St. Thomas University’s Argentina natives rejoice after World Cup victory

No one will sleep tonight in Argentina.

Those were the words of St. Thomas University soccer player Noah Tocachier, who on Sunday was back home in Buenos Aires, where he watched Argentina end its 36-year World Cup championship drought.

As most of the planet knows by now, Argentina defeated France 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 3-3 draw through 120 minutes in Qatar.

The STU Bobcats soccer team is relevant here because they may have more Argentines on their roster than any squad north of Bolivia. The Bobcats have 13 Argentina natives, including an assistant coach and 12 players on a squad that was among the final 10 soccer teams left standing in the 2022 NAIA national playoffs.

Tocachier, back home in Argentina because STU is on winter break, watched the semifinals and final at a friend’s house. A total of 15 buddies gathered, initially, to watch Argentina beat Croatia, 3-0, in a semifinal on Tuesday.

When those same friends gathered on Sunday – arriving a full three hours before game time – everyone sat in the exact same place they had for the semifinal.

“We really care about those things,” Tocachier said of the group’s superstitions. “I sat right in front. Some of my friends stood the whole game.

“All of us spent the whole game screaming, jumping, singing. We felt like we were with the players – whatever we did, they felt.”

Tocachier said he cried when superstar Lionel Messi scored to give Argentina a 3-2 lead in overtime.

France, though, tied the score for the second time, sending the game to penalty kicks. The contest finally ended when Argentina’s Gonzalo Montiel converted on his PK, sending the South American nation of 46 million people into an emotional frenzy.

“Me and my friends all started hugging and crying,” Tocachier said. “Argentina had not won a World Cup in 36 years. I had never seen it happen.”

Neither had Santiago De Winne, who is STU’s 30-year-old goalkeeper coach.

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De Winne watched the World Cup final at home in Miami, and it was emotional for him, too.

“I cried many times throughout the game, to be honest,” De Winne said. “When we took a 2-0 lead, I thought we might have a chance. After that, things got crazy.”

De Winne said Argentina’s win goes way beyond sports.

Argentina’s inflation rate, for example, is among the worst in the world at 92.4 percent, according to tradingeconomics.com. The U.S. inflation rate has soared, too, but it is relatively tiny at 7.1 percent.

“Argentina is not going through a great moment economically,” De Winne said. “I think about half the population is in poverty.

“I think this win was a little moment of happiness for the people of Argentina.”

Tocachier can attest to that as fact.

After the game was over, Tocachier and his friends got in their cars and went around the neighborhood, waving Argentine flags.

“I think 99 percent of the country was wearing a Messi jersey,” Tocachier said. “I was in my friend’s car jumping through the window.

“But everyone was doing the same as me – I wasn’t the weird one in the way I was celebrating.”

Tocachier said that – unlike in the U.S. – nearly everyone in Argentina has played soccer at some point in their life.

That’s why, he said, Argentines identify so greatly with their national soccer team.

“People in my country are maybe too passionate about soccer – we feel this more than others,” Tocachier said.

“We are not a first-world country. You turn on the news, and we don’t have good news often. People are worried about how to get through the month financially.

“The 26 guys on the (Argentina) team represent us, and they made a dream come true.”

Tocachier and De Winne agreed that – in their estimation – Messi, 35, can now take a bow as the greatest soccer player ever, better than Brazil’s Pele and better than Argentina’s Diego Maradona, who died two years ago.

Maradona was the hero of what had been Argentina’s most recent World Cup championship in 1986.

“This was the first time we were not with Diego for a World Cup,” Tocachier said of Maradona. “He was always in the stands, supporting our team.

“With Diego gone, I think it was meant to be that this was the time for Messi to win the Cup. I think Messi is one of the best examples of Argentina as an athlete and a person. He is so humble.”

De Winne said Argentina’s win was a “relief”, mainly because of Messi.

“All the (Argentina) players worked hard,” De Winne said. “But Messi is the best player in the world. This is something he deserves.

“This is justice.”