday.

One year and a new coach makes a whole lot of difference. The kicker — Bielsa is an Argentine. How funny it must have felt to him that his new team’s current biggest accomplishment ever is beating Argentina decisively.

Last night, in a moment of euphoria, I told Emily, “Soccer can give Chileans something to be happy about! This could make this country a better place to live.”

Obviously, that’s a huge overstatement. But, I really do feel like Chileans need to find something they can feel proud of — and there are plenty of things like the growing economy and how developed this country is, low levels of corruption, and a country riddled with beautiful scenery from the desert to the Antarctic. But, for some reason all that isn’t enough, and I feel like a lot of Chileans are constantly, “mirando pa’ afuera,” (looking outside) to see if they can find something better, wishing they themselves, or the country was better.

It’s not wrong to want to better your country — there are a million things I would change about the U.S. if I could. But, the thing is, I don’t want to change it to be like someplace else. I would make certain things better, but would hope that the country would still retain it’s sense of self. And sometimes I get the feeling that Chile just wishes it could be someone else.

Such an important victory in soccer could be one small step in the right direction. I hope that it makes people here realize, you don’t have to be like Argentina. You can play like Chile and still beat them at their own game.

And at the very least, that awesome goal by Orellana put a huge grin on a lot of Chilean faces. Hopefully today there will less pushing in the metro, less grouchy folks waiting in line, more smiles on the streets, more optimism in general, people united in a common sense of, “We did it!!!” Chile beat Argentina.

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14 Comments

Ho! So that was the cause of the huge clamour yesterday evening… Not sure it will change the mentality of Chilean, but anything that helps is welcome!

Comment by jyby — October 16, 2008 @ 8:00 am

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Haha, I maintain it may not be the turning point. If they go on to win the World Cup however…

Also, apparently it was the first time Chile’s beat Argentina on points (which I think means goals vs. penalty kicks). Technicalities. I’m just going with the first time they’ve ever beaten Argentina.

Comment by Emily — October 16, 2008 @ 8:27 am

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Haha, I posted about this too.

F. says that it’s the first time they’ve beaten Argentina in 35 years. Not sure what the whole “on points” business means. But whatever, YAY!

Comment by Abby — October 16, 2008 @ 10:08 am

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I think we all posted about this. I mean you couldn’t help but notice the revelry, it was sor of contagious and I didn’t even watch the game!

Comment by Sara — October 16, 2008 @ 10:36 am

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You’re not gonna believe this. My sister asked me on MSN if I was going to watch the game. I said no, no point, they are too lazy and I couldn’t be bothered. I woke up at night dreaming I was watching the game with one of my best mates (he’s built up his whole life around football). I fel asleep immediately.

Then in the morning, I turned on the computer first thing. I woke up at the time they scored. I don’t believe in anything supernatural or in the unexplained, but today has been the most bizarre ever.

BTW, I met the footballers in their hotel in Dublin, after they beat Ireland. They were great and had all the time for the fans. Chatting and joking, I told them that Leeson St was the place to go (I explained to them what a ‘meat market’ is, dunno if you use that word in America). When I saw the Irish papers and the Chileans on the Dublinazo (an drunken incident with women in the hotel) I had a similar moment. They did go to Leeson St, and I’m only too happy now that Mark Gonzalez is back in the national team.

Great post Kyle, this has been truly historic because at the end of the day, we totally love the Argentinians and their football is one of the world’s finest, so this was just great.

Just one question: how come the US women team is so good?

Comment by Carlos — October 16, 2008 @ 12:48 pm

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Ok…

Kyle, I love you for this post… and since you told me that lots of people read in Spanish, I can’t help but to write in my beloved mother tongue

El partido fue la raja… todavÃa tengo una sonrisa gigante en mi cara que me recuerda lo bonito del partido de ayer. E histÃ³rico. SÃ, histÃ³rico, porque se le ganÃ³ a una Argentina plagada de figuras en lo futbolÃstico y ademÃ¡s porque todas esas figuras que siempre se han encargado a travÃ©s de los aÃ±os de decir cosas como “el fÃºtbol chileno es de bajo nivel” y similares ayer tuvieron que tragarse sus palabras. Hidalgamente, muchos seleccionados argentinos reconocieron que el partido no pudieron ganarlo gracias al buen juego de Chile y ademÃ¡s recalcaron el hecho de que el resultado de 1-0 es engaÃ±oso porque merecimos mÃ¡s goles. Pero no importa, con uno basta y la alegrÃa es la misma.

Muchas gracias por tu apoyo a mi selecciÃ³n.

And now… for the technical things (that I’d like to explain since it seems I’m the only man posting here):

The whole “winning on points first time” means that we have never beaten the Argentinian National Team before in a qualyfiying match for the world cup qualies and that we have never beaten them in a World Cup Tournament. It’s labelled with the “points” thing because we have beaten Argentina before, but it’s been in friendly matches and also in preolimpic competitions in the under-23 category, but never in the adult one.

That being explained, I’d like to address something you said: We dp have lots of things to feel proud of. But the economy will never be something that we could never be proud if the regular situation doesn’t change. The fact that supports this is explained that it doesn’t matter if the country grows since the only ones that grow are the same 20 families that own 80% of the businesses and the money. So if you ask me if I’m proud of that, I’m not because the differences in between the population when it comes to incomes are still abismal. However, you got a really big point in mentioning that we don’t need to copy anything but stick to our own style and traditions. I totally agree with you on that.

Thanks you very much for your comment about this match, it’s been such a beautiful day (no working at all) and I hope this will make us see things in a better way. It doesn’t matter if it was “just a football match” (sorry… I don’t like the soccer word) but it matters specially when we were praying the whole day until minutes before the match because we still didn’t give up our faith on the national team.

Take LOTS of CARE

Comment by Gus — October 16, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

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BTW, my real smile is even bigger than the one the guy in the photo has

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Comment by Gus — October 16, 2008 @ 6:43 pm

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Yeah! That’s awesome. It’s always great rooting for a winning team…

Jayna

Comment by Anonymous — October 16, 2008 @ 9:03 pm

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Ha, ha! I laughed out loud when I got to the second paragraph just because of how you set it up.

Awesome! We love soccer and watching it in Brazil has been amazing. Even the local team here is better than anything I’ve seen. There is something about the skill to play that is almost culturally genetic. It is unreal to watch.

Comment by Lori - Blondie in Brazil — October 17, 2008 @ 6:37 am

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LOL, so glad you had a good day!

This is obviously a huge victory for you and Chile

Comment by That girl — October 17, 2008 @ 11:42 am

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Hi Kyle! I am in NYC right now and went to a great pub that had the game on. It was fantastic!!! The number of Argentines there outnumbered the Chileans, but as the game went on and on, the Chileans got louder and soon you couldn’t hear anything except Chi Chi Chi L L A, Vive Chile! It was fantastic!!! Everyone was chanting and jumping up and down. The spirit was great.

Comment by Lisa — October 17, 2008 @ 11:39 pm

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This is a cute post! It’s nice to read you so excited about this victory!
I dunno if soeone above said it, but last time Chile won to Argentina was in the ’70… 1972 or something like that… that means: a loooooong time ago.
I’m not a huge fan of football, but I’m happy for all the people who is a fan, including you.
(I just couchsurfed and had a great experience, all thanks to you… I will tell more later in my blog)…

Comment by Irantzu — October 18, 2008 @ 6:51 am

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hahaha, this post reminded me of when the Mexican soccer team beat the US soccer team in the 94 World Cup and moved on to the quarters finals !

Every single mexican (the entire 100 millon of them!) went out and celebrated that night!!

*wink*
Fned.

Comment by Fned — October 18, 2008 @ 7:52 am

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Hey:
I’m also a Chilean living in good auld Dublin, and I saw the guys playing (and beating) Ireland and I was happy, but not crazy. So when I knew that they would be playing our old fiend, I just couldn’t be bothered. But the next day, at lunchtime I saw the news and saw the goal in youtube, and I was really crazy!!! that night we went to the Pub and three pints went down in its honour: one for Orellana, one for Chile and one for myself, for the joy to be proud of my country again!!! SlÃ¡inte! Salud!

Comment by Santiago FLORES — October 19, 2008 @ 3:42 pm

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