García Cambón, author of the four record goals against River in the 1974 Superclásico: “Over time I became aware of the magnitude of what I had done”

It was on February 3, 1974 and for the first date of the Metropolitan tournament, corresponding to the Interzonal, when Boca Juniors thrashed River Plate 5-2 with four goals from the debutant Xeneize, Carlos María García Cambón, no less than “Pato” Ubaldo Matildo Fillol. A record that remains until today and perhaps the earliest in the history of the official Superclassics.

River entered the year 18 without titles (the last had been in 1957), with the sale of Oscar Mas to Real Madrid and the expectation of the arrival to the technical direction of a former player of the house like Néstor Foo Rossi, with an excellent campaign in Atlanta at Nacional 1973, while Boca had managed to maintain his squad, which developed a good game but did not win titles, with the hiring of Carlos García Cambón as center forward, from Chacarita Junioes, where he had been champion of the Metropolitan 1969.

Who could imagine a debut like this? –Reflects García Cambón in dialogue with Infobae-. “I came from being champion with Chacarita in 1969 -53 goals in 217 games, and even one against Boca in the 6-0 of 1972- because in those years I had very great teams. I left at the end of 1973 and they brought me in to replace Hugo Curioni, who had been transferred to Nantes. He was a classic nine. I was not, although I scored goals, but I was another player depending on the team and there were even several games in which Osvaldo Potente, who was number ten, played ahead of me. So we were three and a half forwards, almost four, with Ramón Ponce and Enzo Ferrero. Whoever saw me play realized that I was not a classic nine ”, he adds. And he says that “from the point of view of the associated game, 1974 was one of the best Boca teams in history. The fans sang “Three things are in the Mouth, Ferrero, Potente and Cambón” -. The key to not having become one of the best teams of all time was the lack of titles. The one from ’74 we lost it incredibly to Newell’s on the Huracán court in the final home run (with Rosario central and Huracán) ”.

Garcia Cambon also believes that “It was very rare that this Superclásico was the first in a championship And I think it was from that time that it was decided that they would never play a first date together but more for the middle of the tournament, so as not to drop expectations. I had already played against River in Mar del Plata, in those summer friendlies, and I had done well, with the logical adaptation that is needed from a player to a big team, and I remember that we drew ”.

Boca’s first goal came just after two minutes through García Cambón, but at 16 minutes Jorge Ghiso tied, and at 37 minutes García Cambón returned. “It was with the thigh and not with the head as many said. It was a cross from the right by Marcelo Trobbiani that left Fillol over and although I put my head in, the ball hit my thigh and entered the goal. Fillol was already an archer at that time, if not the best, he was among the two best -He was summoned for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany- and then I made a certain friendship with him, he is a person that I appreciate very much, and we never talk about this game. It would seem a lack of respect to me ”.

“The third goal was made by Ferrero, from a penalty kick. I didn’t kick it because it was new and he didn’t say anything to me and grabbed the ball to kick it. Nothing more than that, he remembers. Then I scored my third and Boca’s fourth, with a header, Enrique Wolff discounted, from a penalty, and My last goal was the best of all and one of the best I did in my career: A double wall with (Claudio) Casares and Potente, I dribbled Fillol and entered the goal with a ball and everything ”, remember.

García Cambón is clear about the memory of the details of that match. “Boca that day played very well. He had terrible offensive power and with a great player, Powerful, the most talented I ever saw. I vindicate him as a wonderful player and that he gave physical advantages: short, stubborn, but he played with his back to the opposite goal and knew where each one was without looking.

“It is difficult to explain what happened that time. The euphoria of the moment prevents him from realizing the magnitude of what he had achieved. It strikes me that they continue to interview me and remember them after forty-odd years. The magnitude is determined by the passage of time. I remember that later, my father and my brother came to greet me (who always came to see me) and I saw my brother come forward and he said “Dad is angry” and it was strange because my father was a thoughtful, cold guy, but he was disconcerted and it was because at the end of the day, as children we are extensions of our parents, when they chanted the last name, they were chanting him, who had been a footballer in Barracas Central but had to leave him to eat. It was very important in my life. My grandfather played for River when he went from amateurism to professionalism, Ricardo García. He played number four. I hardly knew him ”.

For the record scorer of the Superclásicos, exceptional things happened in the hours following that magical match. “It was all crazy. I had to leave my house because there were always two hundred people at the door and I took two days to reflect and decided to go to a friend’s house and then I did speak to the press. It was what I felt in that moment, that I had to get away from all that world and I needed to relax, to get out of all that persecution. I’m not very impulsive but it was affecting my family, my brothers, my brother-in-law ”.

In those two days something happened that today would be very difficult to conceive: “A crazy thing was what happened with Quique Wolff, because he brought boots from Germany and we had a certain friendship since we had been teammates in the South American Youth Sub 20 in Montevideo in 1967 (the first time that an Argentine team won the South American of the category). At that time he played in Racing and I in Chacarita, so the day after the Superclásico I went to his house, which was in Palermo, to look for those boots, but we did not talk about rivalries or much of what happened the day before ” .

Also over the years, García Cambón asked Wolff to find those four goals in the TV archive. “It’s that I got married when I grew up and my children didn’t see me scoring much goals and once I asked Quique, who worked in the media, to get them for me and he told me that on Channel 7 the military dictatorship burned everything and that it didn’t there was nothing, but someone told me that they could be on Spanish TV ”.

While his record doesn’t seem easy to beat, believe that “Someday it will happen because the records are to be reached or surpassed and it seems good to me” and emphasizes that in that same 1974, “I also scored a goal against River in the other Superclásico at Bombonera but for Nacional. We won 1-0 but nobody remembers, haha. And it was a great goal. The ball reaches the middle of the court, I start and Potente puts the ball over Gutiérrez, I threaten Perico Pérez and I left it tame in the net ”.

Consulted by the Superclásico this Saturday, he affirms that it generates “the same expectation” and that “they live in a special way and the environment makes it have that pressure for people. If you think about it, it is one more game but it is the people who make it transcendent. They all say “today you have to win.” I live it as coldly as possible, I like to enjoy the show. Soccer is a game, a show, the inventiveness of the players, the operation of the teams, the technique, the strategy. I would like football to have a different philosophy, I do not like success or that there is talk of 688-page projects when, after the third defeat, the DT is thrown out with insults and injuries. I would like a DT like (Alex) Fergusson because developing an idea is not for a couple of days. It is what we have to live and when they tell me that (Marcelo) Gallardo has been in River for six years it is because he won. If he had not won, we would see. What I don’t understand is that the teams are destroyed but in the elections five different lists are presented. A year and a half ago the AFA talked about the Mecca of the Super League and it has already disappeared ”.

“It seems to me that in football today the head is more and more important, and it depends on how you play. It is one thing for the defender to think “I’m going to cancel it” and another thing for him to think “What if he eludes me?” Today the psychology, personality and character of each one are fundamental. It is not the nervous state because the nerves must not be removed, they must be overcome, which is something else, ”he concludes.

Party synthesis:

Boca 5 River 2 (played on 3-2-1974 for the first date of the Metropolitan Tournament).

Trainings:

Boca: Rubén Sanchez; Pernía, Mouzo, Rogel and Tarantini; Benitez, Trobbiani (Casares) and Potente; Ponce, García Cambón and Ferrero.

River: Fillol; Zuccarini, Horacio Coll, Hugo Pena and Héctor López; Wolff, Merlo (Di Meola), Alonso; Mastrángelo, Morete and Ghiso.

Goals: 2m García Cambón, 16m Ghiso, 37m García Cambón (head), 46m Ferrero (penalty), 61m García Cambón (head), 66m Wolff (penalty), 71m García Cambón.

Referee: Roberto Barreiro.

Other historic goals from Boca to River

He scored 4 goals for River in the 1972 Metropolitan (0-4 in the Monumental), 5 in the 1973 Metropolitano (5-2 in the Bombonera) and 5 in the 1974 Metropolitan (5-2 in the Bombonera).