Supported by a Fanatical Crowd that Took Over Itaquerão, Argentina Defeats the Netherlands on Penalty Shootout and Reaches the Final

07/10/2014 - 10h28

Built to host the World Cup opener, the Itaquerão stadium met, at its farewell from the tournament, the biggest and the craziest audience in the almost two months of existence.

At the arena that belongs to the black and white Corinthians, the blue took over, but the fans were still shouting "Timão", the nickname given to the club from Sao Paulo.

The Argentines sang it yesterday (9), after the match played on a 16C cold and rainy day. They kept jumping for 40 minutes after the end, until they were removed by the police.

In fact, the achievement they were celebrating was not small. The 4-2 victory over Holland on penalty shootout took them to the decisive match for the first time in 24 years and maintained the fact that Argentina never loses in the semifinals.

The result turned out to be the biggest replay of a World Cup final: Germany and Argentina will compete for the title for the third time this Sunday.

Each national team won once: Argentina was the champion in 1986, in Mexico, and Germany in 1990, in Italy.

The Argentines will try to prevent a European team from winning in America for the first time – the trophy did not leave the continent in the seven previous World Cups hosted on these lands.

By defeating the Netherlands, the World Cup club of winners will not be expanded in Brazil, unlike what happened in Africa. It will keep its eight members only.

The Netherlands maintained its tradition of playing like never before and losing like always. No national team has reached the semifinals five times without lifting the trophy.

In Brazil, they failed after making the first round's best campaign, changing the result in six minutes while playing Mexico and putting a goalkeeper only to defeat Costa Rica on penalty shootout.

However, against Argentina, the strategy used by the Dutch coach Louis van Gaal was to score goals. The players were substituted to get a more offensive attack, instead of saving a replacement for Krul, the goalkeeper who defended two penalty kicks in the quarter finals.

Vlaar, probably the best on the Dutch side during the game, missed the first one and Sneijder did the same.

Argentine fans dominated the crowd of 63,267 people at Itaquerão, the largest at the stadium. The net chosen for the penalty kicks was precisely where they were concentrated. The goalkeeper Romero was praised after defending two kicks. It was the seventh overtime of this World Cup and the first 0-0 draw at the arena.

July 9th is already a festive day in Argentina, when they commemorate the Independence of the country. This year they had more motives to celebrate it.

One of them is personal and goes by the name of Messi. He won the chance to get a permanent place in the Pantheon of the ball. Voted three times the world's best, all of them playing for Barcelona, his history in the national team was not positive: two World Cups without reaching the semifinals.

He will have his big chance at Maracanã, on Sunday (13).

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

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