Tuesday night’s friendly match between Argentina and Mexico was a fittingly strange closing to a strange year for both nations: Mauro Icardi scored his first international goal at the eighth time of asking, and Paulo Dybala also opened his account in his 18th appearance.
It’s not been a great month for Ronaldinho’s PR team. Back in October, it was reported that the Brazilian legend would have his role as an ambassador for FC Barcelona significantly reduced — including his presence at Legends games — due to his political backing of Brazil’s President-elect, Jair Bolsonaro.
Just like Switzerland many time zones away, Panama had a steep hill to climb going into its game against Argentina at home on Tuesday night. Panama dropped a 4-0 decision to Argentina in the first game of the two-legged playoff. Much of the drama in that fixture took place in stoppage time as Argentina scored two goals and Panama saw two players sent off.
The18 is where soccer lives, but soccer definitely has an all-time home in Buenos Aires, located in La Boca neighborhood, and everybody calls it La Bombonera.
There was no 42-pass team goal, but compared to today’s Manchester derby at the Etihad, the Boca Juniors-River Plate Copa Libertadores final seemed like it was being played on another planet entirely.
We’re not gonna lie: We were really looking forward to watching Saturday’s Copa Libertadores final first leg between Buenos Aires rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors. But once you see these images, you’ll completely understand why the Superclásico matchup was postponed, with the Copa Libertadores makeup date scheduled for Sunday.