Era Patricios Park, or the city of Buenos Aires, or the Creole, very Argentinian territorial extension of a registration with a trademark. Tock, tock. In another century – this one – and from the same shirt, he was briefly rescued as “tiki-tiki.” Always Hurricane. Neighborhood, city, country. Endearing roots.
Fifty years have passed since consecration of the Globe in it 1973 Metropolitan Championship. That Huracán integrates a small list of teams – emblem of Argentine soccer. It is curious that those who collect dozens of almanacs and, from hearsay, those who were not born when the Fool refer to the champion Hurricane René Orlando Houseman vindicated the pasture, the English Carlos Babington he put on his tailcoat, Miguel Brindisi led the way and Roque Avallaythe great Roque, inflated the nets.
Even with these monsters, the top scorer of that campaign, with 15, was Omar Ruben Larrosa, steering wheel or forward according to the dynamics of an action. It was still popular to name five players as the offensive line, from 7 to 11. In this case, Houseman, Brindisi, Avallay, Babington and Larrosa.
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The symphony enthralled through the style displayed in a stained glass window illuminated by the performers (as they were identified) led by a 34-year-old coach who spoke of “convictions” and who, even before disembarking with his winds of change in the Argentine national team –founding milestone of Albiceleste modernity–, sought to “return to the sources” of our football: César Luis Menotti.
El Flaco would try to get the team that he piloted from 1974 and was crowned in the World Cup 78 was known as “everyone’s team”. Something like what they have achieved half a century later, without declamations, Lionel Scaloni and his powerful hosts led by Lionel MessiIn ’73, fans of other teams were going to see Huracán, as had happened, to cite an indelible case, with Chacarita Juniors, Metropolitan Champion of 1969.
The Menotti Hurricane was a author’s work to look at and admire. You had to go to the field to taste it. Only the early Friday game was televised live on the old Channel 7, which was not among the main games of the day. The outstanding meeting was broadcast delayed on Sunday nights. There were no programs that showed the goals of the date, except for diffuse home images on the Monday news. A time of black and white TV with no greater artifice than the round game. No media paraphernalia (a word that was not used at that time): if there was a show, it was because of the flashes of the protagonists on the grass. Not all teams could shine. The dichotomy between “the spectacle” and “the result” monopolized the debates.
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They enjoyed Huracán since Oscar ‘Ringo’ Bonavena, conspicuous fanatic, to the ordinary fan without distinction of jackets. When the Globo performed its climax, a 5-0 victory against Central in Rosario, the entire stadium rewarded the exhibition with applause. According to what those who were there, or those who said they had been there, had never seen a similar concert of beauty and efficiency, consummated against a rival who in the National, the next tournament of the year, would make the Olympic return.
Héctor Roganti was the goalkeeper. Nelson Pedro Chabay and Jorge Carrascosa, the leading markers. Daniel Buglione and Alfio Basile, the center backs. In the middle, Miguel Ángel Brindisi and Carlos Alberto Babington dazzled, backed by a thoughtful and careful midfielder like Francisco Faustino Russo (nicknamed Fatiga), who provided the necessary balance. Up ahead, René Orlando Houseman wreaked havoc and cast magic. Roque Avallay opened furrows and established himself as one of the four reference nines (ace poker with Ratón Rubén Ayala, Puma Carlos Morete and Hugo Curioni from Córdoba). And Omar Larrosa got to the bottom, leaned back and if that wasn’t enough, he converted often.
The Uruguayan Nelson Chabay and Coco Basile had formed another legendary team: the 1966/67 local, American and Intercontinental champion Racing Club, coached by Juan José Pizzuti. Buglione was “from the house” and Lobo Carrascosa, a clockwork man, had arrived from Rosario Central. From the middle onwards, Huracán touched on festivals.
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Leyes was the substitute goalkeeper and the squad was rounded out by Cantú, Fanesi, Roma, Leone, Ríos, Quiroga, Scalise and Del Valle, who were joined by Tello, Tolisano, Kerikian and Ceballos.
Menotti knew that his Huracán was ready to take the leap. And this is how he portrayed him in the final stretch of the Metro: “I took charge of Huracán back in May of ’71. The team was last. Today, September 73, he is the leader of the championship. The path taken gives me enormous joy and creates an enormous responsibility. The joy is having achieved, with a group of players, my dreams come true. football convictionsnot in an imposed way but shared by all of them. The responsibility is to feel that these people of Huracán, so suffering, so faithful to their colors, cannot experience another disappointment after forty years of waiting.”
The coach commented on Houseman’s arrival: “I had seen this kid in Defensores de Belgrano, I liked him but I was afraid of him. In one of those it was half a lottery. One of those kids who do something brilliant and then crash into a wall after a while. He saw him as a rough diamond, which needed to be polished. But he debuted in Huracán when we were in Mar del Plata, playing a friendly against Kimberley, and my fear went away: that kid didn’t need adaptation because he knew everything.”
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The first Huracán wheel was overwhelming. He thrashed Argentinos (6-1), Atlanta (5-2), Racing (5-0), Central (5-0) and Ferro (5-2). But they also beat Newell’s, Colón, Vélez and Independiente as visitors. They lost the undefeated on the ninth date against River, the afternoon in which Hugo Perico Pérez saved two penalties against Brindisi at the Monumental. But at that point nothing could stop the clean and jerk. They began to talk about “Total soccer”, an expression that a year later would gain universal significance thanks to the Dutch Clockwork Orange by Johann Cruyff and company.
Secrets? No searching. The magazine El Grafico summed it up in a title that described the candor of a group of footballers and a technical director called to make history: “Play well, be friends, believe in cabals.”
“I saw him do things that I didn’t see Maradona do,” Babington said many times about Houseman. “When René arrived we realized that we would be champions,” Brindisi confirmed. The gala function was underway.
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In the Metropolitano 73, Huracán scored 62 goals in 32 games, of which they won 19, tied 8 and lost 5. They added 46 points, 4 more than Boca, when two units were still awarded for a win.
“That team changed the face of Argentine football,” Carrascosa once evaluated. Exaggerated or not, the size of the 1973 Hurricane increases with the passing of the decades.
“It was the team that came closest to the popular taste of Argentines. I tuned into the vibe that people like: dribble, touch, spout, hat, wall, overflow” Babington condensed in a 2006 report.
Huracán did not arrive with a full tank at the last stage of the championship, especially due to the calls to the National Team that was competing in the Qualifiers for the 1974 World Cup in Germany. However, it was enough for him to become champion before the end of the tournament, on the 16th. of September, despite the 2-1 defeat against Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in the Ducó, benefiting from the fall of Boca, its escort, against Vélez, which maintained the six-point advantage with two dates left to play . Huracán’s first professional title.
“The sun rises for the Globe,” intoned the burning fans. The unforgettable Hurricane of ’73 catapulted Menotti to the National Team. You already know how that story continued.