The falcons fly high (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

The traditional Argentine club Club Atlético Lanús from the Conurbano of Buenos Aires has just turned 106 years old. Since the 1992/93 season, the »garnet reds« have consistently been first class. The first title was the Copa Conmebol in 1996, the forerunner of today’s Copa Sudamericana (comparable to the Europa League). Until then, Lanús didn’t even have a flower pot in his showcase. They were runner-up in 1956, but that placement is referred to in Argentina – a society of immensely bad moods – as being the least bad of those who fail. The »Grana« has been playing on the international stage since 2006 (only in 2019 he took a break). And since they first became Argentine champions in 2007, they have not stopped growing. In 2013 they became the “least bad of those who fail” for the fifth time, but they also won the Copa Sudamericana. In 2016, they were again Silverland champions and not at any campeon, but at the first worldwide with 30 top division clubs, amazing. The following year they lost the finals of the Copa Libertadores, the Champions League of the subcontinent.

On Saturday, the Garnet Reds played in Córdoba, Argentina, where the reigning world champion Federal Republic of Germany was eliminated from the World Cup tournament in 1978 by Austria’s Hans Krankls, of all places, the final of the Copa Sudamericana.

Opponents were the compatriots of Defensa y Justicia, also from the south of Buenos Aires, but located much further out, in Florencio Varela. The club will be 86 years old in March, but it wasn’t until 1978 that the yellow-green, then blue-white, officially made their debut as a member of the Argentine football association in the Primera D Metropolitana (5th division, lowest class). In 1986 they were second class for the first time. 1978, 1986 – Argentina’s world championship years. So it is not surprising that in 2014, the year Argentina reached a World Cup final again after a quarter of a century, they were promoted to the Primera División, the first division. After 24 (record-breaking) seasons in the 2nd division, the Halcón (Falcon) played internationally for the first time in 2017 (Copa Sudamericana). In 2018 they only failed in the quarter-finals of the Sudamericana. In 2018/19 they were the “least bad of those who fail” in Argentina and in the FIFA club ranking in February 2019 they were ranked 11th worldwide. Because of the runner-up, they played the Copa Libertadores for the first time in the past epidemic year, failed very gently, were forwarded to the Sudamericana, and we got to today, or on Saturday.

38 degrees in Cordoba. Both teams had brought a handful of full plums with them to support them, probably family members who could not or would not say “No!” And thus did the shooting in the empty stadium. It’s a pandemic, and so neither team was able to sell nor sign players recently, but lost money without end, also due to the horrific inflation and the explosion in the exchange rate. Lanús had 20 players from his own youth in the squad who were between 17 and 22, nine of them under 20. At Defensa, 16 kickers were not older than 22. Nine come from their own youth.

Mario Alberto Kempes, the 1978 World Cup top scorer, carries the Copa into the stadium that has been named after him since 2011. When the substitute referee comes up from Venezuela, who is representing a Heini from beautiful Uruguay because of Covid-19, he crosses himself well. Defensa monopolizes possession immediately. After eight minutes, Braian Romero squandered a hundred percent for the falcon. Played half an hour, 1-0 (34 ‘) for Defensa: Francisco Pizzini puts a kick from the 16 on the left through, Romero cross, confusion in the sanction area, bomb Adonis Frías. Go then. After an hour of disaster failure in the back steppe regions of the garnet red. Romero thanks with a lob: 2-0 (62 ‘). In stoppage time Defensa counters the garnet reds ice cold, the Chose ends with the 3-0 winner by Uruguayan Washington Camacho.

A small, modest club with clear ideas wins the second most important continental ball kicking tournament for boys undefeated. The Varela falcon flies high. The first title for Hernán Crespo as coach, in his only 86th game on the other side of the limestone line. Notes that make you happy.