00:00But in Argentina right now, everybody's waiting for Sunday, people are going crazy,
00:06they are thinking, where are we going to watch the game?
00:09INS is in Buenos Aires with the report.
00:15Thank you very much for having me.
00:18Yes, Argentina is already experiencing the build-up to this World Cup final,
00:22in which it will face Spain after defeating England 2-1.
00:25That victory meant much more than just the football result and reaching the final.
00:30It carried a great deal of symbolic and identity-related significance.
00:35Everything became even more charged after the Argentine national team's celebrations
00:39and the players' own statements.
00:41In particular, they waved a flag bearing the words,
00:44the Malvinas are Argentine in front of the cameras in the stadium and before the world.
00:49That image has become a major story,
00:51making headlines in newspapers and on television channels around the globe
00:55as it relates to Argentina's sovereignty claim over the islands.
00:59And regarding Spain, Argentina had just celebrated July 9,
01:03marking the 210th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the Spanish crown.
01:08Beyond that, Argentina's relationship with Spain is very different.
01:13Spain is the country that colonized what is now Argentine territory,
01:16but at the same time, there are deep ties of blood and shared history.
01:20There was significant Spanish immigration to Argentina,
01:23particularly around the time of World War II and during the years of fascism.
01:27In other words, the relationship is completely different from the one with England,
01:31the current usurper of Argentine territory.
01:33Even so, just as people were singing the Malvinas march before the match against England,
01:38they are once again singing the military marches from those years of the revolution
01:42when the liberators sang them as they faced the Spanish crown.
01:48Then there's a more local point I wanted to mention.
01:50It has to do with the inside jokes, the jokes on social media and what people are saying in the
01:55streets.
01:57First, it's about respecting the lucky rituals,
02:00just as people did during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
02:04And then there's the irony that, in reality, nobody is studying and nobody is working,
02:09everyone is just pretending because their minds and their hearts are focused on this Sunday's final.
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