Boca Juniors to Face Rat Stabbers in Apertura Championship

By: Bob | December 13th, 2006

It is the rare Wednesday when we are treated to a championship football game and today is blissfully one of those rare Wednesdays. We can all thank the Argentine giants Boca Juniors for this. Their late season slide has forced a one-game playoff against Estudiantes with the winner walking away with the Argentina Apertura title. Boca has had their chances to clinch their record 23rd league title, but a loss against Belgano two weeks ago and a loss at home this past weekend against Lanus have put them in the unusual position of having to take part in a winner takes all match.

Chances are that even if you aren’t a fan of Argentina football you know a thing or two about Boca Juniors, but what should you know about Estudiantes? Well, for one thing the team has won 11 of its past 12 matches. For another, they feature a recognizable player in Argentina international Juan Sebastián Verón.

But the most critical thing you should know about a club that was formed by a bunch of university students in La Plata in 1905 is their nickname: Los pincharratas. Roughly translated, this means the “Rat Stabbers”. A cooler nickname you won’t find anywhere else. According to the sometimes reliable Wikipedia, here is how the name came to be:

The nickname pincharratas (rat-stabbers), often shortened to pinchas, is generally attributed to the laboratory work done by the many Medicine students among the club’s early members. This nickname extends to the fans.

It has been posited that the name comes from the nickname of one Felipe Montedónica, a bodyguard of the team in the 1910s, who was known as “el pincharratas”.

A third version claims that the early training fields were infested with rats, and the players spent much time and effort chasing after them, hence the nickname.

Personally I find the third version the most romantic, but that is because it reminds me of all the good times at my old childhood home.

You can catch the Rat Stabbers and Boca Juniors in action online today starting at 20:00 GMT. Should be a great one.