The year was 1932, the city La Plata. It was a great occasion, in those days, anytime a big team from the capital city played away from home, there was a huge commotion during the week.
There were the ones saying that they were going to witness history by beating them, and there were those more moderate who were happy to watch the big teams visiting their towns and cities.
Not that La Plata is a small place. It is in itself the capital city of the whole Province of Buenos Aires.
It has always had a great tradition for football with a great rivalry between Estudiantes and Gimnasia y Esgrima (the oldest club still active in the country).
To give you an idea in the mid to late 20’s the city had an oil refinery that was the 10th biggest in the world.
In 1931 the first forms of public transport started to circulate round the city, helping its then 231200 inhabitants get from place to place much easier.
So imagine a football mad city, with its brand new transport system, preparing to see one of their local teams, Estudiantes play against the giant that was (and still is) River Plate.
To make matters more exciting River were leading the tournament closely followed by Estudiantes and Independiente.
It was only the second year of professionalism in Argentina and the financial gap was already very telling.
That the local team were having such a good campaign was surprising everybody, and people filled the stadium every time they played there.
River took an early lead, and kept going forward trying to increase the gap between the teams.
River’s new star Bernabe Ferreira is showing why the huge fee the club paid Tigre for him that year was worth it (and with his signing the nickname Millonarios came to be), by scoring that goal, and threatening to add more anytime he touched the ball.
Then to silence the chants of the locals, the second goal arrived.
It was all River, and Bernabe Ferreyra.
The local crowd, in its majority, believed this year was their chance to make a name for the club, and kept supporting Estudiantes despite the score line.
And the players seemed inspired by the passion in the stands, and started pushing River more and more.
Everyone could sense that it was a matter of time before they got back into the game.
Shots started to fly past, and the visitors’ goalkeeper was having more and more work to do.
In one of those attacks, Alberto Zozaya shot from outside the box and the ball hit the crossbar before clearly bouncing inside the goal and coming out to be cleared by River’s defence.
The referee waved played on, but the Estudiantes players surrounded him, and continued to complain for 5 minutes.
Once he found a gap between the surrounding players the referee, De Angelis, left the field of play.
Nobody was sure what was going on. But as the minutes went by and the referee did not return, the people started to leave the stands.
The players of both teams stayed on the pitch talking between them, not knowing what to do.
Fifteen minutes had elapsed since the official left the pitch, when the crowd returned inside the ground to give both sets of players and ovation.
At this point the referee also returned to the pitch and without thinking it twice, gave the goal, and River restarted the game from the centre circle, now leading 2-1.
The party went on. The final score was 3-3.
River Plate never protested the decision, and the players gave a round of applause to the local fans.
Asked by the press later, the referee said that in the tranquillity of his dressing room, he closed his eyes, meditated, and the whole incident went through his mind again, and it was then the he saw the ball bouncing inside the goal, and he had the duty to go out there and rectify his mistake.
There were the ones saying that they were going to witness history by beating them, and there were those more moderate who were happy to watch the big teams visiting their towns and cities.
Not that La Plata is a small place. It is in itself the capital city of the whole Province of Buenos Aires.
It has always had a great tradition for football with a great rivalry between Estudiantes and Gimnasia y Esgrima (the oldest club still active in the country).
To give you an idea in the mid to late 20’s the city had an oil refinery that was the 10th biggest in the world.
In 1931 the first forms of public transport started to circulate round the city, helping its then 231200 inhabitants get from place to place much easier.
So imagine a football mad city, with its brand new transport system, preparing to see one of their local teams, Estudiantes play against the giant that was (and still is) River Plate.
To make matters more exciting River were leading the tournament closely followed by Estudiantes and Independiente.
It was only the second year of professionalism in Argentina and the financial gap was already very telling.
That the local team were having such a good campaign was surprising everybody, and people filled the stadium every time they played there.
River took an early lead, and kept going forward trying to increase the gap between the teams.
River’s new star Bernabe Ferreira is showing why the huge fee the club paid Tigre for him that year was worth it (and with his signing the nickname Millonarios came to be), by scoring that goal, and threatening to add more anytime he touched the ball.
Then to silence the chants of the locals, the second goal arrived.
It was all River, and Bernabe Ferreyra.
The local crowd, in its majority, believed this year was their chance to make a name for the club, and kept supporting Estudiantes despite the score line.
And the players seemed inspired by the passion in the stands, and started pushing River more and more.
Everyone could sense that it was a matter of time before they got back into the game.
Shots started to fly past, and the visitors’ goalkeeper was having more and more work to do.
In one of those attacks, Alberto Zozaya shot from outside the box and the ball hit the crossbar before clearly bouncing inside the goal and coming out to be cleared by River’s defence.
The referee waved played on, but the Estudiantes players surrounded him, and continued to complain for 5 minutes.
Once he found a gap between the surrounding players the referee, De Angelis, left the field of play.
Nobody was sure what was going on. But as the minutes went by and the referee did not return, the people started to leave the stands.
The players of both teams stayed on the pitch talking between them, not knowing what to do.
Fifteen minutes had elapsed since the official left the pitch, when the crowd returned inside the ground to give both sets of players and ovation.
At this point the referee also returned to the pitch and without thinking it twice, gave the goal, and River restarted the game from the centre circle, now leading 2-1.
The party went on. The final score was 3-3.
River Plate never protested the decision, and the players gave a round of applause to the local fans.
Asked by the press later, the referee said that in the tranquillity of his dressing room, he closed his eyes, meditated, and the whole incident went through his mind again, and it was then the he saw the ball bouncing inside the goal, and he had the duty to go out there and rectify his mistake.