The Brazilian and Argentinean national football teams traveled to the city of Resistencia, in northern Argentina, to dispute the “Superclássico das Américas” on Wednesday night. However, due to electricity problems at the Centenario stadium, the game did not happen.
The choice to play the match in Resistencia was only one of several problems. As reported in the press, the city was chosen for purely political reasons, including trying to please the Argentinean president Cristina Kirchner.
But, the (non-)realization of the event already spawns from some other non-sensical principles. The attempt to revive the Copa Roca, which was played from 1914 to 1976, is failed. It begins with the new tournament’s name: “Superclássico das Américas” – a little disrespectful to the continents other sides, no?
The fact that the tournament does not occur within FIFA dates also shows that it is poorly organized. Without the players who are based in Europe, the level of football played by both teams drops dramatically and it is this poor football that the federations try to push to the fans. That is not to mention the clubs who are harmed by their players’ absence for these non-FIFA date fixtures.
The CBF and AFA, in an attempt to attract sponsors and a false prestige to their national teams have tried to organise a mediocre tournament that has no raison d’être nowadays. This time they have pushed their incompetence to new levels.
According to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, the power outage at the stadium was caused by the Brazilian team bus reportedly crashing into the power generator of the stadium. Was it? The only person who might have been afraid of this game was the coach Mano Menezes. The only question that remains then is ‘was he the one driving that bus?’.
