“I want the Libertadores… I love you Millionaire, I really love you…” “I am from River, from River at heart, even if you win even if you lose…”
With pure singing, the River fans who are in Belo Horizonte received the team led by Marcelo Gallardo at the door of the Ouro Minas hotel. Those who were outside behind a fence and those who were inside, housed in the establishment.
First the coaching staff came down. Gallardo was the one who led the line and behind him came his collaborators and then the players.
The Doll extended his right hand to the fans to greet them. T-shirts, cell phones, screams and emotions dominated the scene. The same thing happened with each footballer who passed by before going up a staircase to the first floor to go to a living room where they had a snack and then went to the rooms.
River is already in Belo Horizonte. On Monday afternoon, the Millionaire delegation arrived by charter flight from Buenos Aires and the team that leads Marcelo Gallardo is already housed, ready and focused to face the first leg of the great semi-final of Copa Libertadores contra Atlético Mineiroin what, for many, will be an early final. With pure singing, the River fans who are in Belo Horizonte received the team led by Marcelo Gallardo at the door of the Ouro Minas hotel. Those who were outside behind a fence and those who were inside, housed in the establishment.
With 25 called up, among them Pity Martínez, who will contribute his symbolic weight in a Copa Libertadores duel, although in theory he will not even go to the substitute bench, River is already in Brazil and led by Gallardo, no less, whom they respect a lot in these lands.
The mystique of the Doll in these confrontations is what gives the fans the most hope, beyond the team’s irregular performance, which has a hard time making the game flow from midfield to forward, as well as generating goal situations.
The fans still support and trust. There will be four thousand fans of the red band at the MRV Arena in Belo Horizonte cheering on the Muñeco team and little by little they are already making themselves felt in the city.
In fact, a large group gathered at the doors of Ouro Minas, the hotel where River stays every time he comes to Belo Horizonte and sang for his team and encouraged the players, while one by one they got off the bus that the brought here from the Tancredo Neves International Airport, escorted by police vans.
Many of those fans made their sacrifices to come. Like Alejandro and Ezequiel, who asked for leave from their jobs and don’t even remember the number of hours they traveled. They left from Comodoro Rivadavia, in the south of Argentina, where they live. They passed through Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, San Pablo, there they changed airports, and then Belo Horizonte, the final destination.
A couple took it as a pleasure trip and left by car from Mar del Plata. They are Mónica and Gustavo, who have lived together for five years and share the passion for River. It is the first trip abroad to see the club of his loves. There were three days on the Argentine and Brazilian routes. They left last Thursday, stopped by the Monumental to look for the tickets they had purchased, started the 2800 kilometer journey from Buenos Aires, stopped in Buzios to go to the beach and arrived in Belo Horizonte on Sunday.
Others were able to do it in a shorter way and arrived by direct flight from Buenos Aires and other places in Argentina. Some did it in a microphone. AND Those who live in Brazil joined the caravan of buses organized by the club’s branches in these lands and arrived from Rio de Janeiro. All of them will be in one of the stands at the MRV Arena this Tuesday.
Video
What Mineiro fans think of River de Gallardo
Some of them testified to Clarín about what this trip means, and also asked some specific questions. One of them was about the result of the match. Some are confident of being able to achieve a victory but the majority are satisfied with a draw (“the important thing is to keep the zero on the goal”, admitted Juan, from Tigre) and some even with a 0-1 because “in the rematch we threw the Monumental on top and we turn it around.
The other question was what they would give or promise if River wins its fifth Copa Libertadores. And there was a common denominator: most would get something tattooed. From Marcelo Gallardo’s face to the one who scores the winning goal in a hypothetical final, or something alluding to the club. One of them has prepared his right leg, until now clean of inscriptions and paintings, to have it tattooed from the ankle to the femur.
And the last had to do with the arrival of Fernando Gago to Boca. The majority downplayed it, joked about the defeat he received from Tigre in his debut and reminded him of the defeats with River. They did not forget, obviously, Madrid.
River is now going for another Libertadores. And in Belo Horizonte, where the Millonario team is already located, they will seek to take the first step to try to get into the final on November 30.