Just ten kilometers separate Bell from Zárate. The football rivalry between Villa Dálmine and Defensores Unidos is historic and one of the most traditional of Argentine ascent. It is that few clubs represent both their respective cities, at least as far as AFA professional football is concerned, since, with the exception of Puerto Nuevo, they are the only teams in a wide range of distances.” One cannot exist without the other,” was the first thing Gonzalo Chan, the host of the proposal, said with his sky T-shirt on. The talk took place during midnight on Sunday and was conducted via an Instagram Live that brought together the supporting media “CADU Online” and “Violet Pride”. Perhaps for some, such a statement of principles, was surprising. However, the two protagonists are aligned under a common cause, United Supporting Media (MPU), a group that brings together journalists from promotion clubs under the slogan “We are rivals, not enemies”, seeking to eradicate violence in Argentine football.
Bautista Letanú, on the other side of the phone, kicked off with another peace message: “Like every classic, in a way, two clubs are always going to cross. We haven’t faced each other on the court in a long time, but we’re always close, more so when it comes to two promotion clubs.” The classic has the peculiarity that it has not been played for more than eight years. The last time the faces were seen on the field of play was in February 2012, in the season in which Villa Dálmine achieved promotion to the First Metropolitan B which he soon used as a springboard to play in the B Nacional. But the rivalry, with 50 years of experience, remains intact, especially because of the “healthy” envy of seeing the sports opponent in a cutting-edge category. “Dálmine’s rise to the First National was hard. Even the Metropolitan B seemed accessible, but by the time they reached the second category, it was like reaching the Champions League, because also then there were many important teams and they played it for a long time”, said Gonzalo in a stretch of the talk, already with the smile somewhat blurred. Defenders United’s reporter was sincere: “It was brave to turn on the TV and watch that they were touring the country, but I think they won it in good law, they won it on the court. If there had been something weird behind it, the story would be different, but people always recognized that.” The Violet Pride boys have known them for a long time, we have friends in common, so we agreed quickly. It was a nice thing and from the first minute we tried to promote that the message was peace. Taking out one or two that always relocate, the rest enjoyed it and were happy for the exchange,” Gonzalo Chan told this medium. He emphasized that the repercussions “were very good on the networks.” “We even agreed that we’re going to play a game between the two media when quarantine is lifted,” he added. On the other hand, Bautista Letanú told us how they made the proposal known: “We put the flyer together and for doubt we do not disseminate it so much or so far in advance. We put Instagram stories two hours before and because there were no bad reactions from people we did.” The celestial smoke in the violet grandstand: the largest loaded in history? Argentine fans reach a degree of originality rarely seen when plotting a plan to deal damage to their opponent. And the play of the Fans of Defenders United in 2010 was a real genius.
In one of the first classics they played since the visiting crowd ban was applied, the violet people welcomed their own team with cans of sky smoke, the color of their rival. How could something like this happen? He has an explanation and the anecdote tells that fans of the Zárate team, in the days leading up to the match, posted on online sales sites smoke flares that appeared to be violets on the outside, inside were celestial.
The match began, the sky smoke took over the local grandstand and to top it all off CADU turned to Zárate with a victory. Remembering that moment by the host was a risky move; transmission began to take temperature, but the peaceful climate did not alter. Even, Bautista praised the move of the rivals: “They were very intelligent, to this day I watch the video and I have to congratulate them, on top of that they beat us.”
“I particularly don’t move anything. If I could go back in time, I’d avoid it, but it doesn’t hurt. I take it as part of the story and I find it nice that you have that as a triumph, while we footballally erase all that,” Dálmine’s reporter later added, throwing sporting successes over his rival colleague. It is that in the eight years in which they have not faced each other, the violet achieved two promotions and plays in the top flight of promotion football. CADU, for its part, managed to climb to the third division. The role of their clubs in the pandemicThe possibility of slaying the ball and generating different content than they are accustomed to their followers made streaming possible. That’s why it was inevitable that journalists would mention how the advancement of COVID-19 affects their teams and their cities.” There weren’t too many cases in Zárate. The club proposed to cede its facilities, but for the moment, luckily, it was not necessary,” Gonzalo explained. While, on the other side, Bautista recounted that Dálmine’s initiative went on to “collect donations for picnic areas and eaters of the city.” Finally, the journalist and fan of the Campana team, he hoped that the classic could be reissued in a short period of time. “There are several uptimere duels that have not been officially confronted for a long time, but have organized pre-season friendlies. In our case he never prospered. In 2016 there was an attempt, but it was left to that,” he recalled.
In addition, in its closure, he highlighted the role played by the partisan media in the minor categories of Argentine football, where most of the media do not arrive: “Here it is all ad honorem, we have no publicity or banking from anyone. If there is no money to travel, we will see, for now we could always be and we had the time to go to all the courts, touring the whole country.”
