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Despite its loss on Sunday, the next day Argentina’s team was welcomed home the next day by thousands of fans celebrating their home country’s performance in the World Cup final. The team arrived in Buenos Aires on a plane painted with images of the players and large sign reading: “Thank you Argentina”. They were greeted by a horde of emotional fans wearing the white and sky-blue striped jerseys of their national team, who flooded the road leading from the airport to the football association complex.
The Argentine soccer team.
President Kirchner personally greeted the players, and praised them for “courage, passion and bringing everything you have and more to the field”. While Lionel Messi seemed upset about the loss, he was appreciative of the positive feedback. Messi, along with everybody else, still made some great strides in being able to bring their team to the finals. It seems like every time Argentina plays in the finals, they’re up against the Germans. The last time they made it to a final in 1990, they lost to West Germany. Four years before that, they had beaten the Germans in the final.
After Sunday’s final, thousands of sad but proud Argentines gathered at the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires to applaud their team’s exceptional World Cup performance. While the gathering was originally peaceful, violence broke out later that night, forcing riot police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse vandals that destroyed store fronts, tore down street lights, threw rocks and broke into buildings. According to National Security secretary Sergio Berni, 120 people were arrested Sunday night. The Buenos Aires emergency medical services reported on 70 people were treated for injuries on Monday, including 15 police officers.
Despite Argentina’s recent troubles, such as one of the highest inflation rates in the world, an encroaching debt crisis and a deep corruption scandal, the shot at the World Cup final was able to unite Argentines. Kirchner, whose approval rating has been plummeting in recent months, kept a low profile during the tournament. She declined an invitation to attend the final match, preferring instead to rest in anticipation of a Tuesday summit with leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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