After Argentina's dramatic 3-0 defeat by Croatia on Thursday in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a nation was brought to tears. On one Argentinian sports channel, TyC, the presenter of the football show No Todo Pasa and his panellists observed a moment's silence before beginning their analysis. One pundit cast about awkwardly, his eyes darting sideways. Another fidgeted with his watch.
"The minute's silence on that TV station was an absurd act, a piece of ridiculous theatre and in bad taste—even more so considering that Argentina has not yet been eliminated from the World Cup," Ramiro Martin, the Argentina-born biographer of La Albiceleste's captain, Lionel Messi, tells B/R.