"Suffering."
It was the word that summed up the feelings of 200-odd Argentinians who gathered at Arrowtown's Athenaeum Hall this morning to watch their team battle to be crowned Fifa World Cup champions.
After suffering through about 90 minutes of football, they were forced to suffer more during extra time - and after Spain's Ferran Tores late goal, the only one of the game, that suffering somehow kicked up a notch.
Heads were in hands and eyes were covered to hide free-flowing tears.
Yet at the final whistle, the crowd was on its feet, giving a well-deserved standing ovation to their team in New Jersey, from the other side of the world.
Argentinian Queenstowner Tefi Nievas organised this morning's event - about three years ago the Argentines gathered at a smaller room at the Queenstown Events Centre to watch a final live, but it wasn't big enough.
"We really enjoy to share and be together, so we really need a big place to try to [fit everyone]," she said.
"There were people waiting to enter [this morning] because it's not big enough - the Argentinian community's huge in Queenstown."
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times just before extra time, Ms Nievas said the crowd was "suffering a lot"
"It's a team we're kind of used to suffering [with] ... today's been a hard game, but we have our hopes high."
Those hopes were dashed 106 minutes in to the game, though, when silence descended in the hall.
While there were a few more rally cries - and songs - in the dying minutes, their team's fate had been sealed.
Flavia Demartini, who only arrived in Queenstown a couple of days ago, said the team still made them "feel proud".
"It was a tough game, it was meant to be - Spain is a tough team.
"But we gave our heart."
Having lived in Australia for the past three years, Ms Demartini spent a week in Auckland before arriving in the resort.
She said finding the support of her fellow country people this morning was "everything".
"We always get through it together.."
