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    César Luis Menotti, Who Coached Argentina to a World Cup, Dies at 85

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    He led the national team to a championship in 1978 but was convinced that it didn’t get the recognition it deserved in the shadow of the country’s dictatorship.César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who in 1978 led Argentina to its first World Cup title, achieving that milestone in the country’s capital, Buenos Aires, has died. He was 85.The Argentine Football Association announced the death on Sunday but did not give a cause or specify where or when he died. Local media reports said that he had been admitted to a clinic in March with severe anemia. He reportedly underwent surgery for phlebitis in April and then returned home.Passion for soccer and a sharp ability to explain its mechanics were Menotti’s hallmark characteristics as a trainer. He was considered one of the most emblematic and influential coaches in Argentine soccer.Menotti during a training session in 1980. His own playing career extended from 1960 to 1970. Duncan Raban/Allsport, via Getty ImagesMenotti, whose nickname was El Flaco (The Thin One), coached Argentina’s national team from 1974 to 1983. He was convinced that the team did not get the recognition it deserved when it won the World Cup because the country was ruled at the time by a military junta responsible for widespread human rights violations.His detractors often recalled a photo in which Menotti, after Argentina defeated the Netherlands in the final, 3-1, shook hands with Jorge Rafael Videla, who was the head of the junta. The victory came at the height of the so-called dirty war, in which thousands of political opponents of the regime were tortured, killed or “disappeared.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Argentina’s World Cup Champions Gather for First Time Since Qatar

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      Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates have reunited for the first time. Most are finding a day job feels different after you’ve won the World Cup.When Alexis Mac Allister returned to his day job, he was greeted by a standing ovation, an Argentine flag and a set of strategically placed cannons that showered him with blue, white and gold glitter. His Premier League team, Brighton, had even gone to the trouble of commissioning a scale-model replica of the World Cup trophy for him to lift.Few of Mac Allister’s teammates on the Argentina squad that became world champions three months ago experienced such a lavish welcome when they returned to their clubs, but most were treated to some sort of celebration, a heartfelt recognition of their achievement.Defender Lisandro Martínez was applauded onto the field at Manchester United. The reserve goalkeeper Franco Armani has received at least one commemorative jersey from his opponents. The midfielder Exequiel Palacios spent a portion of his first day back at Bayer Leverkusen signing autographs for his co-workers.Marcos Acuña, Alejandro Gómez and Gonzalo Montiel — the scorer of the penalty that brought his nation its third World Cup — were invited to take part in a ceremonial kickoff before their first home game for their club, Sevilla. Acuña and Montiel appeared with their gold medals around their necks. Gómez, wearing a black trench coat, clasped his in his fist.Sevilla honored three of its Argentina players, but not all were ready to play right away.Antonio Pozo/Pressinphoto, via Icon SportAlexis Mac Allister’s welcome home at Brighton included flags, confetti and a replica trophy.Andrew Couldridge/Action Images, via ReutersAt Manchester United, even Lisandro Martínez’s star teammates were impressed.Carl Recine/ReutersOthers opted for a more low-key approach. Lionel Messi was granted a guard of honor at his first training session with Paris St.-Germain; the club, probably sensibly, had presumably decided that the French public would not be in the mood to toast Argentina’s success at its expense.Thiago Almada, who at 21 is the youngest official member of Argentina’s squad, found something similar waiting for him at Atlanta United. “We gave him a túnel, and I addressed him in front of the team,” said Gonzalo Pineda, Atlanta’s head coach. “It’s a massive achievement for him, of course, but we want to keep him grounded, too.”How to do that is the dilemma facing not only the 19 clubs that were represented on the victorious Argentina squad, but the 26 players themselves. (That figure rises to 27 if Federico Gomes Gerth, a goalkeeper with the Argentine club Tigre who was brought to Qatar to help in training, is included; the 19-year-old was sent his own medal last week.)Winning the World Cup, after all, will likely be the pinnacle of each of their careers, an achievement that the midfielder Rodrigo De Paul has described as “the key to eternity.” They are conscious that it is a triumph that they may well be unable to match, and which they certainly will not be allowed to forget: Emiliano Martínez, the goalkeeper, has noted that “people keep telling me that I have achieved the maximum in soccer.”Argentina’s mood, naturally, remains celebratory. On Thursday, the team will take the field for the first time since its World Cup win in Qatar, wearing jerseys proudly embroidered with three stars. At the end of the team’s friendly against Panama in Buenos Aires, Messi will present the World Cup trophy to the crowd. It is such an enticing prospect that some 1.8 million people — four percent of the country’s population — applied for tickets. They sold out in two hours. “There is a madness that is still being lived, and will be lived for a long time,” De Paul said.For the players, that intense interest has presented a considerable challenge. All World Cup winners have to descend to Earth at some point, of course, but most do not have to do it quite so quickly.Exequiel Palacios’s coach at Bayer Leverkusen, the World Cup winner Xabi Alonso, said the 24-year-old has shown more confidence since returning to the club a world champion.Ina Fassbender/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe scheduling of Qatar 2022, in the middle of the European season, meant that a majority of the players on Lionel Scaloni’s squad were summoned back to the relative mundanity of club soccer within a couple of weeks.They had been marked, figuratively and literally, by what they had achieved — Ángel Di María and Emiliano Martínez both now have the World Cup trophy tattooed on their legs; Montiel has three stars on his neck — but now they found themselves commanded, almost instantly, to turn the page on the most glorious chapter of their careers.“It is the most difficult stage after you have achieved something so big,” Palacios told Infobae in January. “You have to change your focus quickly and continue training.”In most cases, the players seem to have made that transition relatively smoothly. Those who work with them say the gold medals have been a source of inspiration rather than a token of satisfaction. “He’s got a spring in his step,” Evan Ferguson, Mac Allister’s teammate at Brighton, said of the 24-year-old midfielder. “But he’s still grounded. He’s still giving his all in training. He doesn’t think he’s better than us now.”That does not mean, though, that waking up every morning as a World Cup winner does not have an impact. Xabi Alonso, a world champion with Spain in 2010 and now Palacios’s coach at Leverkusen, has noticed that the 24-year-old has a little bit more “confidence about what he has achieved” in his career since he returned from Qatar. “Being part of that historic win, the way the team played and the fact he was part of it has helped him enormously,” Alonso said.Pineda, meanwhile, has found that Almada — still just 21, and entering his sophomore year in Major League Soccer — is “a little more vocal” in team meetings and on the field than he was before the World Cup. “He’s still the same professional kid, mature for his age, but if you share a locker room with Messi before a World Cup final, you’re going to learn a little bit about what to say and when to say it,” Pineda said.Thiago Almada was the youngest member of Argentina’s World Cup team.Jennifer Lorenzini/ReutersNow he might be the best young player in Major League Soccer.Alex Slitz/Associated PressAtlanta has not seen any signs that Almada is prepared to rest on his laurels, though the relatively muted celebration that greeted his return indicates that the club was aware of the risk. “His objective has always been to be a major player on a team in Europe,” Pineda said. “He wants to succeed there, to be a starter for the national team, to be on the top level. He is young and he is super-talented, but he still has a couple more things to prove.”Winning the World Cup before his 22nd birthday, as far as the club is concerned, has not changed any of that. At the start of this season, Atlanta provided each member of its squad with an individual development plan, a way of tracking every player’s growth, reminding them both of where they are and where they want to be.Almada’s has not been updated to reflect the fact that he has lifted the World Cup, completed his ultimate dream, obtained his key to eternity. He, like his teammates on that Argentina squad, might never be able to match what they achieved in Qatar. But that does not mean that they should not try.Tariq Panja contributed reporting from Brighton, England. More

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      World Cup Homecoming Brings Argentina to a Halt

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      As Argentina’s national soccer team touched down in Buenos Aires on Tuesday after winning the World Cup, millions of Argentines flocked to greet the players. The government declared their homecoming a national holiday, and the team began a 50-mile victory parade through the capital.The team toured the city on an open-top bus flanked by security guards, and players were seen beating drums and sipping viajeros, a local drink that combines Coca-Cola with Fernet, an Italian spirit, downed from a cutoff plastic bottle. So many people turned out to welcome the team around the Obelisco, a downtown monument, that the caravan had to change course at the last minute because of security concerns.The celebrations have been constant since Argentina won its third World Cup title on Sunday. The night of the victory, more than a million people streamed into Avenida 9 de Julio, in the heart of the capital, chanting songs, blaring car horns and setting off fireworks.Here are scenes from what may be the biggest open-air party in Buenos Aires’s history.— Ana LankesBy The Associated PressMillions of people celebrated in Buenos Aires after Argentina’s national team delivered the country’s third World Cup victory.Natacha Pisarenko/Associated PressLeandro Paredes held the World Cup trophy aloft as he and his teammates sang with supporters along the parade route.Marcelo Endelli/Getty ImagesThe Obelisk at the center of Buenos Aires, which commemorates the founding of the city, was so full of supporters that it forced a last-minute change in the parade route.Emiliano Lasalvia/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFans around the Obelisk climbed onto everything that could hold them, including street lamps and the awnings above bus stations.Natacha Pisarenko/Associated PressSeated on the back of the bus, Lionel Messi and his teammates started the journey from the Ezeiza training center to downtown Buenos Aires shortly before noon on Tuesday.Cristina Sille/ReutersAccompanied by trumpets, drums or sometimes nothing at all, Argentina supporters have been singing seemingly since the start of the final match on Sunday.Matilde Campodonico/Associated PressImages of Messi alongside the legendary Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona were unfurled throughout the capital.Marcelo Endelli/Getty ImagesTrophy in hand, Messi led his team off the plane at Ezeiza International Airport, where they were greeted by a massive crowd of supporters.Tomas Cuesta/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe team’s bus drove from the airport to the Argentina Football Association training center in Ezeiza, in the Buenos Aires province.Rodrigo Valle/Getty ImagesFans young and old sang in the streets before, during and after seeing the players’ bus drive by.Argentina’s national team paraded through the capital in a bus as fans cheered and welcomed them home.By The Associated PressArgentina’s national team paraded through the capital in a bus as fans cheered and welcomed them home.Marcelo Endelli/Getty ImagesLionel Messi, Rodrigo de Paul, Leandro Paredes, Lautaro Martínez and Julián Álvarez were among the players seen singing from the open-top bus that transported them to the training center.Mariana Nedelcu/ReutersFans and players have adopted a song with lyrics modified by a fan, “Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar,” as the unofficial anthem of their World Cup run.Tomas Cuesta/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFans cheered from the base to the peak of Buenos Aires’s iconic Obelisk.Luis Robayo/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe team’s official parade began in earnest on Tuesday with players again touring a 50-mile route through the city in buses. More

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      How Argentina Celebrated the 2022 World Cup Win

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      Argentina erupted in celebration after the country’s World Cup victory over France.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesBUENOS AIRES — After 36 years, the parade couldn’t wait.Half a world away, Argentina’s beloved men’s national team hoisted its third World Cup trophy. And the nation began to march.In a sort of euphoric procession that played out across the country, millions of Argentines paraded to central squares and monuments in cities and towns, large and small. In Rosario, the hometown of their World Cup hero, Lionel Messi, they marched to the Flag Monument. And here in the capital, Buenos Aires, fans streamed down broad avenues that all pointed to the city’s effective center — a large plaza centered around a 235-foot-tall monument known simply as the Obelisk.“It is our pilgrimage,” said Elsa Diaz, 70, a handywoman draped in an Argentine flag, making the same walk she made in 1978 when Argentina won its first World Cup, but this time with her 32-year-old daughter. “We are all going to the Obelisk. It is our monument, and the center of Argentina.”In a country where soccer is religion, this was among the holiest of Sundays. And so when Gonzalo Montiel’s penalty kick hit the back of the net — vanquishing France, ending a World Cup final for the ages and bringing the championship back to this soccer-obsessed country for the first time since 1986 — Argentina was plunged into a sort of rapture.Strangers hugged. Friends kissed. Grown men wept. And everyone shrieked. “Argentina, mi amor!” one man yelled during extra time, tears streaming down his face. “Argentina, my love!”“Emotion, joy — and a release,” said Federico Polo, 19, right after the victory.Argentines celebrated the country’s first World Cup title in 36 years.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesThousands had gathered in Centenario Park in western Buenos Aires to watch the game on a large screen set up by the city. After the match, everyone had the same idea: Head to the Obelisk.But the roads were jammed, the metro was shut down and the city buses were parked. So they walked.“The entirety of Argentina is on this avenue right now,” said Sergio Gutierrez, 46, a drugstore worker banging a drum, who walked with his wife and three children down Corrientes Avenue, a famed thoroughfare closely associated with the tango for the many theaters and dance halls that line the way. “We will walk until we can’t get any farther.”The walk from the park would take 70 minutes, according to Google Maps, but the avenue was jammed, the pace was slow, and there were plenty of distractions along the way.Every woman who looked to be of grandmother age was serenaded with a chant that has become a rallying cry of this year’s World Cup in Argentina: “Abuela, la, la, la, la, la.” The chant, of the Spanish word for grandmother, began in Buenos Aires after one of Argentina’s victories, when a group of young men sang it to a dancing older woman who wore a medical mask and wrapped herself in a flag.“She still doesn’t know why everyone is singing to her but she loves it,” said Silvia Belvedere of her 89-year-old mother, Nelida Peralta, who was standing on the sidewalk along the procession, gripping a cane and waving two small Argentina flags. As the procession passed, each group that noticed her stopped to serenade her and take photos.“I’m so happy,” Ms. Peralta said. “I can’t go there, so I’m staying here waving the flag.”Farther down the avenue, a group of Bangladeshi immigrants were greeted warmly by the marching fans. Bangladesh’s love for Argentina’s national soccer team has become a major storyline here, and so Argentines parading down the route stopped for photos and high fives. One of the men from Bangladesh, who said he had lived in Buenos Aires for 24 years, said he had never felt more connected to his adopted home.Along the route, Argentines expressed their joy with whatever was at hand. Cars stuck at intersections watching the procession beeped incessantly; one man banged a pan with a spoon. And over and over again, the crowd sang this year’s anthem of the Argentina national team, “Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos A Ilusionar” — or “Guys, Now We’re Getting Excited Again.”The song has become a sort of celebratory hymn in Argentina over the past several weeks, and it speaks of Argentina’s late soccer star, Diego Maradona, a sort of deity in this country, looking down from the sky to help Messi and his teammates bring Argentina another World Cup. After the song’s prediction came to fruition on Sunday, it was the soundtrack of the march.Vast crowds surround the Obelisk in the center of Buenos Aires on Sunday.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesAs the Obelisk came into view, the crowd thickened. A city bus that had been abandoned in the middle of the street had more than a dozen revelers dancing atop it. Elsewhere, men hung from light poles, and people climbed to the roof of a restaurant via a ladder that created a sort of bridge between the restaurant and the top of a newsstand.Some people had already been to the Obelisk and were heading the other way, their pilgrimage complete. A man with his face and chest painted blue and white looked drained. “My throat hurts from screaming,” said Pedro Humberto Aguilar, 51, behind blue-tinted shades.The procession ended at Republic Plaza, a sea of celebration in every direction. Every avenue leading to the plaza was clogged with revelers. From above, the plaza was an expanse of humanity, hundreds of thousands of people, interspersed with waving flags and occasional fireworks.Through the rapturous cacophony, the anthem could be made out here and there.Over and over again, revelers belted out the lyrics, which try to convey Argentina’s intense love for its soccer team.“I can’t explain it to you,” they sang, “because you won’t understand.”Macarena Funes and Valeria Dorrego contributed reporting. More

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      Qatar Got the World Cup It Wanted

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      DOHA, Qatar — In the end, Qatar got what it wanted.The tiny desert state, a thumb-shaped peninsula, craved nothing more than to be better known, to be a player on the world stage, when in 2009 it launched what seemed like an improbable bid to stage the men’s soccer World Cup, the most popular sporting event on earth. Hosting the tournament has cost more than anyone could have imagined — in treasure, in time, in lives.But on Sunday night, as the fireworks filled the sky above Lusail, as the Argentina fans sang and their star, Lionel Messi, beamed while clasping a trophy he had waited a lifetime to touch, everyone knew Qatar.The spectacular denouement — a dream final pitting Argentina against France; a first World Cup title for Messi, the world’s best player; a pulsating match settled after six goals and a penalty shootout — made sure of that. And as if to make sure, to put the nation’s final imprint on the first World Cup in the Middle East, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, stopped a beaming Messi as he made his way to collect the biggest trophy in the sport and pulled him back. There was one more thing that needed to be done.He pulled out a golden fringed bisht, the black cloak worn in the Gulf for special occasions, and wrapped it around Messi’s shoulders before handing over the 18-karat gold trophy.The celebration ended a tumultuous decade for a tournament awarded in a bribery scandal; stained by claims of human rights abuses and the deaths and injuries suffered by the migrant workers hired to build Qatar’s $200 billion World Cup; and shadowed by controversial decisions on everything from alcohol to armbands.Fireworks went off at Lusail Stadium after Argentina was presented the World Cup trophy after its win.Robert Cianflone/Getty ImagesYet for one month Qatar has been the center of the world, pulling off a feat none of its neighbors in the Arab world had managed to achieve, one that at times had seemed unthinkable in the years since Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president, made the stunning announcement inside a Zurich conference hall on Dec. 2, 2010, that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup.It is improbable the sport will see such an unlikely host again soon. Qatar was perhaps among the most ill-suited hosts for a tournament of the scale of the World Cup, a country so lacking in stadiums and infrastructure and history that its bid was labeled “high risk” by FIFA’s own evaluators. But it took advantage of the one commodity it had in plentiful supply: money.Backed by seemingly bottomless financial resources to fuel its ambitions, Qatar embarked on a project that required nothing less than the building, or rebuilding, of its entire country in service to a monthlong soccer tournament. Those billions were spent within its borders — seven new stadiums were constructed and other major infrastructure projects were completed at enormous financial and human cost. But when that was not enough, it spent lavishly outside its boundaries, too, acquiring sports teams and sports rights worth billions of dollars, and hiring sports stars and celebrities to support its cause.And all that was on display Sunday. By the time the final game was played in the $1 billion Lusail Stadium, Qatar could not lose. The game was being shown across the Middle East on beIN Sports, a sports broadcasting behemoth set up in the aftermath of Qatar’s winning the World Cup hosting rights. It also could lay claim to the two best players on the field, Argentina’s Messi and the French star Kylian Mbappé, both of whom are under contract to the Qatar-owned French club Paris St.-Germain.Mbappé, who had scored the first hat trick in a final in over a half-century, finished the game sitting on the grass, consoled by President Emmanuel Macron of France, an invited guest of the emir, as Argentina’s players danced in celebration all around him.Despite scoring a hat trick in the final game, Kylian Mbappé of France finished the tournament dejected on his team’s bench.Carl Recine/ReutersThe competition delivered compelling — and sometimes troubling — story lines from the outset, with the intensely political opening at Al Bayt Stadium, an enormous venue designed to look like a Bedouin tent. That night, Qatar’s emir had sat side by side with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, less than three years after the latter had led a punishing blockade of Qatar.For a month, deals were discussed and alliances were made. Qatar’s team was not a factor in its World Cup debut; it lost all three of its games, exiting the competition with the worst performance of any host in the competition’s history.There would also be other challenges, some of Qatar’s own making, like a sudden prohibition on the sale of alcohol within the stadium perimeters only two days before that first game — a last-minute decision that left Budweiser, a longtime sponsor of soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, to fume on the sideline.On the tournament’s second day, FIFA crushed a campaign by a group of European teams to wear an armband to promote inclusivity, part of efforts promised to campaign groups and critics in their home countries, and then Qatar quashed efforts by Iranian fans to highlight ongoing protests in their country.But on the field, the competition delivered. There were great goals and great games, stunning upsets and an abundance of surprising score lines that created new heroes, most notably in the Arab world.First came Saudi Arabia, which can now lay claim to having beaten the World Cup champion in the group stage. Morocco, which had only once reached the knockout stage, became the first African team to advance to the semifinals, pulling off a succession of barely believable victories over European soccer heavyweights: Belgium, Spain and then Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.Those results sparked celebration across the Arab world and in a handful of major European capitals, while also providing a platform for fans in Qatar to promote the Palestinian cause, the one intrusion of politics that Qatari officials did nothing to discourage.Morocco became the first African team to reach the semifinals of the World Cup in the tournament’s history.Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn the stands, the backdrop was a curious one, with several games appearing short of supporters and then mysteriously filling up in the minutes after kickoff, when gates were opened to grant spectators — many of them the South Asian migrants — entry free of charge. The true number of paying spectators is unlikely to ever be known, their empty seats filled by thousands of the same laborers and migrants who had built the stadium and the country, and who kept it running during the World Cup.That group, largely drawn from countries like India, Bangladesh and Nepal, was the most visible face of Qatar to the estimated one million visitors who traveled to the tournament. They worked as volunteers at stadiums, served the food and manned the metro stations, buffed the marble floors and shined the hand rails and door knobs at the scores of newly built hotels and apartment complexes.By the end of the tournament, most of those fans had gone, leaving the Argentines — an estimated temporary population of 40,000 — to provide the sonic backdrop to the final game. Dressed in sky blue and white stripes, they converged on the Lusail Stadium, creating the type of authentic World Cup atmosphere — bouncing and singing throughout 120 minutes of play, and then long afterward — that no amount of Qatari wealth could buy.They had gotten exactly what they wanted from the World Cup. And so did Qatar.Lionel Messi was hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders after Argentina’s victory.Matthias Hangst/Getty Images More

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      Todos los goles de la final de la Copa del Mundo

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      Argentina y Francia anotaron, respectivamente, dos goles en el tiempo regular, después ambos anotaron un gol en la prórroga, y al final Argentina ganó en la tanda de penales, 4-2.En el final más emocionante de la final más emocionante en la historia de la Copa del Mundo, Argentina venció a Francia, y Lionel Messi y Kylian Mbappé cumplieron una y otra y otra y otra y otra y otra vez, y otra vez.Ya sea que te hayas perdido la conclusión absurda de un torneo absurdamente deleitante o solo quieras revivirla, aquí están los momentos más importantes. (Y asegúrate de leer nuestro resumen del juego).Primer tiempo21’: Penal para Argentina. Ousmane Dembélé embatió a Ángel Di María🚨 ¡PENAAAAAAAL PARA ARGENTINAAAAAA! 😱 Falta sobre Dembélé dentro del área sobre Ángel Di María… Para ti, ¿Es o no es?#ARG 0-0 #FRA#MundialTelemundo #ElMundialLoEsTodo #Qatar2022 #ARGvsFRA pic.twitter.com/vztsBjVOCz— Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) December 18, 2022
      ¿Puede ser?23’: ¡Gol! Lionel Messi anota. Argentina 1, Francia 0Sí es. ¡Sí es!36’: ¡Gol! Di María anota. Argentina 2, Francia 0Santo cielo.Pero…Segundo tiempo79’: Penal para Francia. Randal Kolo Muani consigue que Nicolás Otamendi le haga penalLa cosa se pone interesante.Y entonces …80’: Gol! Kylian Mbappé anota. Argentina 2, Francia 1Y luego…81’: Gol! Mbappé vuelve a anotar menos de dos minutos después. Argentina 2, Francia 2Queremos más.Tiempos extras108’: ¡Gol! Messi anota su segundo gol. Argentina 3, Francia 2¡Perros y gatos viven en paz!¡A menos que…!116’: Penal para Francia. El balón le da en el codo a Gonzalo Montiel en el área118’: ¡Gol! Mbappé hace un triplete. Argentina 3, Francia 3¡In-cre-í-ble!Tanda de penales¡Mbappé anota para Francia!¡¿Quién más?!¡Messi anota para Argentina!¡Obvio!¡Emiliano Martínez detiene el tiro de Kingsley Coman!Qué. Está. Pasando.¡Paulo Dybala anota para Argentina!¡Pum!¡Aurélien Tchouámeni falla por Francia!¡Ay ay ay ay!¡Leandro Paredes mete un gol para Argentina!Ya casi, ¡ya casi!¡Kolo Muani mantiene viva a Francia!Respira, respira, respira.¡Montiel anota y Argentina gana la Copa del Mundo!Andrés Cantor, el presentador de Telemundo, es originario de Buenos Aires.Y aquí hay algo para comprenderlo todo: More

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      Watch All the Goals From the Incredible World Cup Final

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      Argentina and France each scored two goals in regulation, both scored once in extra time, and Argentina won in a penalty shootout, 4-2. See all the highlights from Telemundo and Fox.In the most thrilling finish to the most thrilling final in World Cup history, Argentina edged France, as Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé delivered again and again and again and again and again and again — and again.Whether you missed this absurd conclusion to an absurdly delightful tournament or just want to relive it, here are all the highlights. (And be sure to read our recap of the game.)First Half21’: Penalty for Argentina. Ousmane Dembélé trips Ángel Di María.🚨 ¡PENAAAAAAAL PARA ARGENTINAAAAAA! 😱 Falta sobre Dembélé dentro del área sobre Ángel Di María… Para ti, ¿Es o no es?#ARG 0-0 #FRA#MundialTelemundo #ElMundialLoEsTodo #Qatar2022 #ARGvsFRA pic.twitter.com/vztsBjVOCz— Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) December 18, 2022
      Could it be?23’: Goal! Lionel Messi converts. Argentina 1, France 0.It is!36’: Goal! Di María scores. Argentina 2, France 0.Holy moly!But!Second Half79’: Penalty for France. Randal Kolo Muani draws the penalty on Nicolás Otamendi.Interesting!And then …80’: Goal! Kylian Mbappé converts. Argentina 2, France 1.And then …81’: Goal! Mbappé scores again less than two minutes later. Argentina 2, France 2.Give us more!Extra Time108’: Goal! Messi scores his second. Argentina 3, France 2.Dogs and cats living in harmony!Unless!116’: Penalty for France. The ball hits Gonzalo Montiel in the elbow in the penalty area.118’: Goal! Mbappé converts for a hat trick. Argentina 3, France 3.Unbelievable!Penalty ShootoutMbappé scores for France!Who else?!Messi scores for Argentina!Obviously!Kingsley Coman’s shot is saved by Emiliano Martínez!What. Is. Even. Happening?Paulo Dybala scores for Argentina!Boom!Aurélien Tchouámeni misses for France!Ahhh!Leandro Paredes scores for Argentina!Almost there!Kolo Muani keeps France alive!Breathe in, breathe out.Montiel scores and Argentina wins the World Cup!The Telemundo announcer, Andrés Cantor, is from Buenos Aires.Now, to make sense of it all: More

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      Behind Argentina’s World Cup Magic, an Army of Witches

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      Magalí Martínez knew something was off: The seemingly invincible soccer star Lionel Messi was scuffling on the soccer pitch. To her, it looked like he was afflicted with a supernatural curse that has roots in different cultures across history, the “evil eye.”So Martínez, a self-proclaimed witch and part-time babysitter, got to work. She focused intensely on Messi, began repeating a prayer and drizzled a bit of oil into a bowl of water. If the oil remained dispersed, he was safe. If it collected in the middle, he was cursed.“It came together like a magnet,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to cure him alone.”She went to Twitter and called on her fellow witches across Argentina. “Evil-eye healing sisters, Messi is very affected,” she said. “I need your help.”A thousand people shared her tweet, with many saying they, too, were witches and would work to protect Argentina’s golden boy.Argentina has not lost since.The bookkeepers have set their odds, gamblers have placed their bets and the experts have made their picks for Sunday’s World Cup final between Argentina and France, but their analysis of the matchup — focused on just the 22 players on the field — might not be considering a wild card: Argentina’s army of witches.Witches in Argentina have formed groups to give their soccer team a magic boost ever since the team’s first loss in the World Cup.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesIn recent weeks, hundreds, if not thousands of Argentine women who call themselves “brujas,” or witches, have taken up arms — in the form of prayers, altars, candles, amulets and burning sage — to protect their nation’s beloved soccer team in its quest to secure a third World Cup title and its first in 36 years.“We think of ourselves as agents that, from love, can take care, protect and sow happiness,” said Rocío Cabral Menna, 27, a witch and high-school teacher in Messi’s hometown, Rosario, who burns a bay leaf inscribed with her predicted score in a ceremony before each match. The players are competing on the field, she said, and at home, “the witches are taking care of them.”The trend caught fire after Argentina’s shocking loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match, causing Argentines to search for any way to help the team on which this nation of 47 million has pitted its hopes.After that match, several witches started a WhatsApp group to instruct other witches on how to help the national team. They called it the Argentine Association of Witches, or La Brujineta, a play on “bruja” and “La Scaloneta,” Argentina’s nickname for its national team.“I thought there were going to be 10 people at most,” said the group’s founder, Antonella Spadafora, 23, a witch who runs a convenience store in a city in northwest Argentina. Within days, more than 300 people had joined the group. Last week, there was so much demand that they started a Twitter account. It has gained 25,000 followers in seven days.“We got tired of being closet witches,” said Andrea Maciel, 28, a witch and graphic designer in Buenos Aires who now helps manage the group.The witches said their main focus is to use rituals to absorb negative energy from Argentina’s players and exchange it with good energy. That, however, leaves them exhausted.Rocío Cabral Menna is a witch, poet and literature professor in Rosario, Argentina, the hometown of Lionel Messi.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesCabral Menna works with tarot cards and candles to help Argentina’s team.Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times“Headaches, dizziness, vomiting, muscle pain,” Spadafora said. “We are absorbing all the bad vibes,” she added. “It wears you down a lot, because these are very public figures who have so much negative energy from other people.”So, to divide the burden, the group leaders now split the witches into groups before every match, each focused on protecting a certain player.While many of the witches said they are working to look after Messi and his teammates, others are attempting to cast spells on opposing players, particularly the goalkeepers. One ritual involves freezing a slip of paper with the name of a player on it, saying a curse and then burning the frozen paper just before the match.But the Brujineta group warned that trying to curse France could backfire, particularly because of the team’s star forward, Kylian Mbappé.“We do not recommend freezing France, as their players are protected by dark entities and the energy can bounce back!!” the group announced on Twitter on Wednesday. “We saw very dark things in the French team and especially in Mbappé. Please share!!!”The witches focused on the World Cup represent a wide variety of occult disciplines, more New Age than ancient and Indigenous. Practices include black magic, white magic, Wicca, Reiki, Tarot, astrology, and healers of the evil eye and other ailments.Some women said they were born with special abilities, while others said they developed their skills through study. Several said they began practicing witchcraft as part of a growing feminist movement in Argentina that began in 2018 with the fight for legal abortion.“I think we all have magic inside,” said Cabral Menna.But the witches are far from the only Argentines trying to help their team in the supernatural realm. On game days, many more Argentines have been practicing some sort of cábala, or superstition designed to avoid causing any bad luck to their team. The cábalas often involve people sticking to the exact same routine if the team is winning, including where they watch the game, with whom, in what clothes, at what volume and on which channel.Jesica Fernandez Bruera, an astrologer in Rosario.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesDuring Argentina’s matches, Fernandez performs several rituals, such as burning laurel leaves.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesThe practice is so mainstream that millions of Argentines likely practice some sort of cábala, a word that derives from kabbalah, a Jewish mystical tradition. Cábalas have been especially pronounced this year after Argentina’s loss in its opening match.Adrián Coria, Messi’s childhood coach in Rosario and later on the national team, said that he watched the first loss with his family in his living room. Then his wife and daughter sent him to a small cabin in the backyard for the second match. “Alone,” he said. He has since watched the rest of the World Cup there.Cabral Menna, the witch from Rosario, said she and her mother watched Argentina’s first victory in her mother’s bedroom. “It’s the only part of the house without air conditioning,” she said. “It’s very hot. But we’re not going to move.”And Sergio Duri, the owner of a restaurant in Rosario with Messi’s signature on the wall, said he now watches the matches in his kitchen with one dachshund, Omar, while his wife watches them in their bedroom with the other dachshund, Dulce. “If this comes out, everybody will know that we’re all completely crazy,” he said. “But these are cábalas, you know?”The players are also practicing cábalas. Alejandro Gómez, Leandro Paredes and Rodrigo de Paul, three midfielders, have taken to walking around the pitch an hour before kickoff while chewing candy, a tradition they started last year when Argentina won the Copa América, South America’s premier soccer tournament.During Argentina’s matches, Maia Morosano performs rituals to lead to a win, such as burning certain herbs.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesMorosano, who is from Rosario, is also a poet.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesMorosano casting spells for the national team.Sebastián López Brach for The New York TimesSo now the question for the witches is: What will happen on Sunday?“We don’t want to give information as if we have the absolute last word,” Spadafora said. “But obviously we have started working, and obviously we have checked with most of the means at our disposal — esoteric means, for example, pendulums, Tarot, all the divination methods — and it indicates that Argentina is going to win.”Azucena Agüero Blanch, a 72-year old professional fortune-teller once consulted by former President Carlos Menem, has also explained that she is working with magical stones to ensure an Argentina victory. “Many people who are pushing for Argentina to win have called on me to work on this,” she told an Argentine newspaper.On Friday night, Martínez was in her candlelit home in Buenos Aires wearing a robe covered in tigers and lighting candles at an altar that included burned sandalwood; Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god; and a photo of Diego Maradona, the late Argentine soccer star who is something like a deity to many in this country.Martínez said she has a series of methods to protect the national team, including a practice that involves swinging a pendulum, or a wooden cylinder on a string, above a player’s jersey number and then burning cotton doused with a mistletoe tincture. She said she follows the news for updates about players’ ailments and then uses the pendulum to help alleviate them. “The pendulum is the most powerful tool I have,” she explained.She said she has also had psychic moments during matches. During Argentina’s match against Australia on Dec. 3, she said she had a vision of the Argentine forward Julián Álvarez celebrating a goal.At 5:13 p.m., she tweeted: “Julian Alvarez I want your goal 🕯👁🕯👁🕯.”Four minutes later, Álvarez scored.Tarot sets used by Violeta Parisi, a witch in Buenos Aires.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesParisi, 24, is one of the hundreds of witches across the country practicing magic to help their national team.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesAn altar in Parisi’s bedroom.Anita Pouchard Serra for The New York TimesNatalie Alcoba contributed reporting. More

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      Argentina’s Most Sacred World Cup Watch Party: Maradona’s Former Home

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      A Buenos Aires businessman bought Diego Maradona’s old house and has been opening it up for Argentina’s World Cup matches, meat included.BUENOS AIRES — Argentina had just punched its ticket to the World Cup final with a 3-0 victory over Croatia on Tuesday, but most Argentines at the party simply wanted to poke around this stranger’s house.There was a retiree taking selfies in a mirrored corner bar. A house cleaner hung out the window of a bare bedroom. A tattoo artist checked out a backed-up toilet upstairs. And a hotel owner who had brought his mother-in-law was wandering around barefoot.“When I entered, I started crying,” said Osvaldo Bonacchi, 52, an air-conditioner repairman, who was starting to tear up again on the spiral staircase leading to the carpeted attic, where someone said there used to be a sauna. He had lived nearby for 15 years, and always wondered what it was like inside.“To be here is a dream,” he said.The battered, three-story brick chalet in a quiet Buenos Aires neighborhood once belonged to the Argentine soccer hero Diego Maradona, and in this World Cup, it has become one of the hottest places in Argentina to watch a match.A local entrepreneur bought the house last month and has opened the doors for the past several games, paying for drinks and more than 1,000 pounds of meat for hundreds of friends, neighbors and strangers crowded around Maradona’s backyard pool to cheer on the national team.The bar in Maradona’s former home.Ariel Fernando García, the new owner of the home, with his daughters on what was once Maradona’s balcony.“We started letting people in, and then they collapsed and started crying,” the house’s new owner, Ariel Fernando García, 47, said of the first party. “For me, he was an extraterrestrial,” he said of Maradona. “No man has given more joy to Argentines.”Maradona died of a heart attack in 2020 at age 60 but remains one of Argentina’s biggest figures. His story of a poor Buenos Aires boy rising to become one of history’s greatest soccer players and the leader of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup championship team has made him a sort of deity in this nation of 46 million.In fact, the Church of Maradona is a legally recognized religion in Argentina, now entering its 25th year, that claims tens of thousands of members with branches around the world. Some Google searches will return a little box of questions that other people searched, starting with: “Is Diego Maradona a God?”A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More