World Cup Fever Sweeping Area Immigrant Enclaves
Back in 1986, when Argentina won the World Cup, Felipe Corrado led an impromptu victory caravan of his euphoric compatriots along Santa Monica Boulevard, from his Hollywood grocery store all the way to Beverly Hills.
Now the unthinkable has happened--Argentina lost to a small West African country, Cameroon, in the opening game of the 1990 World Cup in Italy. For Corrado and the other Argentine residents of Los Angeles who gathered at the Western Avenue grocery store to discuss Friday’s loss, every hour since has been one of mourning.
“We’re feeling a little angry and bitter,” Corrado, 60, admitted, his head bowed in defeat. “Our team let us down. And the Africans, they just played a better game.”
Argentines in San Diego, a much smaller group than in Los Angeles, remained somewhat more detached from their native country’s soccer loss.
Cacho, a defender with the San Diego Sockers, which won their eighth indoor soccer title just hours after the Camaroon upset, looked to the positive.
“I’m very pleased that a team like Camaroon came face to face with the defending world champions and played well and played to win,” said Cacho, but he said he also understood his countrymen’s feelings. “In Argentina, people like to see their team win all the time. We know we have the best team in the world and the best player, Diego Maradona (Cacho played with Maradona in 1981). But soccer is becoming more and more competitive every day.”
Another Argentine now living in San Diego, Dr. Egisto Salerno, who has been here since 1983, showed that a soccer fan is much like an American baseball fan. He blamed the loss on Argentine Coach Carlos Bilardo, who has guided the team for seven years.
“I was disappointed with the way the coach played the players,” he said. “In the back, you could see the people were very inexperienced.”
Salerno said it was that inexperience which allowed Camaroon to score while playing short-handed.
But Salerno said he didn’t let the loss ruin his weekend.
“Like in everything, when something doesn’t go the way you expected, it gives you a sad feeling. It doesn’t mean you stop what you’re doing.”
The World Cup, a quadrennial tournament matching all-star teams from 24 nations, is considered the premier international sporting event. Whether their teams win or lose, the passion for soccer felt by millions in Southern California’s immigrant enclaves will stay at a peak until July 8, when the championship final is played in Rome.
Beginning this weekend, the streets of Southern California’s Latino barrios will be slightly less populated, as soccer fans stay indoors to watch more than 30 games transmitted from Italy.
On weekdays, futbol aficionados with the misfortune of having day jobs will take transistor radios to work. More than a few Spanish cries of “ Gooooool !” will be heard from downtown offices and restaurant kitchens where some Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants toil as cooks, waiters and busboys.
“Cup fever,” will also sweep through parts of Koreatown near downtown Los Angeles when South Korea plays Belgium on Wednesday. Romanian fans in Hollywood have already begun celebrating, after their team successfully defended the nation’s honor Saturday by upsetting the Soviet Union, 2-0.
“We’re proud,” said Michael Istrate, 41, manager of the Mignon Romanian Restaurant on Vine Street. “We beat them with two goals. Can you believe it?”
The excitement caused locally by the monthlong tournament might be considered something of a preview to 1994, when Los Angeles and other U.S. cities play host to the cup. Real-life World Cup soccer teams will appear in local stadiums, along with, perhaps, a few English soccer hooligans.
For now, however, local soccer fans must get their fix via television and radio, mostly on Spanish-language stations. KMEX-TV, the local affiliate of Univision, the Spanish-language television network, will broadcast about 30 games. The Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion is printing a daily bilingual World Cup section. Also televising about two dozen games with English play-by-play is the TNT cable network.
La Opinion sold briskly Saturday at newsstands on Broadway, as fans eagerly digested reports of Argentina’s dramatic defeat. At his small street corner newsstand near Broadway and 3rd Street, Eustaquio Euan Canul, 55, sold out his copies by early afternoon.
A few blocks away, Dove Alter, manager of A & G Electronics, had given up trying to keep his workers, along with a small smattering of passers-by, from watching the game between Colombia and the United Arab Emirates on the store’s dozen or so color television sets.
“I can’t control my employees, they’re crazy,” said Alter, a native of Israel. “All they want to do is watch football.”
Soccer was the only meal being served Saturday morning at the Los Arrieros Restaurant in Silver Lake. Owner Arturo Villegas had created a small shrine to the sport in one corner of the restaurant, hoping that his fellow Colombian-born residents of Los Angeles would come to follow the fortunes of the national team.
Above a giant-screen TV--which he rented especially for the World Cup--Villegas placed a World Cup schedule and a large, autographed poster of the Colombian team, dressed in the red, yellow and blue colors of the national flag. The players had visited his restaurant in April, when they played an exhibition game at the Coliseum.
Unfortunately for Villegas, Saturday’s live telecast of Colombia’s game against the United Arab Emirates began at 7:45 a.m., and few fans showed up.
“They’re at home, watching the game in bed,” Villegas lamented.
Undaunted, the restaurateur invited his employees to take a break from work and watch the action. “Hey muchachos,” he called back to the kitchen, “the game is about to start.”
For the next two hours, Villegas and his employees shouted at the television in Spanish.
“Shoot, dummies, shoot!” yelled the cook, Saul Lorenzo Rodriguez, 36.
“No, my son, no, not like that,” interjected restaurant manager Fernando Rodriguez, as a Colombian player’s shot drifted wide of the goal net.
“I’m a nervous wreck,” Rodriguez added. “I never drink coffee, but now I’ve already had four. And it’s not even halftime yet.
Finally, after a long and painful wait, Colombia scored its first goal, a brilliant header by Bernardo Redin, a 27-year-old midfielder from Cali.
“That’s the way, hermano !” Rodriguez shouted.
Colombia won the game, 2-0.
Spanish-speaking soccer fans can feed their addiction for the sport long after the games have ended. Each evening, thousands of Latino sports fans tune in to “Speaking of Sports,” a radio talk show hosted by KTNQ announcer Rolando (“El Veloz”--”Speedy”) Gonzalez.
* WORLD CUP
Henry Kissinger and Anthony Day take a look at the World Cup soccer tournament, which featured victories by Italy, Romania and Colombia. C1, C6, C8
