Old rivals, new battle: Argentina and England clash in World Cup Semifinal
England and Argentina fans sit side by side during the FIFA World Cup match in Sapporo, Japan, on June 7, 2002. England won 1-0. The old rivals meet again this year in a World Cup semifinal showdown.
Stu Forster/Getty Images Europe
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Stu Forster/Getty Images Europe
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Football — or soccer as it’s known in the U.S. — is more than a game, and the World Cup is more than a tournament.
This truism rings clear in the semifinal match between the reigning World Cup champions Argentina and England, a storied rivalry that comes to life today in Atlanta.
Despite Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni’s message to fans that it is “a football game, period,” the South American nation is vibrating with anticipation of the faceoff that is steeped in geopolitics and historical reckoning.
“I’m very anxious and nervous, but more than anything, I have a lot of faith,” said Pablo Medina, 29, Tuesday night in Buenos Aires, on his way into the screening of a new documentary about the other famous World Cup match-up between the two nations, in 1986.
Moviegoers and football fans have been flocking to cinemas in Argentina to see El Partido (“The Game”), a documentary about the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England, where Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal helped secure victory and cemented his place as a football legend.
Four minutes later, Maradona dazzled the crowd with what is known as the goal of the century, dribbling past five English players to help Argentina clinch victory.
Argentina’s Diego Maradona scores his infamous “Hand of God” goal over England goalkeeper Peter Shilton during the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium on June 22, 1986, as England defenders Kenny Sansom (top), Gary Stevens (center), and Terry Fenwick look on.
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While the match is celebrated in Argentina, it continues to evoke the trauma of one of England’s most agonizing World Cup defeats.
For Argentines, it was much more than a game, coming just a few years after a 74-day war over a disputed archipelago off the southern tip of Argentina known in Britain as the Falklands Islands and in Argentina as las Islas Malvinas.
“In that match we weren’t just playing football, we were playing for everything that had happened with the Malvinas war,” Maradona said years later.
It’s a sentiment that persists today.
“More than anything, it’s about the resentment we have towards the English — not the majority of the English, but they stole our land, and it’s a huge lack of respect for us,” said Franco Guido, 14, in the movie theater.
Argentine media reported that U.S. officials have deemed today’s game in Atlanta to be “high risk” and have banned fans inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium from displaying signs or shirts that mention the Malvinas.
The Falkland Islands are officially a British Overseas Territory, since a British naval force expelled an Argentine garrison in 1833, an act Argentina considers illegal.
In 1982, Argentina’s deeply unpopular military dictatorship sent thousands of soldiers to assume control of the Falklands. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher responded by dispatching a fleet of warships to the South Atlantic Ocean. Some 649 Argentines, 255 Britons and three Falkland islanders died in the war that ended with Argentina’s surrender.
The Argentine government continues to lay a constitutional, historical and diplomatic claim to the Falklands. It is also central to the Argentine identity. It is taught at school, is the subject of countless memorials and signs that say “the Malvinas are Argentine” are hung in shops or pasted to city buses.
In the hours before Argentina’s quarterfinal victory over Switzerland, Argentine foreign minister Pablo Quirno wrote on X: “Malvinas: the strength of a just cause. By history, right and conviction, the Malvinas are Argentine.”
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, responded in the same medium: “This matter was decisively settled in 1982 with your emphatic defeat. Don’t try it again.”
England have won three of the five previous World Cup meetings, Argentina have won two. The Argentine squad, led by superstar Lionel Messi, will be wearing its dark blue “away” jersey in Atlanta — an homage to the dark blue jersey worn by Diego Maradona’s side in its famous 1986 World Cup victory over England.
As she waited to see the documentary about that game, Florencia Wolf, 26, a political scientist, reflected on the symbolic meaning of Wednesday’s semifinals. But she said it’s important to separate the game from the conflict.
“There are a lot of people who died there. There is so much to discuss and grieve from that war for me; we shouldn’t mix both things,” she said. “In theory,” she added. “In practice, of course, everything is mixed.”
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