Rivalry reaching fever pitch

While hordes of Argentine fans on Copacabana beach celebrated another World Cup victory by their national team, Brazilian Gustavo Bog, 27, had draped the ripped remains of an Argentina team T-shirt over his shoulder a souvenir of a scuffle that broke out just as the game finished.

Chanting between Brazilian and Argentine fans had gotten out of hand during the broadcast of the match at the FIFA Fan Fest held on the beach.

We consider the Argentines brothers,” He demonstrated his point by wearing a yellow Brazil team T-shirt and a furry hat in Argentina’s sky-blue-and-white colours, wrapping his arm around the shoulders of his friend Luciano Cazenave, 55, from Buenos Aires.

“The Argentines would love to play soccer as fancy as the Brazilians, and the Brazilians would love to play with the drive and will that the Argentines have,” Newton Cesar de Oliveira Santos, author of the 2009 book Brazil-Argentina: Stories of the World’s Greatest Football Rivalry, said in a phone interview.

Neymar, Messi’s young teammate on the professional powerhouse Barcelona, was the attacker Brazil was depending on to win the World Cup but he was sidelined for the rest of the World Cup after getting injured in his back during the quarterfinal match against Colombia.

In the 1990 World Cup in Italy, a spectacular dribble by Caniggia left Brazil goalkeeper Taffarel on the ground as the Argentine attacker rounded him and scored to eliminate Brazil from the tournament.

But soccer, in South America, is sometimes a matter of life and death: there were 30 soccer-related deaths in Brazil last year, and 2,435 Argentine soccer fans were banned from entering Brazil for the World Cup over fears of violence.

In Belo Horizonte on June 21, Brazilian and Argentine fans exchanged a hail of bottles and cans after Argentina’s dramatic 1-0 victory over Iran.

Clutching a beer, Aquiles Saldano, 40, from Cordoba, Argentina, quoted from a comedy pop song popular with Argentine fans, in which “bitter” Brazilians are informed that Argentina’s Pope Francis, Messi and Maradona are judged greater than Pele.

In it, a small Argentine boy blows bubbles while discussing the World Cup, repeating that Brazil will win “because they are really good.”