42 years have passed since Tatote’s slap • Diario Democracia

Recalling the great world tournaments and Olympic games, this weekend marks the 42nd anniversary of Argentina’s triumph over Russia with a slap from Tatote Pagella on the cicada.

It was one of the great triumphs of Argentine basketball in the pre-National League stage. It happened at the Obras Sanitarias stadium (which had been inaugurated a very short time ago), on Wednesday, August 29, 1979. For the Intercontinental Cup, Argentina received a team from the Soviet Union loaded with figures, where a star stood out above the rest, Sergei Belov, and a huge tower like Vladimir Tkachenko. That Cup, which did not have a great historical impact (it was not played many times), was played by four teams from Europe and four from America. There were two tours (one of the Europeans to America and vice versa) and there all the matches were completed. In the 1979 edition the USSR, Yugoslavia, Italy and Belgium played for Europe and Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Canada for America.

The point is that it was Obras the stadium and Argentina-USSR, the match. “It was all very even. They had Tkachenko and several other towers, while we, except Luis González, were very short, says José Luis Pagella, the man from that night. Chocolate Raffaelli was the best player in that game, and our top scorer, but if I tell you a lot more I would be lying to you ”.

With a lot of effort and playing a great game, the local team had a chance at the end, despite the fact that with fifty-one seconds remaining they lost by 6 (86-80). A string of good deeds and recoveries allowed them to get to one point (86-87), when the key play of the match took place. Jump in the hoop of the Argentine attack. Tkachenko and his 2.20 on the Soviet side and Runcho Prato and his 198 centimeters on the Argentine side. There were barely 4 seconds left. The ball was thrown out of the referee’s hands and there Prato took advantage of a second of deconcentration from the giant to steal the jump. The ball went to the left and between Carlos Romano and Jorge Martín they bothered to take it, so the hasty shot of the Tucuman was badly stepped on. The ball bounced off the rim and incredibly beat Belov, who was under the basket. Behind her appeared Tatote Pagella to slap her against the board and put her inside. At the same time, the clock was reaching zero. Argentine victory by 88-87.

The first reaction of the Juninense hero was to turn around to look at the board, which marked the time ended and the result in favor of his team. I could not believe it. He simply managed to jump and start the crazy celebration with the four companions who were with him at that time: Prato, Romano, Martín and Luis González. “I remember the play perfectly,” says Pagella. When the ball bounced off the backboard, I had no idea how much time was left and so I just tried to slap it. I remember there was a protest from them, because they said it had been out of time, but it did not prosper ”. In fact, some suspected that the clock began to run late, although later, journalist Osvaldo Ricardo Orcasitas, from the magazine El Gráfico, took the hard work of taking the photographic sequence that appears in this report to, according to the quantity of photos per second that Marcelo Figueras’ camera could take, taking the time that had elapsed. The slap had been legal.

Although the Intercontinental Cup was not a tournament that lasted long, the Argentine triumph in that match was, and will be at this point for all history, the only one of a major team in our country over the Soviet Union in official championships. “We were having a very good time,” Pagella commented. In fact, the following year we achieved qualification in Puerto Rico for the Moscow Olympic Games, which we did not go to after the boycott, but I think it was the roof of that litter. ”

For Argentina at that time, it was not only a dream to beat the USSR, but it was also very difficult to obtain victories against teams like Brazil, Puerto Rico or Canada in the American environment. Even in that pre-Olympic of 1980, notable triumphs were achieved against Brazil and Canada, but it was lost to the locals.

The victory against the Soviet Union was recorded forever, despite the fact that Alexander Gomelski’s team won by almost 40 points in the rematch. “For a time, the triumph compact was passed in theaters between film and film. I could never see him, but several told me, ”Pagella said, that a few days later, on September 4, 1979, he would turn 25 years old. The game had been televised throughout the country and its impact was significant. Argentina did not win the Cup, of course, nor could it go to Moscow in 1980. But the history that marked that August 29 was never taken away by anyone.