“Thank you, my God” was the phrase with which Tomás Montagnini summarized the suffering he experienced for more than 90 minutes, after the victory of the Argentina team, which barely beat England 2-1.

A nervous wreck, Tomás, born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, went from anguish to despair at the Fairplex in Pomona. His girlfriend, the Mexican Selma Lozoya, couldn't calm him down a bit.

“Argentina has performed with barbaric consistency,” Montagnini said. "The effort that all the players have put in, especially Messi, is incredible; he plays for the team and the team plays for him and for the country...I believe that Argentina takes the fourth star to celebrate at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires."

Argentina is three-time world champion. He won the World Cup in Argentina 78, Mexico 86 and Qatar 2022. In addition, he was a finalist in 1930, 1990 and 2014.

On Wednesday, hundreds of fans in Southern California watched the game indoors, while some braved the 92°F midday temperature, although wind chills reached 100°F.

Diego Grazzi, from Mercedes, Buenos Aires province, moved from one side to the other. He couldn't rest easy because Argentina fell 1-0 due to the goal of English striker Anthony Gordon, with just over half an hour left.

“Cold water fell on us like a bucket in the middle of this suffocating heat,” Grazzi said. "But Argentina won it with balls, as always. Again, it was a re-important match against England, in the back row"

Grazzi considered that, although the “Three Lions” team was looking for revenge, “they could not beat this incredible team, which wins all the battles, never gives up and always seeks victory until the end.”

Two passes from star Lionel Messi changed history for the Albiceleste fans who were watching every minute of their clock.

Yolie Solórzano was one of those people who were not on the edge of the seat but on the bench. It was something normal. The new chapter that Argentina and England experienced at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta revived their decades-long rivalry.

“The opposite was very difficult,” said the operations director of a San Bernardino company. “At first, the two were canceling each other out, but Argentina is great and Messi is great, and we also have another genius in [Lionel] Scaloni, who made the perfect changes.”

Luis Portilla, from the province of Mendoza - like all Albiceleste fans - pinned his hopes of Argentina's victory on Lionel Messi.

“It's the last World Cup for “La Pulga,” and it will be many years until we have another player like him,” said the education counselor in the city of Highland, California, while waiting for his Mexican wife, Liliana, to return from buying hamburgers and fries for their son Dorian.

Nervousness also invaded Marissa Vásquez, who rubbed her cheeks and seemed to bite her nails every time there was an offensive by the English team.

“The game was good, but both teams committed a lot of fouls,” he analyzed. “I was in favor of Argentina.”

The soccer festival held at the Fairplex in Pomona brought together hundreds of fans from around the world.

United by football, Ukrainians Joshua Al-Harazi and his girlfriend, Illia Shelesi, joined the celebration.

“England's attacks were more dangerous,” Joshua described. “In the end they lost because they retreated and made defensive mistakes.”

“England is better than Argentina; they play cleaner,” said Janice Dominguez-Sewell, a Colombian woman married to Christopher Sewell of Sheffield, England.

“60 years of misery”

David Fresquez, former senior multimedia services, networking and information technology technician at Claremont Colleges, was heartbroken by the fall of the “Three Lions.”

Daniel Fox, a London native and soccer coach in Rancho Cucamonga, said he was “disappointed” by the way England lost.

“We tried to celebrate the victory very early,” he reflected. "We beat Mexico because we never stopped attacking, and that cannot be done with Argentina; the proof is that we lost. Today, our best players, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, were conspicuous by their absence in the game."

For her part, David Zarate-Islington, a half-Peruvian and half-English Londoner, complained about the Argentine fans who tried to challenge them with blows, when Lautaro Martínez scored the winning goal for the Albiceleste.

“They came to pick fights and throw racial insults, and that confirmed the kind of people they are,” he said. "Culturally, I feel that things are a little murky. I don't think they are all bad, because that would be falling into stereotypes and generalizations. But, personally, I don't like their way of playing soccer or their politics; even their [former] president [Alberto Fernández] said that Brazilians come from the jungle, that Mexicans come from Indians and that Argentines came from ships" to Latin America.

Although the objective of Fernández's speech, in June 2021, was to highlight Argentina's European connection and heritage, English fans noted: "Honestly, that is detestable. Racism has no place anywhere in the world, and much less in football, the sport we watch to disconnect from everyday life and things like that."

"I think there are campaigns to eradicate racism in football, but it seems like that has taken a back seat with that Argentina team. But we, as fans, shouldn't tolerate it at all," Zarate-Islington said.