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A sea of blue and white took over a Kerns parking lot Sunday. Around 400 fans gathered to support the Argentine national team in the FIFA World Cup final against Spain.
Affinity organization Argentinos en Portland hosted the watch party with Baires Home, an Argentine restaurant on the corner of East Burnside and Northeast 22nd Avenue.
Despite Argentina’s crushing 0–1 defeat, Portland’s Argentine community showed up big to support their home team. The restaurant set up two TVs to play Telemundo’s Spanish broadcast. Fans, many donning Lionel Messi’s number 10 jersey, brought their own folding chairs and Argentine flags.
Baires Home hosted similar watch parties throughout the World Cup, where Portlanders watched Argentina blaze through pool play and clinch its spot in the final with several last-minute comebacks. Of course, anyone who’s spent the past month in the city has seen all kinds of watch parties spilling into streets throughout town. Perhaps the biggest was when the Timbers filled Providence Park for a free, max-capacity watch party—so 20,000 Portlanders could watch Belgium boot team USA.
For Alejandra Pompa, owner of Baires Home, this party was about more than football. She was proud to open her restaurant to other Argentines, and to the wider Portland community.
“To show—through the gastronomy, through the food—our culture, makes me very proud,” she says.
Beside the many Modelos and yerba mates, there was no shortage of Argentine food at her restaurant Sunday. A grill in the parking lot served up fresh choirpán, a grilled chorizo sandwich. And Pompa’s kitchen shuttled empanadas, churros and milanesa sandwiches to the hungry crowd throughout the game.
Spain had taken control by halftime. But the Portland crowd rallied momentum with a halftime performance of its own. A drum circle had fans out of their seats, dancing while others waved flags and team Argentina banners overhead.
The crowd’s conviction hardly wavered, even as Spain maintained possession for 65% of the match. While there were no goals to celebrate, the crowd erupted into cheers for each of the goalie Emiliano Martinez’s historic 11 saves.
Silence fell over the crowd in the final minutes of overtime. Spain had kicked the ball out of bounds at Argentina’s goal, granting the team one final chance at scoring. Messi took the corner kick. It was the final potential assist in the final World Cup game of the 39-year-old superstar’s storied career—the last moment of his fifth time leading his country’s team through the World Cup.
But his teammate Giuliano Simeone’s last-ditch shot flew over the goal post.
When the game was called for Spain, the dejected crowd began to clap in appreciation of the victors and their own team’s efforts. Tears began to flow, and many in the Portland crowd began to embrace—the blow softened by the community turnout.
“The World Cup is something that’s in the Argentinians’ blood,” Pompa says. “And it’s something that always brought them together.”
