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'rented' the Maradona film on amazon last night. Amazing viewing...would've been a miracle had he stayed balanced and untouched after going from his childhood poverty to frenzied god like status as he did.
I was too young to see him at his best, have to rely on Youtube for that. But seeing the Argentines here in Barcelona celebrating his life tonight, you can see how much he meant to an entire nation. They have been banging drums, chanting, dancing, setting off flares and fireworks for hours now
For me, the most memorable scene in the film is the interview with his personal trainer when he was in his prime. He worked with him day in day out, performing minor miracles to get him match and World Cup fit given Maradona's lifestyle. He knew him better than anyone.
He told him one day that there are two personalities in you. Diego, who is a nice guy who wants to be as good as he can, and Maradona, the testesterone fuelled, egotistical character you portray for the media. I will only deal with Diego.
When you see the Maradona in Mexico series, it seems one of the prime attractions of the management job is free physio every day. His knees in particular were in a terrible state, it took forever for him to get up and down stairs.
Ah, cheers for that. Still wonder though, if Robson could do it again, whether he'd have had the stones to swap Beasant for Shilton for the penalties. VdG did it with Krul in the Costa Rica QF a few years back, and that paid off.
Shilton was largely past his best by 1990, although he did make some crucial saves in the Cameroon game.
The BBC are showing the 86 Quarter Final on iPlayer.
We loved a 1986 England international - Fenwick playing and wewent on to sign Samson, Hodge and Reid from this team. Hateley and Wilkins also in the squad.
Exactly. All those 'only watch football when England are on the telly, Sun reading wnkers' call him a cheat for the handball but conveniently forget he was kicked up in the air the whole game and still managed to walk through the whole England team and score.
Yes that is a very good point. A lot of England fans called him a cheat and his handball was not in the spirit of the game. There was an argument that Fenwick and co should have taken him out cynically to prevent the second goal. In my view that could be classed as cheating to deliberately foul the player and ignoring the ball. It is certainly not in the spirit of the game. Hacking someone down is no better than deliberate handball.
I would say he was the best player I ever saw and to virtually win a world Cup on his own. Messi is brilliant but he really has only excelled at Barcelona but Maradona excelled for Barcelona, Napoli and his country. The game was harder in those days in terms of challenges. Today you get sent off for winning the ball but catching someone on the follow through.
I don’t post on here very often, I lurk, and enjoy the posts of the many wits and sages who frequent this board.
I’d just like to say the the piece by your brother is probably one of the best posts I’ve read on here (sorry Clive), magnificent.
Maradona was, without doubt the greatest player of this wonderful game, however some of his antics just plain pissed me off. After reading that piece I’ll do him the justice of a rethink.
It’s a quite beautiful, powerful and thought provoking piece of writing - I take it he writes for a living?
Either way please pass on my comments and congratulations to him.
As for the violence in the 86 QF, there was a history of very poor player behaviour between Argentine and British sides going back to the 66 QF, after which England manager labelled them as 'animals'. There were also wild scenes in the 'battle of Montevideo' an intercontinental cup final replay between Racing and Celtic in 1967 and to a lesser extent the following year in the same competition between Estudiantes del la plata and Man U.
Between these matches and the 86 QF, there were only three international friendlies and an Intercontinental final between Liverpool and Independiente, in Tokyo all of which passed without major incident.
The England game in 86 is always the one focused on but will never forget his performance in the semi final against Belgium, he was sensational that night
I read somewhere that Shilton had decided his approach to the SF penalties would be to wait & go rather than gamble & throw himself one way. Who knows back then whether any homework was done on the takers or whether PS had a GK coach plotting a strategy for the kicks or if he was left to his own devices. One thing is for sure, the Beasant idea is a myth. Back then, you had named subs rather than the whole squad available & Chris Woods was sub keeper, not Beasant. Would have been a hell of a gamble to remove Shit*ers for Woods on 119 mins though of course we have hindsight now. Bottom line for me, Shit*ers could/should have done better
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