I'm a few days into a great book which I had been determined to find the time to read for a while: "Angels with Dirty Faces: The footballing history of Argentina" by Jonathan Wilson.
I'm slowly moving into the 1940s and the great River plate team of that decade. Before that I was reminded of how in the 1920s and 30s, Brazil were not the great South American football nation. The team that Argentina always strived to beat and battled with for dominance was Uruguay, who won gold at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics, and the inaugural World Cup in 1930. In the last two Argentina were the runners up.
Pancho Varallo played for Argentina in that 1930 final and in 2010, at the age of 100, he was still lamenting how Argentina managed to lose that match when they were ip 2-1 at halftime and comfortably in control.
But it is something else that Varallo said about his time with Boca Juniors that amused and fascinated me and, without needing to sound like a naysayer of modern football, is a very poignant and then truthful opinion.
What Varallo enjoyed the most was "the sportsmanship that existed, the deep sense of being team-mates, friends and colleagues. I don't get why they kick opponents so much [in the modern game], the constant friction that is seen in every action, at corners or free-kicks. It's a different football.....they run so much. Sometimes I wonder why they run so much and think so little."
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