Violence + Soccer = Argentina

When my dad told me that soccer rivals in Argentina always led to violence, I didn't believe him because it seemed ridiculous that fans could be so intense they would try to hurt the other team. He told me that when he was in Argentina for a business trip, he witnessed fights between rival teams fans and that him and his co-workers had to leave a restaurant one night because of it. I was also hesitant to believe that if you were at the same bar or restaurant as a fan of your rival team, one of you had to leave. But, after reading In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture, my doubts have been proven true. Argentina soccer fans take a rival such as the Red Sox and Yankees to a level no other country has reached before. After a tough loss, the soccer club San Lorenzo de Almargo immediately went to practice their skills. However, while practicing, three fans of the club slipped passed security guards and attacked some of the clubs team members...because they lost the game! A few star players were badly hurt by the attacks and were horrified to know that is how they're fans thought of them. Fans of both the home and visiting teams in Argentina have made the stadiums unsafe to attend. Families are no longer bringing their children to games because it is too much of a risk. There has been a decrease in ticket sales because fans are afraid they will be the target of a barra brava. A barra brava is a group of fans who strongly support their team, when they are winning. For a living, they are generally scalpers or drug dealers. They are not ashamed of themselves and they feel that violence is an important part of the soccer culture. However, they have scared other fans and even the players themselves. A parent of young children said, "“Every day it is harder to go to the stadiums with your kids to see the games... It seems like the quality of soccer is getting worse every day." A popular soccer player in Argentina Jonathan Bottinelli admitted that he was afraid of the barra bravas, “I am a little nervous, a little tense about what we had to go through...We have to live with this in soccer.”


Alexei Barrionuevo and Charles Newbery co-wrote the article In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture. They used logos to describe some of the attacks that the barra brava committed against opposing fans and players. They hi-lighted the one instance where Bottinelli was beat up by members of a barra brava and how when other players on Bottinelli's team tried to stop the barra brava, they were attacked as well. Barrionueveo and Newbery's use of logos were successful in proving that soccer has turned into a violent sport in Argentina. They also used pathos when describing Bottinelli's fear of the barra brava. I think it is important that they interviewed him for his true feelings because it gave their audience a true connected to the incidents. They also used pathos when interviewing parents whose children wanted to attend soccer games in Argentina but couldn't because of the violence. The tremendous use of pathos brought their audience in because it caused us to feel bad for the victims of the barra brava. Pathos also proved that violence was a true problem and that everyone was affected by it because it has become a way of life in Argentina.  Barrionuevo and Newbery were successful with both logos and pathos in connecting with their audience. Hopefully one day the violence in Argentina will cease and soccer will return as a family sport again. 


In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture by Alexei Barrionuevo and Charles Newbery
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/sports/soccer/in-argentina-violence-is-part-of-the-soccer-culture.html?pagewanted=1&ref=soccer