In case someone has not seen the second goal against England in 1986
Original footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU
An interview many years later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOz2uGMTA2w
Original footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU
An interview many years later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOz2uGMTA2w
That depends on what you mean by hot: the highest temperature ever recorded in Mexico City is 38C, so my friends from northern Mexico and from, say, Arizona would say that no, Mexico City does not have even a day or two when it gets hot. (Of course, 38C is probably much too hot for comfort if you are playing football.)
But back to June 22, 1986.
I'm pretty sure the Mexican national weather service knows exactly how hot it was on June 22, 1986 in Mexico City, but unfortunately their website doesn't seem to have day-by-day data available for download (at least not that far back). I did find a table of monthly average high temperatures [1], and for June 1986 in Mexico City (see "Distrito Federal" in the table) the average high temperature was 23.6C. The Weather Underground says that on June 22, 1986 the highest temperature was 75F [2], which is 23.9C. (Why doesn't the Weather Underground default to Celsius for visitors from Mexico?)
So it looks like I would have won my (very conservative) bet that the temperature was somewhere between 15C and 25C that day.
> Maybe the TV commentator said it was a hot day.
This is definitely possible!
1. The commentator could have assumed that because the game was in Mexico it would be hot! This happens all the time. I have explained to dozens of people that Mexico City doesn't really get hot, most are surprised. Of course, when I remind them Mexico City is at an altitude of 2.2km they usually believe me about the lack of heat.
2. The commentator could have known it was 25C and still thought that was hot for a football match.
[1] https://smn.conagua.gob.mx/tools/DATA/Climatolog%C3%ADa/Pron...
[2] https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/mx/mexico-city/MM...
Maradona's contribution for the Argies was absolutely awesome. He had style, class, aggression, a massive swagger and an incredible situation awareness. There were another 22 people on the pitch that day but:
There is only one Maradona, one Maradona ...
Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Shilton's_Handball_Marad...
What's your definition of "being a cheat" in football? Let me remind you that kicking Maradona during a match, trying to break his legs so he can no longer play, is cheating. Punching, pushing, hurting someone on purpose is cheating. Even one of the BBC commentators, Emlyn Hughes, said during the England vs Argentina match: "Oh, that was awful. He deserves a red car. Oh well, looks like we got away with it".
And yes, scoring a goal with your hand is also cheating. Did Maradona scored a goal with his hand? Yes. Did the English team kick and hurt Maradona the entire match. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.
This is why FIFA invented the concept of Fair Play, to stop players from kicking and hurting others. And why they invented the VAR, to stop them from scoring goals with their hand.
They were the #1 ranked ELO team for a while in the late 1980s :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Elo_Ratings#Lis...
Just as a note, I'm not English nor do I have English heritage and don't 'support' England.
Scoring against Getafe is not comparable to scoring against England in a world cup, specially when it is Argentina against England (in a game England invented) only a few years against the Falklands war. It's a great goal by Messi, but Maradona's goal has a place in history books.
It seems that soccer was invented in China, not in England. [0]
[0]: https://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer-footb...
Arguably Scotland but we're used to England stealing our inventions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_Game#Queens_Park_F...
> Records trace the history of soccer back more than 2,000 years ago to ancient China. Greece, Rome, and parts of Central America also claim to have started the sport; but it was England that transitioned soccer, or what the British and many other people around the world call “football,” into the game we know today.
In short: everyone lays claim to kicking around a ball, but England invented the modern game
The first rules established in England allowed no such thing. Forward passes were still not permitted (like Rugby). It was in Scotland where the offside rule that loosely resembles what it is today was actually invented, allowing players to spread themselves a bit more around the pitch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_Game#Queens_Park_F...
After a few thumping defeats, the English sides had to evolve to remain competetive.
It seems the intersection of football and politics makes for outstanding games. Cometh the hour, cometh the man
- Maradona's dominance as a player throughout the -86 cup - The Falkland Islands war just a few years prior giving this game a special tension and attention - It's beauty relative other goals at the time
My comment is just a reflection to often heard comments about it being the greatest goal ever. Judging it just by what the clip shows, it has faded for me. But the historical context is important.
What? I honestly can’t remember of a single one. Which goals are you thinking of?
Another remarkable feature is that it happened at 2200m, in July, with 1986 air quality. Futbol in Mexico still looks different because so much of it is played at altitude...and so much of European futbol is played near sea level.
Hopefully, its most remarkable feature will never be surpassed: massive geopolitical significance in the wake of the war in the south Atlantic.
100%! The 80s was an era of defensive brutality, when horrendos tackles from behind were allowed. Tricky dribblers like Maradona were routinely hacked down. Even Emlyn Hughes said during the England vs Argentina match: "Oh, that was awful tackle by Terry Fenwick. He deserves a red car. Oh well, looks like he got away with it".
This was lauded as goal of the century.
This goal was the 0x5f3759df of soccer.
As you get to higher and higher levels of football the quality of the defending increases so being able to play against the opposition as if you were eight is very rare.
[1]See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braveheart for background.
I'm pretty sure Leopoldo Galtieri wanted the war more than Thatcher did; he started it, after all.
Also, negotiating with dictators doesn't always end well. Look at what happened in 1939.
100%. The ERP (People's Revolutionary Army) and Montoneros were fighting in the streets of Buenos Aires, so Galtieri and the Military Junta needed a distraction. A big one.
> he started it, after all
This is probably a myth created by the media. A bunch of people, probably fisherman or metallurgic workers raised a flag, and hell broke loose. Things escalated very quickly after that. All we know is that a small group of people raised a flag in one of the island and then Galtieri was at war with the UK, US and NATO. The Military junta killing Argentine people, and going to war with a powerful country, a country that defeated the German Empire. It's crazy! Was the war inevitable? I don't know. Did England over reacted? Who knows. All I know is that Galtieri was a sociopath, and that he died while incarcerated in a Correctional Facility.
> negotiating with dictators doesn't always end well.
This is true, ex: Saddam Hussein, Hitler, etc. But you know what, this was a conflict that could have been resolved by Lady Di in probably 1 day. People in Argentine loved her. She was seen as the Evita of Europe. On the other hand, people in Argentina didn't like Galtieri, and people in England didn't like Tatcher. Unfortunately, no one tried to diffuse the situation in any way. This is sad. Argentina and England were allies from 1810 to 1939, until WWII started and Perón took over https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_during_World_War_II The fact that during WWII 4,000 Argentines served with British armed services shows how many British descendants were living in Buenos Aires in the 1900s.
The big mistakes by the Brits were made beforehand by not taking seriously the noises being made by the junta, when there might have been a chance to contain things.
It’s very sad that what was once a strong relationship between the two nations went downhill with Peron and since then the islands / evil Brits theme gets rolled out to distract from internal issues.
The Argentine people have certainly suffered appallingly under dictators and poor leadership.
And yes, without the sentiment that followed winning back the islands Thatcher and her then future would probably have played out very differently, but don’t doubt that there was very strong support in the UK at large for the recovery of the islands.
According to my family, a bunch of people, probably fisherman or metallurgic workers, raised a flag in one of the island (we don't know why) and then Galtieri sent some troops to protect these people. When the fascists arrived to the islands, they were hostile to the residents. And then hell broke loose, and Galtieri was at war with the UK, US and NATO. A complete lunatic. Once the war started, the propaganda machinery took over. People fighting the dictator didn't want this war, but knew very well it would weaken the Military junta.
> Do you really think Galtieri would have gone for any kind of political settlement
No. The ERP (People's Revolutionary Army) and Montoneros were fighting against Galtieri, in the streets of Buenos Aires, so the Military Junta needed a distraction. However, my mom always said that the only person who could stop that war was Lady Di. She was very popular in Argentina, people used to compare her with Evita. Maybe my mom was wrong, she was a bit of dreamer after all.
> The big mistakes by the Brits were made beforehand by not taking seriously the noises being made by the junta
True. Galtieri never thought England would go to war. I'm not sure why, probably because he had bad intel, or was a complete sociopath.
> It’s very sad that what was once a strong relationship between the two nations went downhill with Peron
Yes, it's sad. After Peron everything went downhill. My mom is an English teacher, and was born in Argentina. She loves the English culture and people (Ladi Di, Churchill, etc), and the war did not change any of that, but deep inside I think she feels betrayed by England (by Tatcher, the media, and even the Queen). But she knows very well what happened and why, and finds comfort in thinking that the war helped restore democracy in her country. She was a proud Montonera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montoneras
All the best!
> Although the ERP continued for a while under the leadership of Enrique Gorriarán Merlo, by late 1977 the guerrilla threat had been eradicted or gone underground.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montoneros
> The Montoneros were effectively finished off by 1977, although their "Special Forces" did fight on until 1981. The Montoneros tried to disrupt the World Cup Football Tournament being hosted in Argentina in 1978 by launching a number of bomb attacks. In late 1979, the Montoneros launched a "strategic counteroffensive" in Argentina, and the security forces killed more than one hundred of the exiled Montoneros, who had been sent back to Argentina after receiving special forces training in camps in the Middle East.
In Argentina, Maradona was seen as Evita and Che Guevara. The Champion of the poor, and the face of anti-imperialism.
* Right-wing Peronism: Videla, Military junta, AAA.
* Left-wing Peronism: Montoneros, students, socialists.
Up to 30,000 people disappeared, and more than 12,000 were tortured by the right-wing fascists.
Now try to imagine people trying to hack you down (totally normal defending back then) and tugging your shirt, in the blazing heat, at altitude, against a team that humiliated your country in a war a few years earlier...and instead you waltz around all of them, make them look amateurish, and knock them out of the biggest sports tournament on the planet at a sport they invented.
Soccer is not grid iron, nor is it rugby but back in the day, defence could be quite a bit more robust than it is now. Footie players are not built like the second row and if you happen to apply six studs (cleats I think for the left pondians) at speed to the side of someone's knee then it will not end well.
If you look carefully, you will notice that Maradona doesn't simply whizz around defenders: he completely humiliates our boys by finding space and making the ball go there with him. The bloody thing is attached to his toe when he needs it to be so and then he simply flicks it into the net, almost as an afterthought. He barely looks at it - he know where it is because he has told it to be there.
Genius.
Carlos Gardel, the Gardel shouted out, was a the best of all Tango singers and an Argentine legend/national hero [0], dying at 44 in a plane crash. Think someone on the same level as Elvis was to the US.
Sorry that I can't find the broadcast recording of that goal though!