Some clubs remember their unforgettable achievements with black and white postcards. Glory is sometimes a memory that is passed down from generation to generation and it is always the old people who shouted those special goals. There are generations that don’t know what it’s like to do a lap of honour.
In Arsenal It’s the other way around. If there’s one thing fans want, it’s to escape from those photos that portray them in Primera B, a category they haven’t played in since 1992. There are fans of the Viaduct whose biggest bitterness is having been relegated to the second division. It is the generation that saw how in a golden and lightning-fast period of time it began to win titles.
With just 29 points, today they are just two teams behind in the zone A of the First National (the last place is shared by Guillermo Brown and Talleres de Remedios de Escalada) but, if they finish second to last, they will play a promotion with the team in the same position as the zone B to determine relegation. If, on the other hand, they finish last, they will fall to the third division of Argentine football. He has 10 dates ahead to avoid it.
Just over 10 years ago, Arsenal lifted their fifth title – the Argentine Cup– from a harvest of successes that had begun in 2007 when he crossed borders and was champion of the South American CupAt the end of the first decade of the 2000s and the first years of the following decade, the club experienced an unprecedented number of achievements.
The then president of CONMEBOL, Nicolás Leoz, presents Julito with the Copa Sudamericana. Photo: EFE / Cézaro De Luca
In 2002, the unprecedented promotion to the First Division. Just two years later, they were participating in the Copa Sudamericana, which they managed to win in 2007 at home on the pitch of Racing ante Americaof MexicoThe following year he won the Recopa a Bocawho was the winner of the LibertadoresIn 2008 the team also traveled to Japan where he raised another glass, the Suruga Bank which he played against the Asian champion, the Gamba Osaka.
In the blink of an eye, The presence of the Sarandí team had enlarged the neighborhood. The fans, who were actually fans of Independiente or Racing –like their founding members- began to live with a new generation of supporters who were not “double shirt”. And it was not a streak, there are still more titles.
In 2012 it was the turn of the local tournament. Arsenal, the club founded in 1957 and competing in the Argentine Football Association (AFA) since 1961 was raising its greatest trophy. More? Yes, it won on penalties again against Boca – champion of the Argentine Cup – and kept the title. Recopa. Insatiable, also the next edition of the Argentine Cup.
While other century-old clubs did not know what it was like to celebrate a title or had not done so for decades, the Sarandí team had already lost finals. Even after the first relegation to the B Nacional in 2018, it only took one tournament to return to the elite. However, that was the debacle: could not return to being the team that topped the charts and was relegated again in 2023.
Julio Humberto Grondona street at the entrance to Arsenal stadium. Photo: AFA Press
Why has Arsenal been unable to maintain the standards of its golden age and is struggling to avoid falling to the third division? The question has the concrete answer of the poor campaigns. The good ones consecrated him and the bad ones continue to condemn him.. But the omnipresence of Julio Grondona It contains conspiracy explanations, something similar to what you experience Central Tents with its former president Claudio Tapia at the head of the AFA.
The death of Grondona in 2014 and the first relegation four years later is the “proof” for those who claimed that the club received privileges because its founder and former president for 20 years was none other than the head of the AFA. From that perspective, Arsenal’s present can be an example to explain karma or the knowledge contained in the popular phrase “everything comes back.”
Did Grondona really help Arsenal? The former president of Independiente Andrés Ducatenzeiler He assured on his channel Youtube that when the club sold to Sergio Agueropaid for “a kite” with which “the Arsenal stadium was made”. There is no complaint, nor evidence other than these statements, although the stadium bears the name and surname of Mr. Julio.
The 1996 restructuring of the Ascenso is also cited as evidence, which prevented the club then presided over by his son Julio-Julito-Grondona from being relegated. But the AFA’s decision not only benefited Arsenal, but also Almirante Brown, who kept it thanks to the reclassification. It is not conclusive either.
Arsenal players, champions of the 2007 Sudamericana. Photo: AP Emiliano Lasalvia
Perhaps the situation that brings us closest to a preference for Mr. Julio Arsenal was precisely in the final of the Sudamericana that inaugurated the golden era of the club. After winning the first leg of the final, in Mexico against América by 3 to 2, the surprising team of Gustavo Alfaro was one step away from consecration.
Arsenal went to the racetrack where they were playing at home. The match was an uphill struggle and when it seemed that the goal was impossible –six minutes from the end they were losing 2-0- Martin Andrizzi He scored the goal of his life. A true goal in which luck, effort and self-respect came together and which made the score end 1-2 and make him champion despite losing the match and tying the aggregate 4-4. Why?
Just a few days before the match, Conmebol changed the competition regulations and gave a bonus to goals scored as a visitor. In this way, it gave Arsenal an advantage over its rival, who had scored three goals in Mexico, one more than its rival in the Argentine rematch.
The change was attributed to the influence of Grondona, Conmebol’s representative in FIFA – an entity of which he was senior vice president – and the leader with the greatest influence on the continent.
Aside from these controversies, the cups are in the display cases and the memories posted on YouTube, in full colour and sound. They are contemporary, there is no need to go back to the last century. The last thing Arsenal want, then, is to return to the old days of sepia photos, a deep rise and a dozen dates left to change history.
