After this world cup, Argentina is being seen as a unique evil, and it's getting more racist and xenophobic. People don't know a single thing about Argentina but Argentinians are all being painted as racist and zionists, and some Argentinian players being violent is apparently the fault of the entire team or even the whole of Argentina. Argentinians are described as uniquely violent. This was not the response after Zidane's headbutt, or Nigel de Jong's karate kick in 2010. Some people are even calling for banning Argentina from the next football world cup. If I was Argentinian I would not feel safe in Europe. I saw a video of Argentinian fans getting beat up by Spain supporters in Spain after the final. Europeans and North Americans are just projecting their own racism onto Argentina and are using that to excuse being racist to Argentinians.
So if you meet an Argentinian, be extra nice to them. And if you're Argentinian: Te apoyamos
On the day of the final, I saw a group of Argentinians having an Asado in a local park, and when I left the park I saw another Argentinian wearing their jersey, probably going to the Asado, and I told him 'Vamos Argentina'. To which he replied 'Gracias'. It sounded like he was not used to hear this support.
Edit: But I don't deny the racism in Argentina at all. My problem is that Argentina's racism is being used as an excuse by North Americans and Europeans to project their own racism problems onto Argentina and to bet racist against them, also impacting the Argentinians that aren't racist
You shouldn’t be shitty to people because of a sport team. Full stop. If people are being dicks to others because of a sports team I don’t care too much if people are shitty to them.
I was glad the argentina national team lost the World Cup because they generally played like a bunch of jerks and generally sucked to watch. I hope they eat shit for a long time tbh. I also loved watching the US get humiliated at home, much the more after Trump intervened on their behalf. That’s another group that I hope eats shit in humiliating fashion for a long time.
There have been lots of popular videos (at least on the Spanish language internet) with Argentina fans being violent and/or abusive during the last World Cup. Yeah, hashtag not all supporters, whatever, but that’s has been a bad look.
Edit: I haven’t followed any of this in English but in Spanish I’ve seen lots of vitriolic back and forth between argentinos and other Latin Americans and no one is coming off as a saint. It’s sucked in general.
I would push back about the de jong and Zidane stuff; those players were very directly singled out (not least by their own supporters) as being violent or un-{nationality} because of their race. Same shit Sakah got after missing a penalty for England (or whatever it was he did that the racists took for an excuse).
What’s nice about the World Cup is you can watch good football. When teams don’t play good football it’s nice to see them lose.