An edited version of the below article will be appearing in the NUFC fanzine True Faith.
Stadium: Vicente Calderon (Athletico Madrid) Attendance 55,000
2-1 Goal scorers: Alonso (16), Messi (61 pen), Alonso (86 pen)
A few years ago if someone had of said to you that today Newcastle United would be flying high in the league and have two regular Argentine internationals in the team your mouth would of been watering at the prospect. Especially as Gutierrez is one of the first four players down on the managers, Diego Maradona, team sheet. The unfortunate reality of all this is we know the reality. Never mind it’s not every day you get to see a Newcastle Untied player swap the famous black & whites stripes for the iconic blue & white ones of Argentina, so it was off to Madrid for what was billed as “un partido bonito” a beautiful game. Gutierrez wasn’t playing due to an injury he picked up against Peterbough, but he was with the squad. Coloccini was expected to start.
I live four hours away from Madrid, by car, so it was an early start for our party, my mate from Felling, my 11 year old son and me. We made good time and arrived in the Spanish capital earlier than anticipated only to be caught up in the middle of a flag waving noisy demonstration, something about Palestine by the look of it. The demonstrators were blocking the road to our hotel and we had to detour around the back of them which put a dent in our good timing.
With an eleven year old in tow there was no way we were going on a session around the famed Irish bars of Madrid (pity), so we decided to head for the hotel that the Argentine squad were staying in. Security was tight but we got in. The players were staying on the 5th floor but apart from a glimpse of Tevez nothing much was happening, except lots of Argentine press men hanging around the lobby. From there we headed to the Burnabeu, the home of Real Madrid. We decided to do the stadium tour, I had done it before but the others hadn’t. Real Madrid is not a team I particularly like but you can’t help being impressed as you walk around the stadium and soak up the football history that has been played out there.
After the tour we headed back to our hotel to freshen up and get ready for the match that was being played at “The Calderon” the home of Athletico Madrid. As we walked to the metro from our hotel we had to cut through the Lavapies area of Madrid. Not a very nice area, in fact I have visited Madrid on several occasions and have to admit to being a bit underwhelmed by it. As we passed by drug dealers and the like we noticed a bar packed out with North Africans who were watching the World Cup playoff game between Egypt and Algeria, a real grudge match.
We reached the ground about an hour before kick off the atmosphere was electric. Both sets of fans mingled well with each other. Thousands of Argentites live in Madrid and the rest of Spain and they had a huge contingent out for this game. I spotted lots of boyfriends and girlfriends going to the match together one in a Spain shirt the other in an Argentine one. A real fiesta was being enjoyed by everyone including us. Once inside the antiquated ground we made our way high up to our seats, the colour and noise from both sets of fans was a spectacle to behold. Our man, Colo, was starting at right back. The match was played in a very high tempo and no quarter was given, surprising as this was supposed to be a friendly. Seven yellow cards were handed out in total. Some great skills were on display notably from the immaculate Xavi who was replaced on the 60 minute mark by the equally impressive Cesc. The Spaniards definitely were the better team in the opening skirmishes and deservedly took the lead in the 16th minute by former Liverpool man Xabi Alonso, a goal that was worked from the goalkeeper in 23 touches in 23 seconds, amazing. As for Coloccini he actually looked like an international defender. However after clearing one off the line on the half hour, within a minute he was in the refs note book for spectacularly taking out Barcelona star Inesta on the half way line. Spontaneously I shouted out Geordie Aggro hello hello ....much to the bemusement to my Spanish neighbours sitting around me.
The second half was a much more even affair; whatever Maradona said must have worked, and you could even say Argentina shaded it slightly. The turning point for me was the introduction of Tevez (58 min), real quality and his introduction led to Argentina being awarded a dubious penalty in 60th minute. The penalty was converted by Messi, who looks like he came out of the same mould as the great Peter Beardsley. Messi, however, doesn’t perform as well in blue and white as he does in blue and red and the unforgiving Argentine hinchas don’t let him forget it.
As the match drew to close Spain were awarded a penalty for hand ball, from where I was sitting it was hard to make out. Man of the match Xabi Alonso stepped up to convert with 4 minutes remaining. The Spanish crowd at that point started to goad Maradona with cries of “suck on this”. This in reference to Maradona’s remarks to the Argentine press, “que la chupen” after his side narrowly qualified for the World Cup by beating Uruguay in a playoff. Subsequently, for those remarks, Maradona has been fined €16,500 and banned for two months from the touchline. With 2 minutes remaining the fantastic Spanish keeper Ikka Cassillas was substituted so that he could receive a deserved standing ovation for reaching 100 caps. As the final whistle sounded the fiesta continued into the night, the Argentine fans seemingly undeterred by their teams’ late capitulation.
Guardar la fe
Tony Higgins
November 2009
