"They were goading us in bars" Sheffield Wednesday superfan describes Argentina angst at World Cup
England’s World Cup journey ended on Wednesday evening in brutal fashion - Sheffield Wednesday superfan Paul ‘Tango’ Gregory was there.
It takes a lot for Paul Gregory to miss an England game. But after a bitter semi-final defeat and faced with a ‘nothing’ FIFA money-spinner, the Sheffield Wednesday superfan has seen enough for one trip.
The man they call ‘Tango’ has headed home from the US ahead of the Three Lions’ third-place play-off against France in the wake of an angsty and devastating exit from the tournament, with rivals Argentina scoring late twice to reverse England’s lead amid nationwide disapproval of the tactics laid on by manager Thomas Tuchel.
What further coloured the experience for Gregory was the nastiness surrounding the occasion, which was at great odds with that of what he and other travelling England supporters had experienced across nearly two months of travel.
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The intensity of relations between England and Argentina is no secret and is embroiled in fierce political and sporting history. After England’s capitulation, victorious players danced on the pitch with a bedsheet with writing that claimed their country’s right to the Falkland Islands - over which an 1982 claimed the lives of 907 people.
It was a gesture delivered in a spirit that had followed Gregory’s wider experience of the match, with Argentine supporters having arrived to Atlanta in far greater numbers than England fans.
“The night before the match they were goading us constantly and trying to get things going with the England fans, waving their arms at us and shouting,” Gregory told The Star awaiting his flight home. “From what I saw, the England fans let them get on with it and didn’t really react. We were in a bar we’d been to before in Atlanta and for some reason the police had stopped the top and bottom of the road; but they were letting them walk through.
“You can imagine a load of Argentinian fans all congregating outside a bar full of England fans and they were goading and goading. Look, there’s definitely needle there between the two countries. And their fans, they obviously didn't like us at all. They were just walking past and dropping snide comments, but obviously, that was in Spanish, so nobody could understand what they were saying! That’s probably a good thing.”
Crowds at the World Cup have not been all that firmly segregated throughout the tournament, which has so often inspired touching images of fans from all over the world meeting and sharing the experience in good nature. Gregory was surprised to see thousands of Argentinian fans based in what was meant to be an England section of the ground, however, and noted moments of angst between supporters - not least when Argentina players approached the stands with their Falklands message.
“We saw it,” he said. “I just cannot believe a professional football team has got through to a World Cup final and they choose to carry on like that. If it was England, we’d get absolutely pasted for it and rightly so. It’s about the football. People have paid all that money to go across and watch professional sport, enjoy your victory and don’t get involved with riling people and winding people up like that.
“It was getting a bit ferocious coming out, especially after they ran around with that. It’s a game of football, it’s got nothing to do with politics.”
Leaving the ground with a feeling of deflation, Gregory - known as ‘Tango’ nationwide due to his apparent resemblance to a character in a 1990s soft drink advertisement - settled into a bar with friends to decompress. Thankfully any threat of trouble post-match never materialised and before long, a US-based financier arrived to invite his group to a party he had pre-organised. Some $10,000 had been put behind a bar and after defeat, few England fans had taken up the invitation.
Gregory travelled the US from the very first warm-up matches to the semi-final with a flag that carried the image of his daughter Lauren, who tragically passed away in 2023. And at a party that went some way to softening the blow of another major tournament heartbreak, for a moment or two she took centre stage.
“It was just absolutely deflating,” he said. “But this guy jumped out of this bar and grabbed us and told us to come and help ourselves. It was this rooftop bar, music blaring, English people everywhere. He’d spent all this money thinking there’d be this big celebration but nobody was going in. Free beer, free food, music going. That livened it up a bit and took a bit of the pain away.
“He asked about the flag and I told him the story of our Lauren, so he insisted we put it up on the DJ booth, he had them do three cheers for Lauren which was obviously quite an emotional moment. But it was a lovely thing to do.”
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The sour spirit of the Argentina clash did little to take the shine of an incredible experience for Gregory, who has hoped between States and to Mexico along the course of England’s journey. He said England supporters had been embraced and welcomed so warmly by locals and other supporters alike.
A little jaded, he and his partner Rachel are now back on home soil. And with the weeks whittling down to the start of the domestic football season, he’s laser-focused on a fresh start for Sheffield Wednesday and a return to the home-and-away routine.
“It’s coming up to seven weeks we’ve been out here,” he continued, speaking to The Star from an Atlanta airport lounge. “It’s been absolutely fantastic and the American people have just been wonderful with us. They’ve really looked after us, the other day we’d gone out for some food, pitchers of beer and all that and when we got up to pay, we were told an American had come along and paid it for us. It was coming up to $400. Honestly, there have been so many stories of that, people have just been so excited to have us here for the World Cup.
“They’ve all embraced us. We did the third place game in Russia and it’s just a money-making, nothing game to be honest. We spoke about but we just decided we wanted to get home and see our families - and get back into the Wednesday way!”