Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem, was heard loudly amid drums and trumpets this Thursday in the city of La Plata, some 60 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. Israel’s U-20 team had given the surprise in the World Cup in Argentina and the pass to the final against Uruguay was played. He did it locally. The Argentine Jewish community, the largest in Latin America, poured out by the hundreds in their support. A rebound goal in the 60th minute soured the afternoon and Uruguay ended up qualifying, but it did not dampen Israel’s party, which was the most striking event of an emergency organized World Cup.
The Cup should have been played in Indonesia. But the rejection of some local authorities to the presence of Israel led FIFA to strip the Muslim-majority country of the organization two months before its inception. The world soccer government had decided that Indonesia would no longer host the tournament after complaints from the governor of the island of Bali, in the south of the archipelago, who had threatened not to receive the Hebrew team on his territory. Indonesia condemns the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and has no diplomatic relations with that country. The threat exhausted the patience of FIFA, which after two weeks with the tournament on the air, looked for a new venue. It was a window of opportunity for Argentina: its U-20 team, which with six titles is the biggest champion of the contest, had run out of a place for this year after a bad step in the South American competition.
The Argentine sub-20 team sparked little enthusiasm, even with the fresh memory of millions of people celebrating the World Cup in Qatar in the streets, and was eliminated by Nigeria in the round of 16. Without the locals in the tournament, the surprise was given by Israel. The Hebrew team, whose qualification for the tournament had caused a diplomatic tremor at FIFA, went from pariah to surprise and drew crowds. In San Juan, a thousand kilometers towards the center of the country from Buenos Aires, the Hebrew team gave the blow and beat Brazil in front of their fans.
“I’m Jewish, it’s a feeling, I can’t stop!”, was one of the reversals of the songs that are heard in the stadiums of Argentina that was sung the most in the La Plata stadium when Israel faced Colombia, Senegal or Uruguay in that city next to Buenos Aires. “Since not all of us know Hebrew, because the majority of us are Argentine Jews, Argentine songs are sung on the pitch putting Israel in the middle,” explained a teenager wearing an Atlanta jersey, a Buenos Aires neighborhood team identified with the community, in a video published by FIFA. “Seeing our brothers playing in Argentina is a source of pride and I love it,” said another man.
The tournament will be defined by Uruguay against the winner of the other semifinal between Italy and South Korea on Sunday in La Plata. Israel, which played its first world tournament since 1970, will define the third place that same day in the stadium.
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