When it comes to Football history in Argentina, one team will always be mentioned “La Maquina” (the machine). That was the nickname by which the River Plate team of the late 30’s and well into the 40’s was known as.
Every single one of the starting XI of those teams has become a legend.
Those were the days where money was good, but it was not all; most players stayed in one team for most of their careers.
They were either fans of that team, or grew to like them and be committed to them.
There was no way that a Boca Juniors player will end up playing for River Plate or vice versa.
The supporters from all teams, all over the country could recite their clubs eleven players off by heart.
La Maquina’s most famous players were the front 5 (remember at that time the formation was 2-3-5), Munoz- Moreno- Pedernera- Labruna- Loustau.
Those 5 played total football 30 years before Cruyff and his Mechanic Orange did.
Labruna scored for fun, specially against Boca. Moreno was, according to many better than Maradona and Pele.
It was a terrific football team that won everything many times.
More importantly, they were great friends. They even used to go on holidays together with their families.
They say that the reason for that was that pre-game rituals did not involve 5 star hotels or any luxuries.
“We always went to the same place” said Loustau. “ we used to stay in a place where they gave us a dinning room, and a hall with 25 beds where we all stayed together”
“We were all River supporters, we felt doubly bad if we lost, first as fans, then as players. Especially if we lost against Boca. But they were the same”
“Those days, there were no bonuses for winning games, so the Boca players and us use to bet each other over the final score. And then divide the winning between the boys, according to how much each put in. That was our bonus and incentive” Loustau continued.
This anecdote is about a game that La Maquina, actually lost to Boca. In fact it was after that lost game.
They were returning to their place of retreat, sad, tired and angry at having lost to their bitter rivals.
As they get to the entrance of the parking lot to park the bus, the guy working there (who they knew for a long time) decided he was not going to open the barrier.
The driver tried and tried, but there was no changing the guy’s mind.
He then took off his top, only to be wearing a Boca Juniors top under it.
He did a celebratory lap of honour round the bus singing Boca songs, as the players looked on.
At first they all took it in, laughed and even clapped him. Still he was not stopping and the players started to get angry.
All of a sudden, two of them (Pedernera and Vaghi) got off the bus and they started giving the barrier man the kicking of a lifetime.
Nobody else made any efforts to stop them, they just stayed on the bus watching.
The police were called, and they took the full bus and the barrier man to the local police station.
They were all taken in individually to talk to the Chief inspector.
It took a while as they were around 30 people to interview there.
The result of this investigation was simple.
Every time that a player was called in to be “interviewed”, all they did was sign autographs for all the policemen at the station, who were River fans.
The only person that was kept in overnight was the barrier man.
Every single one of the starting XI of those teams has become a legend.
Those were the days where money was good, but it was not all; most players stayed in one team for most of their careers.
They were either fans of that team, or grew to like them and be committed to them.
There was no way that a Boca Juniors player will end up playing for River Plate or vice versa.
The supporters from all teams, all over the country could recite their clubs eleven players off by heart.
La Maquina’s most famous players were the front 5 (remember at that time the formation was 2-3-5), Munoz- Moreno- Pedernera- Labruna- Loustau.
Those 5 played total football 30 years before Cruyff and his Mechanic Orange did.
Labruna scored for fun, specially against Boca. Moreno was, according to many better than Maradona and Pele.
It was a terrific football team that won everything many times.
More importantly, they were great friends. They even used to go on holidays together with their families.
They say that the reason for that was that pre-game rituals did not involve 5 star hotels or any luxuries.
“We always went to the same place” said Loustau. “ we used to stay in a place where they gave us a dinning room, and a hall with 25 beds where we all stayed together”
“We were all River supporters, we felt doubly bad if we lost, first as fans, then as players. Especially if we lost against Boca. But they were the same”
“Those days, there were no bonuses for winning games, so the Boca players and us use to bet each other over the final score. And then divide the winning between the boys, according to how much each put in. That was our bonus and incentive” Loustau continued.
This anecdote is about a game that La Maquina, actually lost to Boca. In fact it was after that lost game.
They were returning to their place of retreat, sad, tired and angry at having lost to their bitter rivals.
As they get to the entrance of the parking lot to park the bus, the guy working there (who they knew for a long time) decided he was not going to open the barrier.
The driver tried and tried, but there was no changing the guy’s mind.
He then took off his top, only to be wearing a Boca Juniors top under it.
He did a celebratory lap of honour round the bus singing Boca songs, as the players looked on.
At first they all took it in, laughed and even clapped him. Still he was not stopping and the players started to get angry.
All of a sudden, two of them (Pedernera and Vaghi) got off the bus and they started giving the barrier man the kicking of a lifetime.
Nobody else made any efforts to stop them, they just stayed on the bus watching.
The police were called, and they took the full bus and the barrier man to the local police station.
They were all taken in individually to talk to the Chief inspector.
It took a while as they were around 30 people to interview there.
The result of this investigation was simple.
Every time that a player was called in to be “interviewed”, all they did was sign autographs for all the policemen at the station, who were River fans.
The only person that was kept in overnight was the barrier man.