Recuerdos del mundial 78

Memories of the World Cup 78

At home we are renovating, for more than a month we have had painters returning little to the 21st century our old house, which we had almost abandoned on the outside without changing its makeup for several years.

But everything comes and despite the fact that it is a huge economic effort at a difficult time for the family economy, we decided to face the project. After all, we have been in an uninterrupted crisis for 20 years and it does not seem that this is going to change quickly. The grateful house

Of course, every time one must empty closets and drawers, take the opportunity to review and separate what is no longer used, mainly clothes, much of it, the one that is in good condition we donate or give to someone who needs it, we also check drawers. We are always amazed at the enormous quantity of useless things that we throw in them.

Sometimes we find things that we had forgotten and are pleasantly surprised, this is one of those cases.

In 1977 I had been working for 3 years in the systems area of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic, precisely in that year I enrolled in an internal contest to fill vacancies for programmers in that management and I spent several months attending the IBM company where I received a series of training courses and seminars that immersed me forever in the world of computing.

Also in that year the Central Bank, making use of one of its primary functions according to its organic charter, which is to issue currency, made a series of coins alluding to the 1978 World Cup that would be played for the first time in our country.

The employees were the first to buy them since the board of directors was kind enough to save a game to give them priority in their acquisition, the rest of the issue was distributed among all the financial entities of the national banking and exchange system.

The lot included 6 coins that could be bought all at once or in halves, the 3 largest denominations were made of 900 silver and their values were 3,000, 2,000, and 1,000 pesos respectively, the smallest denomination and size were made of an alloy of bronze and their values were 100, 50 and 20 pesos each.

In 1977 some 15 million coins were minted and in 1978 another 5 million, although with a slight variation, the first ones had the identifying logo of the World Cup in relief while those of the following year was even and their presentation and sale were in better quality packaging.

The 6 coins are similar on their obverse, they all have the identifying logo of the World Cup and the denomination, the difference is on the reverse where the largest one, the 3,000 pesos, shows the globe from a different perspective than usual, from Antarctica upwards where our country, the rest of South America and part of Africa stand out clearly. The one of 2,000 has the national shield in the center and the shield of each of the provinces chosen as venues where meetings were held, the one of 1,000 has the name of those same venues: Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, Mendoza and Rosario. The 100 pesos coin shows the River Plate stadium where the opening match, some first-round matches, and the grand final were played. Finally, the 50 and 20 pesos coins contain scenes of generic soccer matches, the first shows the figure of a soccer player kicking a ball, and the last one of an archer holding a ball aloft and another player in the attitude of heading it.

I bought them all and for some reason that I no longer remember, I have one of 100 pesos more.

Of course, I remember the World Cup as if it had been today, I bought the tickets for the opening match, the first phase matches for Argentina, and the second phase matches to be played at the River stadium, unfortunately, our team lost a very tight match against Italy in the first phase and had to go to play the whole of the next phase in Rosario, I couldn't see any of them on the field, only on TV.

I lived the final with great nervousness of course against the "clockwork orange" as the Netherlands was called (Holland at that time) in the extraordinary performance of the 1974 World Cup in Germany where they lost the final at the hands of the local, in my view of unfair way. That team that faced Argentina in that final was similar in operation and players to the world runner-up, except for a tiny detail, it no longer had the extraordinary Johan Cruyff in its ranks, who refused to play due to the attempted kidnapping he suffered in Barcelona a couple of years before and that marked his life forever.

Both teams arrived in fairly similar conditions, both had lost a match in the initial phase although they had won the second, corresponding to playing the grand final, the second in those groups was for third place. It was a totally different format from the current one.

The match was fairly even, although with a certain predominance of the albiceleste, but it ended 1-1. In extra time, Argentina brought out its strength and determination, pushed by an enthusiastic crowd, finally winning 3-1.

The celebration was extraordinary, millions of people were in the streets, all around the mythical obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio, I was among them.

The coins remained as a souvenir even though they were times of a de facto government and at first, they were branded as propaganda for those soldiers who held power illegitimately.

Today no one associates those coins with that dark, sad, and bitter time in the country, although with the stain of joy that first star meant.

I was moved by the reunion with them, not so much because of its monetary value, which it has, but because it made me remember a bittersweet time that, thanks to those self-defense mechanisms that I have already mentioned on other occasions, only retains the sweet sensation of victory and collective joy, leaving behind a cloak of oblivion other topics that I prefer to keep there.