It is a very special week for the fan of Racingbecause his team got into a continental final after 32 years. On that occasion, it was Cruzeiro who pulverized his dream and beat him in the Super Cup 4-1 on aggregate. The same rival that the Academy will face on November 23, at the General Pablo Rojas Stadium, known as La Nueva Olla, in Asunción, Paraguay, for the final of the CONMEBOL South American Cup. While the euphoria does not decrease, the racing fans find other reasons to continue celebrating. This Monday, November 4, commemorates the 57th anniversary of the most important day in its history: when Juan José Pizzuti’s team became world champion. The odyssey of a team that suffered on the plane, took refuge in Boca and had the support of Sean Connery, James Bond actor.
Juanfer Quintero, responsible for the Academy being in a new continental final. (Photo: archive)
The first fan: Sean Connery
In October 1967, a team of Racing who had won the first Copa Libertadores in its history traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, to face Jock Stein’s Celtic in the first leg of the Copa Intercontinental. That Celtic arrived as owner of the “triple crown”: they had won the Scottish league, the Scottish Cup and the UEFA Champions League. On the flight, the problems already began: the plane suffered some stronger than usual turbulence and the entire team, which had already been on the brink of tragedy earlier that year, in Medellín, feared. “On the flight to Glasgow the plane almost crashed. “When we saw the stewardess hanging from the ceiling we were very scared,” he would confess. Juan Carlos “Chango” Cárdenasthe hero of that series.
Once we arrived on Scottish soil, a fan of luxury. According to the protagonists themselves, they met the actor Sean Connery, who explained why he supported them: “At the airport we ran into Sean Connery and he told us that he was a Rangers fan, which is the Celtic classic. He told us that he was going to see us win. Panadero Díaz wanted to take him to the rally, but he couldn’t and we lost. Even James Bond wanted us to be champions,” he once revealed. Cardenas. The thing is that they lacked the most difficult thing, showing themselves superior on the field. Racing They went to Hampden Park in Glasgow, under the gaze of 103,000 people, and lost 1-0 with a header from Billy McNeill.
Chango Cárdenas died in 2022: the author of the most important goal. (Photo: archive)
The second leg was at home and there lay the hopes of Racingalthough the recent past was discouraging: Racing They had 4 consecutive defeats before retaliation. The Celtic team had never traveled to South America and, although they were warmly received at the airport, the Albiceleste fans were not as welcoming to the players when they saw them in the Cilindro de Avellaneda, which, by the way, was never so packed: 120,000 spectators. Before the match began, something hit goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson’s head as he headed for his goal. A stone, a bottle?… Anyway, the substitute, John Fallon, should have entered in his place. The match started 1-0 for the visitors with a goal from Tommy Gemmell from a penalty, but Racing he overcame and turned it around with goals from Norberto Raffo and the Chango Cardenas. It finished 2-1, forcing the series into a third game. The defining one.
“The Battle of Montevideo”
This is what the party that consecrated Racing intercontinental champion. It was at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay, on November 4, 1967. And it was more of a battle than a soccer match, because blows took precedence over good soccer. Racing It ended with two expelled: Alfio “Coco” Basile and Juan Carlos Rulli. Celtic, with three: Bobby Lennox, Jimmy Johnstone and John Hughes. At 11 minutes into the second half, the immortal play that would change the history of Racing: the left-footed shot from outside the area of the Chango Cardenasagainst which Fallon could do nothing. The result was maintained and Racing became champion of the Copa Intercontinental 1967. The first Argentine team to achieve it. And eleven names went down in history: Agustín Mario Cejas; Oscar Martín, Roberto Perfumo, Alfio Basile and Nelson Chabay; Juan Carlos Rulli, Joao Cardoso and Humberto Maschio; Norberto Raffo, Juan Carlos Cardenas and Juan José Rodríguez. Twelve, actually, because the ideologue of all that was the eternal Juan José Pizzuti, coach of the Racing world champion.
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The unforgettable “José team” was the first Argentine to be intercontinental champion. (Photo: archive)
Boca’s anthem, the cabal
There are many reasons that can explain that albiceleste success. Cárdenas once said that Pizzuti’s leadership had been fundamental and that the group had great affection for each other: “The locker room was a family, we all came from different cultures and we helped each other.” But other superstitious people will say that it had to do with that team’s cabal, one of the most curious, by the way. Oscar Martín, captain of that team, once revealed that goalkeeper Cejas, in charge of the music, always played the same song…the Boca Juniors anthem. “When we started that campaign, I don’t know who thought of recording the Boca announcer when he said ‘Rattiiiin’ and a march was playing in the background. That march remained like a cabal and in all the games, both home and away, we used it inside the locker room and danced to it before going out onto the field.”
