Ecuador vs. Bolivia: It’s a bird! It’s a plane!… No… it’s Carlos Raffo! “Alien” flight to La Paz

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!… No… it’s Carlos Raffo! The exclamation could have escaped, in astonishment, any of the 18,000 spectators who were at Hernando Siles Stadium on March 10, 1963. Or maybe that phrase was fiercely uttered by one of the Bolivian soccer players when they saw that it was Skinny He performed a humanly impossible action: he flew at an altitude of 3600 meters above sea level. Or even his teammates from the Ecuador national team could have said it. Was that said in some radio broadcast of that crazy party in La Paz? There are no sound recordings to confirm this.

Raffo, crack and fan who fell in love with Ecuador

What is really true is that the popular phrase, originally uttered between 1940 and 1951 in the American radio series the adventures of superman (“It’s a bird! It’s a plane!… No… it’s Superman”) should have been chanted, in an act of justice, in the opening day match of the Copa América 60 years ago. Obviously, with a modification forced by the acrobatics of the legendary Raff.

Carlos Raffo, the immortal

This Saturday in New Jersey, Ecuador and Bolivia will meet in a friendly match for a FIFA date, in the third duty of Spaniard Félix Sánchez Bas. And although the history of this clash includes a few happy antecedents for national football (how can we forget the 5-1 defeat in La Paz, on the eve of the Japan-South Korea 2002 World Cup!), the few tricolor goals scored against those from the Altiplano are equally spectacular and mythical like the one Raffo converted, in airplane mode.

A cry for history: ‘Carlitos is not leaving!’

‘Alien’

By 1963, he had already secured Skinny sporting immortality, but the first goal he scored in that Copa América is not only regarded as the most spectacular of the tournament, but also helped set him on a glorious path that forever put him in the Conmebol record books.

Raffo arrived in Bolivia with a consolidated reputation as a cold-blooded scorer, a trait he began to forge at Emelec on 11 September 1954 with a chilling hat-trick against Panama SC – a 4-0 win at a professional tournament in Asoguayas – that was his calling card as a striker electrical networks.

In Quito, months before he appeared at the Capwell Stadium, the lanky striker born in Buenos Aires (May 10, 1926) was the biggest sensation in the AFNA competition. EL UNIVERSO praised the deadly striker because “on May 2, 1954, in a (friendly) match between Argentina and North America, Raffo scored five goals in a 6-0 victory and there was no longer any doubt that he was an alien”.

Masterpiece

To make his debut as a host, Ecuador arrived at the 1963 Copa América in Bolivia “with a few hours to go.” This newspaper reported that despite conceding goals in the 16th and 27th minutes, due to “fatigue caused by the altitude and the short time the players had to acclimatise”, there was a “sensational surge that led to pilot Carlos Raffa’s goal. The Altiplano fans were are confused, as well as the (Bolivian) players, who did not foresee this recovery of the Ecuadorian eleven”.

Bravely, in the 29th minute, Raffo made a masterpiece. In big letters, EL UNIVERSO announced: “GREAT GOAL BY CARLOS RAFFO! Thus began the confrontation between Ecuador and the representatives of Bolivia. In a flawless pass, the center forward of the national team finished towards the goal of Altiplano, leaving the goalkeeper without a chance. The defenders were late to avoid the blow of the Ecuadorian pilot. It was the most beautiful goal of the match.”

On the incredible flight of the gunboat it was added: “Raffo finished Enrique Raymondi’s pass with a header, beating (Arturo) López for the first time”. In 39 the same little teacher”he took advantage of a wrong start by the Bolivian goalkeeper and came to a 2-2 result. In addition, Raffo – with a header – and Raymondi brought the national team to the top. However, it was impossible to contain the fierce onslaught of the future champions of America. A great game ended 4-4.

archer of America

“Ecuador was a big surprise” that day, but the veteran Raffo dominated all the attention for the rest of the tournament. The Bolivian Copa América represented his continental consecration as the idol of emelecism as he was the championship’s top scorer. On the pages of this newspaper, in January 1964, the famous journalist Francisco Doylet Peñafiel elaborated one of the most accurate definitions of a goal scorer: “He was a real fear of goalkeepers. Raffo was always an example of greed, hunger. for goals, constant danger in front of the goal”.

In his house in Manabí and Rumichaca, one Sunday in September 1991, Carlos Alberto Raffo gave an interview to EL UNIVERSO (the first that this editor signed in this newspaper). The conversation with the electric patriarch spread to another stage: El Rancho de los Recuerdos. That’s what the fans called him Skinny to the apartment he owned in the streets of Azuay and Villavicencio. It was actually a football shrine dedicated to memory.

“When I want to reminisce about my time as a player, I come here and meet the Five Wise Men again, the best striker I’ve ever played with. Imagine: José Vicente Balseca and Jorge Bolaños on the right; through the center, I; Enrique Raymondi and Child Ortega on the left. Nobody stopped us!”

The most beautiful jewel in Raffo’s makeshift museum was a pair of boots he wore at the Copa América in 1963. On that Sunday morning in 1991, Raffo added another collectible, taken from his home in El Rancho de los Recuerdos: a framed photograph of his flight to La Paz and dropped a bomb in a Bolivian arch. (D)