Argentina fans revel in their Copa America triumph, a brief respite from their country's crises

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentines taking to the streets to revel in their Copa América triumph late Sunday inhabit a very different place now than they did 19 months ago, when their World Cup win sent millions surging into the same Buenos Aires square in a howl of collective celebration.

“Glorious,” Diego Cáceres, 38, recalled of Argentina’s massive open-air party on December 18, 2022.

“This is beautiful, too,” he said of Sunday's crowds cheering and setting off fireworks around the capital’s landmark obelisk after Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in extra time to win its third straight major tournament. “But it's a cherry-on-top, or a reminder. It makes me want to go back in time."

Economic crisis has stalked Argentina for years. But today, annual inflation tops 270%. Almost 60% of the country’s 45 million people live in poverty.

Argentines have become worn out by the high-stakes anxiety of the news: Anti-government protests raging, labor strikes paralyzing cities, President Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” unveiling new spending cuts and railing against feminism. This week their televisions flashed dire warnings about the peso hitting new lows against the dollar, dragging the value of their savings down with it.

The last time Cáceres celebrated his national team in this downtown square, he worked as a cook in various restaurants and rented an apartment. Today, he said, he’s unemployed and sleeps on the streets.

“Everything is horrible now," he said after the game finally got underway in Miami after repeated delays due to fan congestion. “Just when you think things can't get more expensive, they do.”

Some in this superstitious nation joke that they paid a steep price in Qatar for their first World Cup victory since 1986, pointing to the crises that followed the triumph. “Has anyone checked the terms and conditions of winning the Copa América?” reads one post on X widely shared among Argentines. “I don’t know if I’m up for a second round of winning at any cost.”

But Argentines say that they needed this tournament, and this trophy, more than they could have imagined. For Argentina, South America’s biggest soccer championship offers not just glorious achievement but exquisite, if fleeting, escape.

“It’s our best entertainment, that’s what makes it so important,” said Erika Maya, a 47-year-old homeless mother of six, as she peered at the televised match through the glass of a locked restaurant door. “You can forget everything that's going on, just enjoy.”

For every new outrage over the last 24 days, Argentines have found the respite of obsessively watching their beloved national team, led by Lionel Messi, play for an hour and a half, generating moments of agony and excitement that reverberate all over this soccer-crazed country.

“Football is the fruit of our society, it's what we're proud of, it's what we give to the world," said 21-year-old soldier Fabrizo Diaz, who watched the match with his girlfriend.

As the game kicked off at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, restaurants in Buenos Aires shuttered, streets emptied and the sprawling city fell eerily silent, with most Argentines in thrall to their TVs at home as though under a COVID lockdown. The looming specter of Messi’s retirement has heightened soccer fever in recent weeks, with the 37-year-old captain’s noncommittal muses in televised interviews inducing, at turns, nationwide hope and despair.

“I believe Messi is going to continue. I don’t know if he’ll make it to the next World Cup, but this is not the end,” said 32-year-old Adrian Vallejos, watching the final with his wife and son. “I mean, God, I hope so.”

Messi’s persistent leg injuries — including a hurt ankle in the second-half of the final that forced him off the field — have drawn more attention than his performances during this Copa América. But Argentines breathed a sigh of relief when, asked by ESPN this week whether this match would be his last in blue-and-white, Messi refused to rule out playing in the 2026 World Cup.

“We’re at a very poignant transition for this team,” said Alejo Levoratti, a sports sociologist at Argentine research institute CONICET. “It’s only at the point of his retirement that Messi arrived at his best moment and found this connection with his team, this communion with Argentina.”

Another Argentine great of the same age, Ángel Di María, had announced Sunday's match would be his last, fueling a broader sense of nostalgia about the national squad. He had tears in his eyes as he left the pitch to a standing ovation after Argentina's breakthrough goal. “I dreamt of retiring like this,” he told reporters afterward.

After years of disappointments in international tournaments, the Argentine team has, more recently, clinched triumph after triumph — 2021 Copa América, 2022 inaugural Finalissima match, 2022 World Cup — exhilarating its troubled country again and again.

President Milei, who had a short stint as a goalie for the professional soccer team Chacarita Juniors, congratulated the national team in an all-caps message on X: “WE ARE CHAMPIONS AGAIN...!!!”

In litter-strewn downtown Buenos Aires, the site of so many protests in recent weeks, national pride appeared to be, briefly, restored. Friends and strangers draped in Argentinean flags and jerseys hugged one another and jumped up and down, some singing “Muchachos,” the unofficial anthem of the 2022 World Cup, others chanting Messi's name.

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AP Copa America coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/copa-america