River Plate celebrating with the Copa Libertadores trophy after the victory over Boca Juniors, their intracity rivals from Buenos Aires, on Sunday in Madrid.
"MADRID — Pity Martínez, his legs like lead, took a deep breath. After 120 minutes of impossible tension, after a journey of 6,000 miles, after a game that had lasted a month, there was one more run to make. So he ran. Away from the last vestiges of resistance Boca Juniors could muster, away from all the turmoil and strife that had enveloped the final of the 2018 Copa Libertadores, and into the wide green expanse of Santiago Bernabéu, toward the unguarded goal, toward a place in eternity. Behind him, a sea of red and white bounced and broiled, urging him on, waiting for that moment of release, of certainty: for the third goal that would seal River Plate’s 3-1 victory — and, just as important, Boca’s defeat — and ensure that, for the fourth time in its history, River would be the South American champion. This one, though, will always mean the most. Nothing else will ever really compare. How could it? It was all too perfect: beating Boca, its counterweight in the Great Schism that defines Argentine soccer, its opposite pole in perhaps the fiercest rivalry in world sport; seizing the chance — in that moment that Martínez rolled the ball into an empty net — not only to savor its own ecstasy but to taste Boca’s pain, each sensation feeding on the other, swirling, metastasizing. ..."
NY Times
W - 2018 Copa Libertadores Finals
Buenos Aires deployed a significant police force on Sunday around the Plaza de la República.
2018 November: NY Times: In Buenos Aires, a Rivalry Stretches Passions to the Limit
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