The accent quickly attracts attention when witnessing a Belenos training session. You don’t hear a “ye” or a “home”, but you do hear “kid” or “dale”. The squad of the Avilesino club is made up, to a large extent, by a nucleus of Argentines who promise to live with passion the match that could elevate Messi to the football Olympus. “We’re not asking for a win. Winning is worth it, even if it’s suffering,” commented the Blue and Whites, who today, after the league game they’re playing against Barça at the Muro de Zaro, will meet to watch the World Cup final.
The conversation between the Argentine colony of Belenos has a common denominator, Leo Messi. “Hopefully we’re 5-0, with Leo’s hat trick,” jokes Tano Pérez, who hopes to see his country as world champion for the first time. “As long as they don’t give Argentina three penalties, I see it as complicated, dear,” replied Chipi Abdala, aware of the difficulty that the game will entail for his team. “The one that scares me is Mbappé, he can do us a lot of damage. I hope he doesn’t appear during the game, because he can mess it up for us,” says Fran González, who fears that the PSG star could hurt them on the counterattack . “Don’t worry, he’s not going to show up,” replies Leo Wozniak, who warns of the danger of another French player. “The one you have to be careful with is Griezmann, because this World Cup is sweet,” says the Argentine pilier.
Tano Pérez, Belenos player: “I hope we finish 5-0, with Leo’s hat trick”
The football atmosphere within Belenos is more than evident. While some teammates warm up by making passes, several of the squad members shoot penalties into a goal with the rugby ball, with Baltazar García in goal. “Let Emi Martínez learn from me, this is really stopping,” celebrates the defender, who is wearing a sweatshirt in the colors of the albiceleste. After this, crosses into the area, with Giuliano Francescangeli and Tito Fuentes masterfully finishing off aerial balls. “I think it gives us time to put ourselves under Scaloni’s orders,” commented both players with a laugh after scoring a couple of goals.
But, although a large part of the Belenos squad goes with Argentina, the Avilesinos have two discordant notes. Andrea Mastouri and Lucio Liporace wear the colors of France on their identity documents, and during these days they suffer the jokes of their teammates, in a squad that exudes great camaraderie. “The final is lived with tension, since 80% of the teammates are Argentines. They feel the colors a lot. It will be difficult to experience it,” confesses Mastouri, who reveals that both he and Liporace are quite calm, so both will try “do not sing the goals just in case”.
“These days they are doing the counter-jinx. That if we are already champions, that we already have the second star… They are very superstitious. One is putting on the same Argentina shirt every day to watch the games,” says the Frenchman, who he sees as a favorite to his France to win the World Cup. “I think the French are in better physical shape. They have had a more placid tournament than the Argentines and, except for the match against England, they have put everything back on track quickly,” he says, although he knows that, if his predictions come true, days await him hard in the locker room.
There will also be support for France in Oviedo. The French Alliance will turn to “les bleus” and its members, although they predict a tough and exciting match, are confident that the victory will fall on the tricolor side. “A second star is always good, right?” they joke.
“I go a lot with Giroud. He seems to me to be a very humble player, something important to be a footballer. And he has the experience to be the leader of this new generation”, highlights Marisol Roullier, born in French Brittany, who confesses to being in love with the forward of the Milan. For her, the match will end with a 3-1 favorable to hers. “I’m going to go out to a bar to see him, but I know that there are a lot of Argentine fans here, it’s going to be complicated,” says Roullier, who will be connected by social networks with her friends who live in France to comment on the meeting. .
The classroom of José Borges, a French-Portuguese professor from Vendome, is dedicated to the French team. “These topics are something current that we talk about a lot. It helps us to deal with another type of vocabulary, in addition to making a class more enjoyable and fun,” he explains, something with which his students agree. The whole class agrees on something. “Griezmann is like God, he is everywhere. He is having an incredible World Cup,” says Sofía Lorenzo, who believes that France has a lot of capacity to harm the Argentine team. “It’s going to be an interesting match, that’s for sure. They have a bit of a destructive game, especially in the midfield. Seeing the precedent of 2018, I expect a great game,” says Yael González, who will travel to Paris to watch the final. since she usually spends long periods on French soil as a biologist and translator, both scientific and for UEFA.
Sabrina Clemente, director of Alianza Francesa: “It’s already nice to reach a final, and face a country as soccer-loving as Argentina, I don’t even tell you”
“It’s already nice to reach a final, and face a country as soccer-loving as Argentina, I don’t even tell you anymore,” says Sabrina Clemente, director of Alianza Francesa and originally from Lyon, hence her predilection for Hugo Lloris. “It is a pity that he is not the other great from Lyon (Benzema), but I am very happy with Lloris. He is playing very well and is being key for France,” she analyzes, although she confesses that he is not a particularly soccer person. “I don’t get wet with the result, which later jinxed him,” Clemente jokes.
Dorothee Forys hopes that the triumph of the Gauls will be the final climax to her son’s birthday. “It would be the ideal gift, really. I trust in a 3-1 with a goal from Griezmann, who is close to my home in France,” explains the teacher, who wants her compatriots “to be intelligent and know how to show the quality they they have, because then it’s easy for them to catch the contras”.
