Argentina's National/Olympic Team

Argentina’s National/Olympic football team is one of the best in the world. In 1978 and 1986 they brought home the World Cup. They have turned out Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, who are considered by many to be the greatest football players of all time. Constantly Argentina is battling with Brazil, and are one of the very few teams who can actually beat them. During the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, the team won the gold medal and then went on to defend it in Beijing in 2008, which hadn’t been done in a long time. These achievements, along with a great number of somewhat lesser ones, are what makes Argentina one of the fiercest teams when it comes to playing football.
- Charlotte Rand

Argentine Culture Shown Through Sports

Argentina’s culture is shown a lot through sports. For example, if you walk down the streets, you might get asked if you prefer Boca or River, which are the two football rivals that play each other in the “Superclásico.” Everyone will assume that you’re interested in sporting events, as it’s a huge part of the culture. In addition, almost every person in Argentina plays a sport or belongs to a sporting club. This, along with some other things like the arts and literature, really give us a good idea of Argentina and how the people there live.
Boca vs. River Derby

- Charlotte Rand

Argentina's Uniqueness

There are lots of sports-related things that are unique to Argentina. Pato, a game played on horseback where the players try to throw a ball through a vertical hoop, isn’t very popular, even though it’s the country’s national sport. There’s no baseball or football as we know it in Argentina. Their football, which, to us, is soccer, is the most popular sport. Rugby union, which was first played in 1873, is another one of the more popular sports. While lots of women in Argentina participate in sports, there aren’t very many professional/national teams for them to play on. When you take all of this into account, you can see that there are many sports-related things in Argentina that are a lot different to the United States.
- Charlotte Rand

Culture

What is culture? Well, the dictionary says that culture is “The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” So that’s basically saying that things like music, sports, and food are what makes a place what it is. These things (and others) are all different in different countries. For example, in the United States, the culture is very Western, but it’s influenced a bit by Native Americans and other ethnic groups. Then, in a country like, say, Argentina, there are lots of mixed groups of people, while the culture is influenced greatly by European immigration. All of these things are what makes the place what it is.
- Charlotte Rand