Petrol fumes fill the nostrils of passengers through an open window as a battered blue bus belches and wheezes its way to the northern part of Quito, Ecuador’s capital.
After traversing a row of breeze blocks houses it splutters to a halt and the supporters of LDU Quito, or ‘Liga’ as they are commonly called, spill out of the doors on the pavements.
From the main road the Estadio Rodrigo Paz Delgado is hidden from view, carved into a hillside and behind tall grey walls topped with barbed wire. Fruit sellers from a nearby market stalls, many of them indigenous Quechua women wearing traditional bowler hats, are cutting late deals on stock they would otherwise have to pack up for the day.
This was my second visit to a ground known locally as La Casa Blanca. I had, in fact, picked Aucas - Liga’s quirky and smaller rivals from the bustling south of the city - to notionally follow during a stint living in Quito. I’d actually been in the away end with a fellow Scouser named Paul living in the city for Aucas’ 1-0 derby win over Liga earlier in the 2018-19 season.
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The prospect of a Copa Libertadores quarter-final, and the visit of Boca Juniors in front of a packed house, had drawn me to watch Quito’s most successful and best-supported club.
Ostensibly, I’d come to see two fading stars at the fag ends of their career. Daniele De Rossi had joined Boca from Roma for an intriguing swansong in Argentina. Carlos Tevez was in a third spell with his boyhood club after a "holiday" (his words…) with Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua.
Boca coach Gustavo Alfaro, however, had decided their lungs were not up to the altitude and left the veteran pair on the bench. Neither De Rossi nor Tevez would come on that night. But any frustrations on the part of the writer were tempered after watching a diminutive player with auburn hair in Boca’s midfield who left an indelible imprint on my football consciousness.
You’ll have figured out by now, it was Alexis Mac Allister.
The mystique around playing football in the thinner air at altitude - Quito is the second-highest capital city at 9,350 feet - would frequently play on the minds of visiting teams. Dizziness, headaches, aches and lethargy are typical symptoms. “Avoid coffee, chocolate and alcohol for two weeks before you arrive. On your first day eat a fish soup called encebollado,” was the advice an Ecuadorian friend gave me before my own arrival in Quito.
To underline the point for the visit of Boca, a Liga fan utilised a bed sheet and dressed up as a ghost with the word ‘ALTURA’ (altitude) daubed in big black painted letters on it. Not long after this game Luis Diaz and his Colombia team-mates would be thrashed 6-1 by Ecuador in a World Cup qualifier at the same ground.
For Boca’s visit, though, it was Liga’s players who were left breathless as Mac Allister, then aged 20, produced a midfield display of tremendous poise and authority. The thinner air did not seem to bother him in the slightest.
Mac Allister’s most eye-catching contribution was an assist from deep for Boca’s opening goal. Just inside the semi-circle in his own half he crisply clipped a curling pass which threaded Liga's midfield and bypassed their defence. Bodies in white shirts stood like statues from Anthony Gormley's Another Place. The ball skipped off the turf when it bounced to send Ramon 'Wanchope' Abila clear and he duly finished. From high in the stands it was Alonso or Pirlo-esque in the manner of its execution.
Mac Allister’s influence stretched beyond that moment, though. His feet were like flippers on a pinball machine as he quickly pinged passes short and long. Tellingly, he always seemed to play the right ball, to the right man, at the right time. There was nothing flashy or flamboyant. It was uncomplicated with zen-like efficiency. Mac Allister played as if his mind had already moved on to the next phase of play before he’d completed the task in hand. Yet doing so with totally clarity of thought.
By midway through the second half Liga’s players had seen enough and Mac Allister got plenty of kicks as they attempted to stifle his influence. He was withdrawn, as a precaution after one heavy challenge, with 21 minutes left as Boca strolled to a 3-0 victory.
Ever since that day I followed Mac Allister’s career. Catching snippets of his subsequent performances for Boca via Twitter, watching his full international debut for Argentina a month after I saw him live. Then, of course, on to his time at Brighton and playing a key role in last year's World Cup win for La Albiceleste.
It will be extra thrilling to see him live at Anfield in the 2023-24 wearing a red shirt.
Timothy Abraham is the author of ‘Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion - A Cricket Odyssey through Latin America’ published by Little Brown and available via Amazon.
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