Okay, fine, so all was not perfect with my Argentina trip. Two days before I left, Nestor Kircher, the former President of Argentina, and the husband of the current President, died suddenly, which resulted in an official mourning period of a few days which, unfortunately, meant the rescheduling of this to the 16th, three days after I was due to leave Buenos Aires.

It's obvious to all who know me just how much I enjoy watching football, so, yes, I, too, was distraught to learn of Nestor's passing. But, I shared the same view as quite a few Argentines I met. What, exactly, does the death of a former President have to do with football? And wouldn't it have been more logical to reschedule the game which was due to occur during the mourning period, rather than reschedule every game to be played?

According to my guide in Salta, there is an Argentine saying: why do things the simple way when you can do them the difficult way?

Anyway, the game was played last night. River Plate beat Boca Juniors 1-0 at River's home ground. It was River's first league win in eight games, and their first win over Boca since 2007. If I had gone, I would have been at the River end of the stadium, in the Popular standing area, catching a game between two teams which, between them, command 70% of the football fans in Argentina and enjoying the biggest footballing rivalry on this planet.

Argh!

I guess I'll just have to go back one day to catch it then... if only games didn't get rescheduled constantly!