The Argentina National Soccer Team trained daily at Georgetown University this week in preparation for a friendly match against El Salvador at FedEx Field on Saturday. It caused considerable commotion on “The Hilltop” as fans flocked en masse onto campus to gawk at a star-studded roster headlined by four-time world player of the year Lionel Messi.
Other notable players on hand for last year’s World Cup runners-up included Messi’s FC Barcelona teammate Javier Macherano, Manchester United’s Angel Di Maria and Marcos Rojo, Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, and Pablo Zabaleta, Juventus’ Carlos Tevez, Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain, and Sampdoria’s Sergio Romero.
Although the practices were technically closed to the general public, this didn’t stop hundreds of people from swarming Georgetown’s Shaw Field each day, causing escalating anxiety for team officials, university staff, and campus police. Mob scenes erupted around the team bus each time it arrived or departed, and spectators crammed themselves all along the fence surrounding the field, many of them climbing up muddy hills and treading through thorn bushes to secure positions to get a glimpse of their heroes. Messi, of course, was the center of attention, and he rewarded his supporters’ ardent fervor on Tuesday by taking time after training to sign autographs while his teammates waited on the bus.
On Wednesday, a few intrepid fans managed to get onto the pitch at the end of practice (apparently by bending the fencing’s metal bars) to accost players. In response, the areas near the field were completely closed off for Thursday’s proceedings, though this hardly deterred the curious and determined from finding vantage points on nearby rooftops and windows.
Aside from the star-power of Messi and his cohorts, the practices in and of themselves offered nothing much to see, as La Albiceleste mostly limited themselves to standard stretching/warm-up exercises and light ball drills during the roughly 90-minute sessions. Wednesday and Thursday did feature the incongruous spectacle of the world’s second-ranked national side engaging the Georgetown Men’s Soccer Team in scrimmages which, while hardly scintillating to watch, may well go down among the most memorable episodes in the athletic careers of the collegians involved.
Nursing a foot injury he sustained during last weekend’s Clasico, Messi took it a bit easier than most of his teammates throughout the week. After a full session on Tuesday, he left early on Wednesday (leading scores of screaming fans to sprint after his vehicle in a scene reminiscent of A Hard Day’s Night), and he missed Thursday’s training altogether, putting his availability for upcoming matches at least potentially in question.
Off the field, the Argentine contingent made the most of their visit to the American capital, doing some sightseeing, dining at Del Campo, and visiting the Embassy of Argentina. On Wednesday evening, the team watched from a suite at the Verizon Center as the Washington Wizards took on the Indiana Pacers, an occasion that yielded a memorable photo of the 5’7″ Messi’s encounter with 7’7″ former Washington Bullets center Gheorghe Muresan.
According to their Twitter, Argentina will practice and do press at FedEx Field today in advance of Saturday’s friendly against 89th-ranked El Salvador, who were last seen at that venue serving as fodder for the Spain National Team’s World Cup preparations last June. Tickets were still available as of this morning. La Albiceleste are scheduled to return for two more training sessions at Georgetown in the days following the match before moving on to New Jersey for a friendly against Ecuador at MetLife Stadium.
