“I saw them all play, I faced some of them and for me Lionel Messi He is the best of all“Says Humberto Dionisio Maschio, 87 years old (10-2-1933, Avellaneda) with conviction, privileged memory, a glory of Argentine football, and he explains. “Look at Charro Moreno, Say Stéfano, Skin, Maradona and Cruyff, a little less, were geniuses, huge players each in his time, but the speed at that time was different. Analyze Messi’s goals, he kicks below the rival’s legs with the goalkeeper covered, that he does on purpose. In addition, you saw that it is not a lot of running on the court, but when it does, it has the great virtue of having the ball stuck to the foot, hooks it and it is stuck. I have seen players with incredible speed, but when they had the ball they slowed down, but this kid does it in a fantastic way ”.
He Bocce He continues to live in Avellaneda, very close to the Piñeyro area, the neighborhood in which he was born and raised. Although his knees sometimes hurt, he lives alone and copes quite well. But he misses going to a coffee with his friends, going to the house of Juan Carlos Rulli, a champion like him in Racing, with whom he talks every day, to eat barbecue and especially his two children and three grandchildren. , who live in Río Ceballos, Córdoba: “Since Christmas I have not seen them. Yesterday I spoke to them and my grandson said to me, ‘Grandfather, I miss you’, we have been like this for four months and you start to think, pucha, it passes quickly even in the routine, but hey, we will have to continue taking care of ourselves ”, he tells the talk with Clarion.
The pass of Humberto Maschio from Deportivo Huracán de San Justo to Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, in the AFA records.
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Saying Maschio is entering the living history of Argentine soccer. From the paddocks of the neighborhood to Arsenal de Llavallol when he had not yet entered the AFA, traveled by the inferiors of Deportivo Huracán de San Justo and Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, the arrival in Quilmes in the old Second Division in 1953, the consecration in Racing , the Selection, the Carasucias Lima, Italian Serie A, World Cup 62 with the Azur, the return to Racing to crown himself with glory and, after retirement, an unprecedented situation: his first job as a coach was in the Argentine national team. Later, the Libertadores also won with Independiente. All that and much more is the Bocce. “I also directed Marcelo Bielsa”, He comments in the talk as one who does not want the thing.
– He remembers?
– In Institute, in the 70s, to be honest, I don’t even remember how he played, but he did like soccer a lot. I arrived an hour before training and he arrived behind me; I asked you about everything. What he did now with Leeds strikes me as sensational. We will see how it goes if he continues in the Premier.
– Do you like English football, do you watch it?
– Yes, I see a lot of football, old games when they happen on TV, Racing, Boca, everything. I was always a big fan of Spanish and Italian football. But for a few years now the Premier League has been the best. It is an open game, they go out to win, the men on the tips, they move well, they have a brand, I love it. It will not be easy for Bielsa, now it seems that they started to move to buy players, hopefully they will continue and do well.
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The journalist Gustavo Farías, from Córdoba, confirms that lin memory of Maschio has no cracks. On June 12, 1977 he made his debut as an Institute coach and the starting right center marker was the Loco Bielsa. He Bocce He is, together with Pedro Marchetta, the only one who led the four great Cordovan teams (Talleres, Belgrano, Racing and Instituto).
– Who was Fat Aníbal Díaz?
– A guy who was dedicated to football, knew a lot and recruited players. He was the founder of Arsenal de Llavallol, champion of the Evita tournaments, I could not play due to age. He took care of us and demanded of us. With an old car he took us to the Hudson area, where there were many paddocks, and made us train.
With the Gordo Díaz, Maschio and other future cracks moved in a herd from club to club. In 1949 they were listed in Deportivo Huracán de San Justo and in 1950 they were transferred to Estudiantes de Buenos Aires. “We played in the Fourth and Fifth Division. But one day I played a game in Primera (the division was amateurs, then Primera D), I think that against Barracas Central, we won, they gave us 20 pesos, I was very happy. ” Maschio remembers those steps with clarity, then Arsenal de Llavallol in his first performance in official AFA football, and in 1953 the move to Quilmes, the consecration. “I was a team scorer with the Negro Ismael Villegas, I think 24. We did not leave the tournament because Tigre’s center-forward, Cándido González, a big 9, scored 36 ”.
Humberto Maschio, one of those immortalized as the Carasucias.
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Not a single piece of information misleads Bocha’s memory!
– And you, what kind of center-forward was he?
– It was a slow 9, it pulled me well back and from there I organized, I moved but it was slow. One day, we played against the Italian National Team on River’s court, I think we won 1-0 (on June 24, 1956, goal by Norberto Conde), and I was scored by a stopper, a certain Bernasconi, and he didn’t let me touch the ball. At that time he was one of the best players in Argentina and after that game, for many months, I thought he didn’t know how to play ball. I said that my teammates supported me … Afterwards, we went with Racing to play Montevideo against Peñarol, we won 4-1, I made three goals, and I started to wake up. And already in the South American in Lima I returned to my level.
Humberto Maschio was the top scorer for the South American in Lima, along with Uruguayan Javier Ambrois. He made nine goals.
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– Did those play so well Carasucias?
– It was a brilliant team, without much filming. We played two or three games before going to Lima. The kids weren’t starters (he, Antonio Angelillo and Enrique Omar Sívori), but in a practice match, I think we broke it against Hurricane. And Don Guillermo Stábile, who was quiet but very observant, made us headlines. Look, Sívori and Bowtie (thus referring to Osmar Oreste) they had incredible ability, they dribbled, they scored, they kicked on goal, two phenomena. Angelillo and I were simpler, and Cruz, left wing, did not throw centers: he made passes to you, to the head, to the foot. In the middle Beanie Rossi, he ran little, he wanted them all close, but he was a leader. And, well, the rest, Rogelio Domínguez, goalkeeper, Giménez, Dellacha, Schadlein, Vairo. We won and thrashed. We beat Brazil 3-0. That day, the Peruvians cheered for them, but they ended up applauding us.
Male junto with Oreste Osmar Corbatta.
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– On their return, they were sold to Italy and bye Selection, would the Sweden disaster?
– It was something of the time. And we agreed, to play for the National Team you had to be in the country. All the players thought about it and we discussed it with Stábile. I know that later the leaders made that decision, made it official and could no longer call us. It is difficult to judge over time, what was thought to be correct was done at this time. Yes, it is true that we had an advantage, which was the experience we had acquired playing in Europe. We knew how they marked you, how to attack them. But it did not happen.
– And in the end he played a World Cup, in Chile 62, but for Italy …
Yes we were spring, after two seasons there we could play in the National Team, even having played in another. The three of us were called and Angelillo played in the Qualifiers, but we went to Sívori at the World Cup. A referee hurt us a lot in the match with Chile. An Italian journalist had said something about the Chileans, they found out and before the game they didn’t let us sleep, they screamed all night in front of the hotel. Later, the referee threw us two players and there was a lot of violence. They beat us 2-0 just over the end. Chilean Leonel Sánchez hit me with a pineapple without a ball, I played the whole game with a broken nose and also with a dislocated ankle.
– He returned to Racing and was a multi-champion. Did you imagine such a last stage?
– No, I wanted to retire in Racing. He had told Saccol (Santiago, former president) and Pizzuti (Juan José, the coach). I had to end my contract with Fiorentina in order to be here in March 1966. The president did not want to let me go, so I asked for a fortune. In the end, we agreed that if the team was classified for an international cup at that time, they would let me go. I arrived and I found a team that had 16 games without losing, molded by Pizzuti.
Maschio in his last stage in Racing, in 2000, in technical pair with Gustavo Costas.
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– There he became a point guard?
– There was a coach in Atalanta, Ferruccio Valcareggi, who directed the National Team, who told me: ‘Humberto, you play well but you are slow, you have to throw yourself a little further back, wherever you want, 8 or 10’. He taught me how to conquer the position. And when I came to Racing, Pizzuti asked me in what position I wanted to play, I told him to give me a role, that I was going to fulfill it. He threw me first of eleven, a fan flyer, but he played free all over the court, with wide powers, with less mark but he used long balls well, with great precision. Pizzuti was a genius, he brought out the best in us, Racing was an offensive team, they all went up and left only Perfumo, who had amazing speed, the best central marker I saw.
– Half a century later, what do you think when you remember the day the plane almost fell in Medellín, in March 1967?
– That we were lucky (laughs). I remember all the details, two planes arrived, little ones, and we went to the first one. It moved a little bit but we were used to it. He Baker Díaz (Rubén) wanted a glass of water because the doctor had given him a pill to calm down and the stewardess didn’t even get up. They removed the signal from the belt and after a while everything began to fly, the stewardess stuck against the ceiling, the typewriter of the journalist El Veco from El Gráfico fell on my knees, we were killing ourselves, Pizzuti said ‘bye’. An impressive thing. Later, the commander told us that he had grabbed an air well and, by a miracle, we did not reach the ground, and immediately he found a mountain and had to suddenly tilt the machine, it was a tremendous turn. Then the women in the group who traveled with us started singing, ‘and I already saw it and I already saw it, it’s José’s team‘, and they told us that since we had saved ourselves, we were going to be champions. And we were champions.
-He retired and the first job he got was a national team coach, how was that?
– In the middle of the year I told Pizzuti that he was leaving football, and Armando Ramos Ruiz, who had been president of Racing and was as an auditor at AFA, told me that he was going to be the national team coach. But I had no experience! So, I started working with José María Minella, who was the coach of the selected team. I listened to him, I looked at him, he was a fantastic man, a good person and very intelligent. On December 29, 1968 I retired, we lost 4-2 with Vélez, who was champion that day, and on January 5 or 6 I took over as coach of the National Team. I directed few games but we never lost (one victory and three draws) and we played games in Rosario and La Plata, something that Ramos Ruiz imposed and that was not fashionable. But people were fuming and it was much disputed for being very young. So before the Playoffs they threw me out and called Adolfo Pedernera, who had little time to work and we stayed out of the 70 World Cup. He was part of the disorganization that prevailed at that time.
– It is a glory of Racing, but it also has a box to his name in Independiente …
– Yes, because I won the Libertadores del 73, I share it with Beanie Ferreiro and Pedro Dellacha. We always comment with friends that before nobody told you anything. For example, we played against Independiente as a visitor, we had lunch at Racing and we walked to the field, with fans around and everything was very calm, there were other kinds of expectations and less money at stake.
– Bye, Bocha, a pleasure.
-Thanks kid for the note and these memories. When does it come out?
FK
