Students – Boca: chronicle of the night in which drama won over football and – finally

All hands grab heads. From the press box, on those white desks, you can see the anguish in the audience. On the grass, the images are desperate. Javier Altamirano collapses 27 minutes into the first half and football goes to a tenth level.

There is a life at stake and the show must not go on, no matter how many people there are in the stands. Enzo Pérez and Santiago Ascacibar hug the Chilean. The Boca players approach and are part of the chorus of shouts launched by their Estudiantes colleagues. They call for an ambulance which doesn’t take even a minute and a half., but the wait seems eternal. There is confusion and fear for the health of the 24-year-old Chilean midfielder who, as Dr. Hugo Montenegro later confirmed, “convulsed.” The situation warranted stopping the ball. That is why Fernando Echenique lowered the blinds on the party.

The campus physician brought peace of mind around 11 p.m. at the door of the Platense Medical Institute, where Altamirano arrived conscious and was admitted to intensive care as a precaution. The tomography gave “good news”, according to Montenegro himself, who confirmed that this Monday morning he will once again undergo a battery of studies to determine the cause that led to his current clinical condition.

An hour before, Chiche – as he is known in La Plata – generated great concern. Nobody understood what happened. His pregnant wife came down quickly, accompanied by a family member. As Clarín was able to find out, Altamirano regained consciousness on the way to the sanatorium which is in front of Stadium One. “I was excited,” they commented. And he burst into tears. They had to sedate him.

“It’s okay, it was already determined that he had a seizure, he entered the sanatorium, all the pertinent studies were done, a tomography that came back good, and he is already asleep. We have to complement them to find out the cause,” said Montenegro.

There was great maturity on the part of the referee, Fernando Echenique, and the Boca players, beyond the fact that the Estudiantes fans exploded against Edinson Cavani and Diego Martínez, since the coach gathered part of the group to give instructions. José Sosa himself, captain of the team, admitted it in a press conference that he gave in the bowels of the modern stadium of La Plana.

“And how are we going to be?“, he rebuked a journalist who questioned him. “More than answering these kinds of questions, we have to put ourselves in each other’s shoes. We must thank the referees and the players of the rival team for their patience. Beyond the misunderstanding, they were always with us. I understand that, with all the murmuring and shouting for Javi to be treated as quickly as possible, nothing was heard. Chiquito Romero approached, there I spoke with Edi, and they told us ‘we are all with Javi and his family’ and that is good to clarify,” emphasized the Prince, who was a teammate of the Uruguayan at Napoli.

There were insults against Cavani, and also for the president of the AFA. “Chiqui Tapia button,” he thundered on Uno. Until calm came over the loudspeakers, which announced that Altamirano was out of danger, because he feared the worst.

In that sense, the tears on Enzo Pérez’s face were moving. The scare caused by the Chilean’s convulsion lasted in every corner of the field. Even inside the locker room, where Eduardo Domínguez found a team in a state of shock.

The Estudiantes players retired to the locker rooms. Those of Boca, on the other hand, remained up in arms, waiting for a definition. Echenique waited for Sosa’s return. “Is the kid okay?“Martinez asked.”The important thing is the kid“said Cavani. And the Estudiantes captain made it clear that the spirit of fair play had to prevail. Everyone agreed and the referee suspended the match.

So, The coach used wise words to summarize the general feeling. “They told us a little bit in the locker room. He had another situation in the ambulance… But life goes the other way. We love Javi very much, the lady is pregnant and the boys were crying. The Estudiantes family moved very quickly. It was our turn, but if it happened to others, we were going to show solidarity. Sometimes, everything is so frivolous… We don’t look at the anguish and everything that it entails, we know that now our calendar is going to be adjusted, but that is secondary,” Domínguez reflected.

In the same sense it was expressed Marco Angeleri. “There is not much more to say, the first thing in this life is health,” said the club manager, before leaving for the Platense Medical Institute with the players and leaders. A handful of fans also approached the door of the hospital, interested in the player’s condition.

Altamirano arrived at Estudiantes in August of last year from Huachipato, where he debuted at the age of 17. Estudiantes bought him 50% of the pass and in recent times, he has earned the title with the red and white shirt. Without going any further, two weeks ago he scored his first goal in the game. It was in the 2-1 victory against Godoy Cruz in Mendoza.

The Chilean’s good football moment came from the other side of the Cordillera. To the point that Ricardo Gareca had called him up to play in La Roja’s friendlies against Albania and France. The Argentine coach, logically, will have to disaffect him, since at this time what is at stake is his recovery.

What started as a party for the birthdays of Juan Ramón Verón and Carlos Bilardo, famous DJs, ended abruptly. The best thing about the night, in the end, is that Altamirano is doing well. AND It is the only result that matters from this Estudiantes-Boca with an open ending.