Did Israel Damonte copy a historic cabal to Bilardo? The discovery of the transmission of Sarmiento-Defensa y Justicia

The moment when the TV camera caught the cabal

For Carlos Salvador Bilardo, the word “cabala” is not in his vocabulary. For him, they are “customs”. They fell out of his pockets, both in his time as a football player, and in his long and successful career as a coach. They also have a lot of roots in Estudiantes de La Plata, the club in which he is a legend. And, of course, he left his legacy even in that area.

It was tested in the preview of the match between Sarmiento and Defensa y Justicia in Junín, for the Professional League Cup. There, Israel Damonte, proud son of the Pincha philosophy, greeted his colleague Sebastián Beccacece, advisor of the Falcon, and precisely when the visiting squad went through the tunnel to the playing field... He calmly crossed the front.

The image was captured by the official broadcast, and for any unsuspecting it does not seem strange. However, it is a historical cabal of the Narigón, widely used, for example, in its last stage at the head of Estudiantes, back in 2004.

Bilardo was looking for the “black cat” effect. He always stepped on the pitch before the opponent, and at the moment when the opposing players were peeking through the tunnel, he had to cross in front of them. He planned the movements and the other teams, in principle, took it as a folkloric feature of the character. Until many people were no longer amused. And New Chicago, for instance, put together an operation to prevent it. Faced with the barrier set up by employees and friends of the club, the Doctor despaired, but managed to sneak in the middle of the line to, at least, partially fulfill the rite before part of the Torito lineup.

Damonte, 40, was in the same category as, among other players, Mariano Pavone and Pablo Lugüercio, with whom he was under Bilardo's orbit. And many cabals, of course, were incorporated with the same force as concepts.

“When Carlos returns we won the first date to Talleres on the 2-0 Gymnastics court. That day he concentrates me and leaves me off the bench, I stay as player 17, at that time there were 5 substitutes. In the other game I was like 17, the next time again, and another, another. And so were 11 dates. At one point I went to talk to him: 'Carlos, the incumbent is injured, the one from the bank enters and instead of going to the bank there is a boy from inferiors'. He told me: 'Damonte, you are important: you are the 17th of the team',” he said in an interview in 2020.

The former central midfielder agreed to be very adept at the cabals, and this had already been evident in previous dates of the domestic competition. But, this time, the cameras took the full “custom”, so that it would be documented for posterity.

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