Argentina was among the founding members of
the International Olympic Committee,
and sent a team to Paris in 1900,
the second Olympic Games of the modern era.
But it wasn't until 1924 that Argentinian athletes
first tasted Olympic Gold.
That came in the sport of polo,
long since dropped from the Olympic programme.
Argentinians won at least one gold at every Game after that,
until 1952. After that, nothing.
Argentina sent 1,076 athletes to 11 Games over 52 years
without ever hearing the beloved national anthem.
Other much smaller nations triumphed over the course
of that half-century, but not Argentina.
They may have had one of the best Formula One drivers
in history, Juan Manuel Fangio.
They may have had tennis players who won Masters like
Guillermo Milas and Gabriela Sabatini.
They may have also won two World Cups in dramatic fashion.
But between 1952 and 2004, Argentina mustered only
nine silvers and eight bronzes.
One group of Argentinian athletes were hot favourites
to triumph at Athens 2004.
It was those athletes
playing Argentina's national sport, football.
The Olympic football tournament had plenty of bright stars
that year, Andrea Pirlo, Asamoah Gyan, Tim Cahill
and Daniele De Rossi were mixing it up with a young kid
who was already making waves at Manchester United -
an exciting young man named Cristiano Ronaldo.
But Argentina also had a host of names who either were
or would become global superstars -
Roberto Ayala, Javier Mascherano,
Gabriel Heinze and Carlos Tevez, to name a few.
And this group of young men soon showed the world
why they were the favourites.
Game one.
They demolished Serbia and Montenegro 6-0.
As the tournament went on, Argentina turned on the style.
Argentina scored so many goals on their way to the final
that it was almost as if
they were being judged on artistic merit.
Gonzales with some artistic flourish
that we have come to expect,
that will score highly with the judges.
And there it is, Carlos Tevez, so graceful once again,
showing why he's so popular.
Saviola now with just his finish left
and then a dismount, and he's done it beautifully!
Oh, simply magnificent.
It's all well and good playing beautiful football
and scoring a load of goals,
but Argentina had another hero on the pitch back then.
German Lux,
aargh!
German Lux, the young goalkeeper from River Plate,
may not have been the most well known,
but he was on his way to a unique achievement.
Lux played every match,
but never had to pick the ball out of his own net.
Some games were harder than others.
But a lot of the time he could afford to take it
a little bit easier in goal.
Even as the tournament progressed,
the games were supposedly getting harder.
It was almost as if he was taking the old football saying
"Park the bus" a little too literally.
After storming the semifinals 3-0 against Italy,
it was all down to the final.
Carlos Tevez made sure
he was going to be the Golden Boot winner
early on with his eighth goal of the tournament.
Then it was over to...
German Lux.
If ever Argentina needed to park the bus, it was now.
They're only just thinking about parking the bus.
They should have done that before the match.
No, they mean defend. "Park the bus" -
it means to put all of your players in front of the goal.
What, what about the bus? Where's it parked?
Jan, there is no bus.
Then how will they get home?
He might not have had the most strenuous of finals.
He may have even tried to spice it up a bit.
But when it really counted, Lux was the difference,
determined that he would be part of a perfect side.
As the final whistle blew, the team of young players knew
just what they had achieved -
the first Olympic Gold for Argentina in 52 years.
It was also the first Olympic success
for a nation of footballers, the only trophy the country
had not won in its illustrious footballing history.
Played six, won six. 17 goals scored, none conceded.
A perfect tournament by anyone's standard.
Go on, play that tune. It's been a while.