Copa Libertadores: A faraway final that was once just a stone's throw away...

'Passion for export', was what they called it locally. During the forty days in which the Copa Libertadores final saga played out - slowly and painfully - it grabbed the attention of the world, surprisingly in crescendo rather than reaching saturation point. They wanted to know firsthand what it's like, what it feels like to be there, among the faithful, to taste the adrenalin and the fear that only Argentine club football seems to proffer.A stone-throwing incident at the Boca Juniors bus as it entered the River Plate stadium on November 24th turned fantasy into reality. Chaos ensued, the impassioned fans and the folkloric ritual of enmity, the colourful flags and flares were dramatically eclipsed by high powered negotiations, fines, points, and sanctions brokered. The show was pronounced unsafe.Apparently it wasn't the stone throw that tipped the scales away from Argentina hosting its own Superclasico, but someone spitting at Gianni Infantino inside the stadium. It now seems like a distant anecdote, but the president of Argentina, bidding to co-host the 2030 World Cup, was mortified. Infantino was invited to address world leaders congregated in the city for the G20 summit the following weekend with a keynote speech.The power of football was presented to all, in a city practically evacuated for the safety of the distinguished heads of state, covered in high metal fences and displaying a synchronized police operative both of which had been lacking the previous weekend at the stadium.The decision to host the match in Madrid was announced without either River or Boca being consulted. A new national cry of outrage exploded: "The Liberators Cup was becoming the Conquistadors!"While the fee-paying fans wept at the news, aware that they would be unable to see their dream come true, business class flights to Madrid sold out. Editorials from around the globe shamed Argentines for being unable to retain their continental Cup on home soil. "We will steal your soul like we stole Messi and now this mother of all finals" wrote Cristina Cubero Alcalde in Mundo Deportivo from Spain.The farce of exporting the tie was widely condemned. Maradona spoke from Mexico, Juan Roman Riquelme called it the "most expensive friendly in history". Gabriel Batistuta tweeted that as Argentines, we should stop being complicit. Both Boca and River, for different motives, penned formal refusals to Conmebol. Still, people flocked from all corners: the filmmaker from New York, the businessmen from Sao Paolo, the academic from London.In Madrid, we were told, the security operation put in place surpassed a standard Real Madrid-Barcelona clash, and a handful of known fans from both teams who had preventive orders issued against them were deported on arrival. The build-up was non-stop: the TV audience expected could reach 200 million. It was tragically reminiscent of the 2010 Chilean miners rescue operation which captivated attention as it unfolded, only to be totally forgotten after. Would the same happen to this?Interactive maps of the deployments were divulged by the media as the world's attention was focused as it unfolded. Like the miners' rescue, was Argentina's football being dragged out from the bottom of the pit, for one big live momentous clap? What would its future be afterwards?As the second leg finally kicked-off players from both teams seemed weighed down by the burden of what had been endured; some talk of formations and starting line-ups had seeped through amidst the cacophony of discourses, but for most part it was as if the football itself had become a minor matter.But such is the true power of this game, that as the match unfolded we all became more involved in the true story - the one written by the ball. Dario Benedetto scored first for Boca, finishing a sublime assist from Nandez, having scored in both semi-final games and the first leg. His celebration betrayed a little of that primal, childish frustration and petulantly, he stuck his tongue out a River defender as he ran past him. An enduring image which went viral.River's Lucas Pratto equalised and we all started to wonder if the match ended in a draw, would extra time maybe be played in another venue, on another date. "Mexico, this time?" someone still saw humour in all this. "We are all dead and this is purgatory: the game will never end," said another.But extra-time came there and then, and River managed to retain order and composure as Boca crumbled. Barrios lost his nerve and was sent off; veteran Fernando Gago came on for captain Pedro Perez but after tearing his Achilles' tendon hopped off the pitch. Boca were down to nine men. When River scored again, Boca's goalkeeper had run out to play in the open, it was all or nothing.River's emblematic manager Marcelo 'Doll' Gallardo was suspended, so all the more credit to his team to pull off what they did. There was young promise in Julian Alvarez, who came on briefly and created play. The Colombian JuanFer Quintero tipped the scales in River's favour and finally, close to 120 minutes of play and 40 days of hype, Pity Martinez, a player who has also played for Boca, run freely and expertly towards the open goal, sealing the triumph.The show was pronounced a success: Spanish journalists praised the good humour and humanity of the attending Argentine fans. "My one complaint is that the stadium was piping music right up until kick off. I wanted to hear the insults from the 40000 bosteros, not some hideous Europop", Martin Rutherford, who made the pilgrimage from the UK, texted me. "The folklore of our football turned Heavy Metal a long time ago" Adrian Maladesky had written in Clarin from Argentina a few days before.In downtown Buenos Aires, the passion the world had craved ended in the early hours with arrests and injuries in the dozens. The flags, the drums, the obscene chants echoing through the city; the images of police marching against the crowd once again on our TV screens.River Plate played the game better. On the pitch, and off it. They are now the champions of America. But the precedent has been set. The turmoil left behind of this Copa Libertadores fiasco should make it a matter of urgency for Argentina's football to find its rightful tune. Somewhere between Europop, Heavy Metal and folklore, this most precious of cultural emblems needs to come home.