SOCCER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 8 September 1923, Page 9

SOCCER.

FOOTBALL IN ARGENTINA.

(By Leonard Matters, in Australasian). Football was first introduced to Argentine about 30 years ago in interesting circumstances. A railway line was being constructed near the port _of Bahia Blanca, and fairly large numbers of Scottish and English navvies and gangers were imported to carry out the work and^direct local labour. Most of these men had played Rugby or British Association football at home, and naturally in the ■ new country.they wanted to indulge in their favourite pastime. There was no such thing as a snorts field in those days, but the newcomers found a acant piece of land near the town, put up temporary goal posts, and ;>T.a.ried to kick the ball around on Sundays. All went well while football was confined to mere practice. A few \igen- ■. tines passed, and after gazing Contemptuously went their ways muttering:— "Oli, these mad .'lnglesos'! Fancy knocking off ha.rd work on the line to run up and down all the afterric-s:; in the rain, kicking a. biill about *n !'••? mud, when tiiey mujht sit in a nice comfortable cafe and p>ay cards or talk politics." But on a certain Sunday afternoon a match that had been talked about up and down the line for weeks came on for decision. England and Scotland were, out tor supremacy,' and int-er-national feeling was running,pretty high among the navvies. The two teams met in the presence of every t: an employed in that section of the line. As the crowd gathered, the local jolice- ; man thought it was his busines su> be t there also. The "extrajeros" (foreigners) were up to something, and it might be a new revolution. The policeman sat his horse and pondered what he should do if the crowd really got | nasty. He watched the rival teams j strip in the open, regardless of all j.ubJ lie decency. He saw the ball thrown iin and the players get into action. A '• wild rush by the Scotties knocked over two or three of the Englishmen. < As , they floundered in the mud other play- : ers fell on top of them. There were I yells of "Foul!" and the crowd began Ito gesticulate and roar. That was ; enough for the country policeman. A ; riot had broken out ajnong the mad ! English. They were, killing one another, | and no one could say where the slaughr ! ter would stop. Clearly a case for the intervention of the" law; buj> the law, :as then present", was not equal to j handling 300 desperate men. The "vigilante" set snurs to his

horse, and, with carbine and sabie swinging and bumping, he galloped into the town for reinforcements. The j local chief of police was apprised that | the foreigners had commenced a disturbance. Gathering all the men he could find, he led them valiantly to the scene of the affray, guided by the policeman who had given the alarm. Arrived at the field, the chief drew his revolver and commanded the players to stop. ''What's all this?" he asked.. "Why are all you men fighting?" One of the old hands knew some Spanish, and was able to explain that the men were not fighting, but playing. That was more than the chief could swallow when he saw half the team covered from head to foot with mud. and more than one bleeding from the strenuousness of the fray. He was inclined to arrest the lot for being indecently dressed—grown men making a public exhibition of themselves in frayed "shorts", and torn shirts! There was something good-natured, however, about the look of the rioters, and the chief, having had some experience with the "Ingleses," decided that before he did anything drastic he had better see the alleged game in progress. Accordingly he informed the interpreter foi\ the footballers that they could proceed, but he warned them to be very careful, and not forget that the eye of the law was upon them. After watching the game for ten minutes the chief called his men about him. They're mad, but harmless so long as they keep their gome to themselves." Football in Argentina was played exclusively b- British, residents for many years after its introduction to fche republic, but about 15 years ns;o the game suddenly appealed to the developing sportins; instincts of the natives.

Quite a number of Argentine lads were educated at English schools established in the country, and taking no the sports of the English boys, found* football just the game that suited their temperament. They spread it among tiiei.;- fellows, and in no time distinctly Argentine teams \vere annLymg for admirtance to the local football association, ftniendul flayers tiiev proved XiieiA.-elvcs, too—fast on their feet, lithe and hard, tricky, and dangerous iiia i-ou;:h game. Football went like wiidlive through the country, and extended boyond Argentine to*th e , ne-igh-bo-.u-mg iepuo73.s of Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil. Jnterantional matches were arranged, and mixed teams of Britons and native-born annually travelled from one country to another to play for the ojio.ni}iioii,ship of South America. Moreover, crack teams from Expand, and one from South Africa visited the Argentine, and found the local players quite a match for them. In fact the last team from England—sent I believe by the Exeter City Ckb—was decisively beaten. For many years the crack Argentine team., was captained by George Brown, an Englishman born in Argentina, but of recent years the English element has been entirely elimanated from Argentine football To-day it can be said that if there is a national sport in South America it is beyond doubt football. The gam" is played everywhere an<i at all seasons or the year. If the English were mad when they played football in the , mud, the Argentiwßs^-kiv© outdone j them m madness, for the game is just as keenly contested on the hot days in summer as on the coldest days in winter. The official season does not end, as a rule, until well dn in November, but the game still goes on regardless of the official programme. And in the most remote parts of the country a match will attract more attention than a race meeting. Enormous crowds witness the first-class matches, and- the international championships generally attract up to a hundred thousand spec- " tators when they are played in Buenos Aires. The game is intensely popular. In and around Buenos Aires there' must be at least a score of first-class clubs, and hundreds of others whose players are in the second and third divisions, livery vacant lot of land is turned into a football field, and small boys, like boys.else where—play in the back streets to the peril of windows, or are to be seen dribbling a, tennis ball about the main thoroiisrhfsirps. ivVmrmi-»rr O^A

shouting, and enjoying themseh-es im- ' inensely till a little policeman turns the ' corner and drives them to wver. Pub- ' lie excitement rages over the chain- 1 pionships. On one occasion a ground 3 that could accommodate about ■ 35,000 ' spectators was rushed by nearer 70,000. < When the gates were closed the public ' scaled the fences. They encroached on 1 the playing area, and when it was pain- 1 fuiiy■ apparent tnat the game could not - go on, and the authorities abandoned < it, the crowd set fir. c to the grandstand and the benches. Sometimes feeling is vented, in more drastic ways than making a bonfire .of the club's ' property. Only last year, in the height . of the season, a referee was shot, and ; in another instance a player who i"roughed" a popular favourite was. ■ killed as he walked off the field, one ' oi the excited spectators firing point \ blank r.t him. ' This is the one and only point on * which Argentine sportsmanship can be • criticised. It is too intense. The de- < sire to win is too pronounced, because ' defeat seems to. be associated with dis- ' grace and dishonour. Many fine Eng- : lish footballers, including some of the ( pioneers of the game in the country, ..< refuse to bei associated any longer with. ! Argentine players because the latter ; do not "play the game" as the Eng- ] lisliman understands it, in a good sport- " incr spirit.- The Argentine, speaking generally, does not care what he does i so lon»r as he can win. He makes of ' football a sanguinary and brutal strug- • gle for supremacy over his opponent, '■ and no strenuous match goes by with- < oat several players being badly injured. ' Every season several players are killed. < The attitude of the crowd is also un- : sportsmanlike, and no big match can i take place without hundreds of mount- i ed and foot police being stationed < ■round the field. . > In football, as in most other game's that have been imported, it is inter- ' esting to note how the terms, or tne pnrases in English, have been taken over. There is no attempt to translate certain words into Spanish. Football is "football" to the Argentine, and nothing else. "Whilst the game is in progress among men who never speak a word of English ordinarily, you hear all the calls and cries, such as "offside," "foul,'' or "well piayed," in English, or as near it as an ignorance of the language will enable the Argentine to get. l Rugby is played to some limited extent in the Argentine, and the local . players are admitted to be especially good at this game. Their speed and their ability to give and take all the knocks this rougher football involves, make tne Argentines better suited to Rugby than the- are perhaps to Association pl-iy. The Aus- ' tralian game is entirely unknown in , , the .republic. j