ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Argentina fans are well known for their rabid, boisterous support of their national soccer squad, and that fevered passion made their beloved team feel right at home in Atlanta at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t Buenos Aires, but the rumbunctious pro-Argentina crowd made their voices heard: Serenading the team with songs, chants and screaming at the top of their lungs throughout Wednesday\u2019s semifinal match.<\/p>\n
And when Enzo Fernandez scored the equalizing goal for Argentina off an assist from Lionel Messi in the 85th minute, water splashed from the top floor to the bottom at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.<\/p>\n
Cups and water bottles followed. Shirts were removed and swung in the air. Long after Lautaro Martinez scored the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over England, Argentina fans cheered as if it had transpired only seconds earlier.<\/p>\n
Messi, Fernandez and others paraded around the field with their shirts off, soaking in the atmosphere as fans cheered the players on \u2014 none of them wanting the moment to end.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo words, no words. A joy for our country, for our people,\u201d Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. \u201cWe are unique, truly, and it\u2019s not arrogance, it\u2019s from the heart. We are unique. These people today carried us to win the match, so I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until security began to weave through the stands, blowing whistles to direct foot traffic, that the sea of Argentine fans began to make its way toward the exits.<\/p>\n
Gaston Reinoso, an Argentine who lives in Houston and traveled to Atlanta for the match, said the devotion of the fan base can\u2019t be easily described.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to explain the passion that these fans have,\u201d Reinoso said. \u201cWhen you are Argentinian, you feel soccer like religion. This may be everything for you. You can see an event like this, it\u2019s a moment when people forget about religion, politics, everything. Everyone is united. This is Argentina, there\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Argentina fans haven\u2019t always been on their best behavior at previous World Cup tournaments, but Atlanta has been good to them this year \u2014 even if Messi and Co. have had to rally to win games.<\/p>\n
Reinoso said getting off to fast starts hasn\u2019t been Argentina\u2019s strength, but the fan base hasn\u2019t waivered.<\/p>\n
Argentina was back at the site of one of the World Cup\u2019s greatest comebacks \u2014 its 3-2 victory over Egypt on July 7. And when they pulled off another improbable victory on Wednesday with a pair of late goals, the water started flying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a spray from God, from the sky,\u201d Reinoso said. \u201cI started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next stop for the Argentine road show will be Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the World Cup final against Spain. And it\u2019s a safe bet there will be more than a few blue-and-white jerseys in the stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Argentina fans are well known for their rabid, boisterous support of their national soccer squad, and that fevered passion made their beloved team feel right at home in Atlanta at the World Cup. This wasn\u2019t Buenos Aires, but the rumbunctious pro-Argentina crowd made their voices heard: Serenading the team with songs, chants … Continue reading Rumbunctious pro-Argentina crowd makes defending World Cup champions feel at home in Atlanta<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-18 12:24:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1524889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524890,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524889\/revisions\/1524890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1524889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1524889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1524889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}