Thread by @art_foot

Thread

"Maradona won WC 86 singlehandedly against allmighty Germany, and he had only bums in teame".
"Messi lost WC final although he had worldclass players helping him".

That's the narrative Maradona apologists and Messi haters repeat and repeat.

The truth:

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After Argentina's convincing WC 78 win with legendary Kempes, their 0:3 loss against Brazil in WC 82 was the biggest surprise of that WC.
The following qualifier for WC 86 Argentina again ended convincingly as first of their group.
They arrived at the WC as one of the big

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favorites. Argentina team had some of the best south american players. In this era they had a huge fear factor even if Maradona had not played for them. As they were champion only 8 years before they were full of self esteem and all they wanted was to show to the world that

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WC 82 was just an accident. They searched revenge for the 82 humiliation. A team on a mission, much more as the lost Falkland war 82 still was in Argentina's mind.

Now let's have a look at the opponent. Germany after a disappointing WC 78 played a shameful WC 82, sneaking

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themselves into the final, after what is called the 'shame of Gijon', a game in which they refused to play against Austria, as both teams would get to r16 with a draw. Neither of both attacked each other, and they peacefully just passed the ball without playing football.

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I was ashamed to be german on that day.
The rest of the tournament wasn't much better, and with a lot of extra times, they finally got into the final, where they were battered by Italy.

WC 86 didn't start better for Germany. But before let me mention Euro 84, in which Germany
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experienced their first group exit in a major tournament. A national crisis. The coach was sacked, and they called Beckenbauer, who didn't only have no coach license, but had no experience in that area.

So Germany 86 got into r16 with only 1 game won, was lucky against

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Maroccos and had to go to extra time vs Mexico. The semifinal was the first time they won more or less convingly. Maybe it was in this time that G. Lineker created the famous quote that football is when 22 players run for a ball and Germany wins.
Another time nobody could

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tell how Germany made it into a WC final.

But there they were, facing the favorite of that game, Argentina.

During the WC Beckenbauer had sent a player home, because he had called him a clown.
Indeed, today you still find players confirming that Beckenbauer's only

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tactical advise to his players was "go out and play".

So that's the 'frightening' german team, which Maradona 'singlehandedly' beat in an 'iconic' WC final.

Maradona had no famous teammates to play with?
The fact that most of them played in South America doesn't mean they

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were not famous, not great.
In this time most south american players still stayed in highly competitive south american football. Only at the end of last century SA football suffered the selling out of their quality to Europe.

It's time to tell the truth. Argentina 86

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was a great team winning the final against a team, which luckily arrived in the final and with a coach who had charisma but not much tactics to win the game.

Comparing Beckenbauer's 86 team, which came from a Euro group game exit to Löw's 2014 team, which was

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Euro 2008 finalist, WC 2010 semi finalist, Euro 2012 semi finalist, a golden era team, is shameless falsification of history.

Löw's Germany came from a 7:1 victory over big favorite and host Brazil, while Beckenbauer's Germany

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had luckily stumbled into a final, without really knowing how they got there.

The difference between both Argentina teams can easily be seen, if we compare the goals Maradona's and Messi's teammates scored.
Maradona's teammates 9 goals
Messi's teammates 3 goals

This is not to belittle any of the player's merit.
But that Maradona singlehandedly myth is bad

There's another little detail, which may be interesting.
Many people blame Messi for not scoring in knockout rounds. They say he didn't contribute for Argentina to get into the final.

But if it were for goals, Maradona only scored 1 of 6 goals for Argentina's group stage win.

Messi scored crucial goals in each group game 2014.

So we could say that with only Maradona's 1 goal Argentina wouldn't have survived the group stage 86. There wouldn't be a final and not even a r16. for him.

But we won't go that dirty way.

True football fans know that the contribution of artists like Maradona and Messi is not measured in goals.

It's their presence on the pitch, a space winning dribble or pass, attracting opponents to win space for teammates, directing the game, in short, playmaking, which

defines their game.

Goal counting is for the masses, the crowd. Enjoying the game of those two magicians is for true fans.

Both did their magic for Argentina, in different times, in different context. Telling us that one won singlehandedly while the other one bottled,

is far away from truth. Both helped their teams as far as they could get. And both were so valuable for their teams.

Let's hope that Argentina produces more players of this wonderful magic type in future.

Probably the two most enjoyable players ever.

* Correction: Brazil vs Argentina 3:1

I had travelled through Brazil for a year short before, and that made me a big fan of the selecao. I was so hyped by the 3 goals and the way Brazil won, I couldn't breath with admiration.

Here's a brilliant piece, which supports my point that Maradona had a whole good team to make him shine in WC 86:

lastwordonsports.com/2016/02/19/the…