Argentina Fans at the World Cup: Stadium Rivalries and Reactions

That's it, the best thing. Yeah, the best thing.

And we were up two-nil while we were at the stadium.

And the whole day at the stadium, fighting with the Argentinians, it was unbelievable.

Fights? Yeah, just regular soccer fights.

Yeah, babe, we'd sit— some people get touchy too, no?

At the World Cup, soccer starts to become...

—the most popular sport in the world. But during the World Cup, we start getting fans who aren't really into soccer. Yeah.

And there might be more of those fans than there are of us, or about as many as the people who are really into soccer.

So when those fans show up, things that are pretty normal for queer people might not seem normal to them.

So for him, when he goes to the stadium during the World Cup in America, I expect the crowd will...

Now we're in the days—he turned around and insulted me.

Yeah, son, we do things— That's—that's the thing they drink.

It’s—against us, and that’s forbidden. Of course it’s forbidden.

Yeah, this is the hundredth time it’s happened to me.

They pour it on themselves, and— I’m not saying it’s wrong. Right.

That’s something they did not do just to insult us and insult my religion.

No, he didn’t respect you. He didn’t— But football fans don’t respect anyone.

That’s football fans. That’s his— I mean, his tradition, his normal way.

And this was no ordinary match. He was down two-nil, nearly out of the World Cup then scored three goals in the last ten minutes and won.

He won’t throw things, he’ll set the place on fire.

So it was totally natural that their reactions were really intense.

Yeah. And— and they… And it’s normal, I reacted intensely when winning too.

Of course. See? Of course. We parted, still cursing each other out, but it was all— uh, normal, just football stuff.

It’s all football stuff, but people who aren’t really football fans…

aren’t used to it. They just aren’t. So to him, no, that was a huge insult.

Argentina, whatever. They're racist, they're this, they're that.

No, it's all good. They're soccer fans, and especially Argentina fans.

I've been following them since the Qatar World Cup. Um...

And I saw just how many went to Qatar and how they were by far the biggest fan group in Qatar. Yeah.

And when I went to, say, the Morocco-Brazil match at this World Cup, the very first match, Argentina's fans far outdid Brazil's fans.

The Argentinians were much more intense, and much louder in their cheering, and they're stronger than any— any other national team's fans I've seen at any tournament, at this World Cup or the last one.

Um... B-because after the national team won the World Cup, and after what happened in 2022, and we know Messi— this is Messi's last World Cup, they came in huge numbers, and America is so far— the distances are huge. Argentina is far away.

And there were so many people. So they're passionate soccer fans, really into soccer.

They follow the national team. They sing all match, They sing the whole time, They insult the crowd, players.