"In the good times, I'll be there, and in the bad times even more."
It's a popular chant in Argentine football stadiums. It is not, however, one that seemed all that relevant to River Plate when I first visited Buenos Aires in 2003 and even less so on my second trip here the following year. I was in attendance as they claimed their 33rd league title. Good times? For River fans, there had been plenty. But bad times had, up until then, been limited to a 17-year run without a league title from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.
In the last decade, though, that chant has become much more relevant to River, and when their fans sing it now it's hard not to think the line means rather more than it did 10 years ago. Awful boardroom management and a dry spell culminating in the club's first-ever relegation have marked the club's recent history. Thursday night's Copa Sudamericana win, beating Atlético Nacional 3-1 on aggregate in the final, gives the club and its supporters a feeling that River is back.
Eleven years have passed since River's last continental final. That match was also in the Copa Sudamericana, when a side managed by current Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini and starring today's boss, Marcelo Gallardo, as a player, lost to Cienciano of Peru in 2003. It's been 17 years since River last lifted an international trophy (the 1997 Supercopa Sudamericana). But the 10-and-a-half years which have passed since Pellegrini's replacement, Leonardo Astrada, led them to the 2004 Torneo Clausura title have been the most dramatic.
That league win was River's eighth domestic title in 10 years. It meant they'd been champions in three of the previous five campaigns, no small feat in a league where consistency is always at a premium and clubs were still coming to terms with the effects of Argentina's 2001 financial crisis. It didn't seem like it as I watched the lap of honour and the players' on-pitch celebrations, but there were dark times ahead.
Some might reflect that the rot had in fact set in just days before, when Boca Juniors eliminated River in the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores on penalties. After the frustration in the Sudamericana final six months earlier, losing to their most hated rivals again in the continent's biggest competition (Boca also eliminated River in the quarterfinals in 2000) was a painful blow, eased only partially when Colombian minnows Once Caldas beat Boca on penalties in the final. River would be back in the Libertadores semis again a year later, going out to eventual champions Sao Paulo.
By 2007 though, the rot had officially set in. Strong rumours held that a violent power struggle for control of River's "barra brava" -- or hooligans -- had been sparked by the same fans getting a cut of Gonzalo Higuain's transfer fee when he was sold to Real Madrid.
On the pitch things started to get awkward. Fourth in the Clausura (played during the first half of the calendar year) was respectable. Fourteenth in the Apertura (in the second half of the year) much less so, and during the latter campaign River lost to all four newly promoted sides. That wasn't the year's only indignity. They were also knocked out in the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, a disappointment which included a home defeat to Caracas FC -- the first time a Venezuelan side (club or national) had ever won on Argentine soil.
Diego Simeone's brief time in charge provided the best moments of this dark spell, and another new low which turned out to be the beginning of something much bigger. River claimed the 2008 Torneo Clausura under his tutelage, but six months later they finished rock bottom of the Torneo Apertura, with just 14 points from 19 games. Simeone had resigned before the end of the campaign and eventually arrived at Atletico Madrid.
The Apertura is only the first half of the season, so bottom spot didn't mean relegation for River -- indeed, with Argentina's relegation system, that wasn't an immediate danger. The Argentine relegation table takes results over the last three years, and averages points won over games played (so as to treat sides who've only been in the division for one or two seasons more or less equally). River's title win would keep them safe with plenty of time to right the wrongs done.
Cristian Fabbiani was signed from Newell's Old Boys in 2009. For all his love of the club and undoubted natural talent, he proved to be a spectacular failure up front. River didn't finish bottom again, but with the team decaying and the institution lacking clear leadership from the board, the spiral had set in. If you've followed Argentine football for a while, you know what happened next: a brave fight against the inevitable, but ultimately relegation for the first time in 2011.
Three-and-a-half years on, it seems that cataclysmic relegation jerked the giants out of their slumber. They'd ended the season-long table -- used to decide continental qualification -- for 2010-11 in sixth place and strengthened their squad for the season in the second division. A return at the first attempt, followed by successive challenges for the title, have been followed by a 2014 in which, at last, the glory days seem to be back.
Winners of the Copa Sudamericana, and having avenged those Libertadores defeats of 2000 and 2004 by putting Boca out in the semis, River go into this weekend with an outside chance of defending the Argentine league title they won six months ago. They're two points behind Racing, with both teams favourites to win their games on Sunday.
Just to get this close to such a double is an achievement in itself, but Wednesday's win means that whatever happens at the weekend, River will be looking forward to 2015 with the kind of optimism they haven't felt in a good few years.