But Eusebio led a novice WC team at that point very far, whereas Germany and Italy are established powers. Also you have to look at the level of play, where Eusebio is much better than Muller's performance or definitely Schillacci, who I believe broke the offside record at the WC.
While I agree that Germany team 70 were very good team (to become Euro72 and WC74 winner later on), Portugal 66 were not worse than Italy 90 per se. Portugal team were bult up with 5 best Attackers form Benfica (the team was in final UCL65 in Europe). Schilacci was a ONE TIME wonder type at that WC90, but if we ignore that fact, he was extremely important to have led Italy to semifinal. NOte that Italy lost to Argentina of Maradona by penalty shootout (Donadoni missed it !!!) otehrwise, Italy could very well hqave won that WC if tehy met Germany in final. Italy played catenncaio style 5 3 1 1The team only got 3 players in attack: Donadoni, young Baggio and Schilacci, and Schilacci scored all 5winning goals for the team!
I think he started off strong, but then had a little drop in form throughout the middle of the season, but then finished off well again. I think the NT games where he had to travel back and forth and play the WCQ's in the entire month of June, then friendlies leading to the WC, may have consumed him a little bit for that season. Obviously he was also kicked in those pre-game matches vs Venezuela and Colombia, which evidently caused concern since it was expected he would need surgery. In any case, I think his performances in his 2nd season was very good, particularly in the matches against Inter, Juventus, AC Milan, Verona, and the first leg at home vs Roma.
I don’t know anything about that. When was that published? And who were the accusers? If it was many years later, once he retired, perhaps the people that said that had some priori agenda and an axe to grind. Anyhow, FIFA did test him after the England match and the results were clean.
I did not recall any thing about that - Did FIFA really do drug test on him at time, I did not remember that? Anyhow, provide coke, Xtasy or else to any players now, I do not think they could do the same as Maradona's anyway...
The random doping tests that FIFA choose after matches. It was him and Butcher of England which were picked and maybe some other players, but I can't remember now.
intersting that was a "random pick" especially right after his England game (a solo goal and the "hand of G") Thanks it's good to know
On Taringa, it says that Maradona started using cocaine while his period of injury at Barcelona, this is prior to WC86: http://www.taringa.net/posts/deportes/5467674/La-historia-de-Maradona-y-la-cocaina.html
Yes, but you were referring to his period during the WC, which I find strange since tests during the competition revealed him to be clean. Any other claim is purely unsubstantiated and unfounded.
Are you sure? As far as I'm concerned they carried out 208 tests [no typo] during 1986 World Cup (without publicizing who were tested), zero positive tests and one acquittal (i.e. a positive result but without consequences). It is unknown who that guy, or the others, was as far as I know. Probably that acquittal was Ramon Caldere of Spain.
Why has Maradona said that he started with it during the second season of his Barcelona days? Anyhow, I think part of the problem is that fact and fiction are hard to separate in his career. Stories flow around that his 1986 Golden Ball has been melted in a gold bar by the Camorra. Then there is also the story that Caniggia his positive test was a retaliation for 1990 WC (according to Maradona; Caniggia scored a goal) and that (according to Pietro Pugliese and others) the Camorra was used to 'persuade' journalists. He was of course cleared of all charges during a trial - in which also the 1988 scudetto climax was investigated.
Here's an interview with Terry Butcher that mentions it: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/terry-butcher-maradona-robbed-england-998339 Because he did. But during WC86 I have no indication that he was taking drugs at that time. I believe only the highlights. But match reports in La Stampa and headlines in Corriere dello Sport, indicate he had very good games.
Now with the drugs hype in the press it has been mentioned as well that Maradona supposedly used steroids as a (late) teenager. According to himself in a interview. Is this actually true or utter bullocks in your view?
Never read any interview of him suggesting that. And what he may say now carries little weight in my opinion. He likes to be heard and for controversial reasons. The fame but notoriety will always be intertwined in his life - and I think he likes it.
I never heard anything wbout Maradona and Ronaldo using "drugs" during their YOUTH like you mentioned a few times? Any link to show that - surprisngly to me
Rumor regarding Ronaldo is well known I think. Just googling reveals it. Biographers of him have mentioned it. For Maradona, I read it recently in the newspaper. Apparently, also in other nations it was noticed because on a other board someone mentioned it as well: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showpost.php?p=1138092&postcount=711 [That is not proof it actually happened - see posts above you - but this is sort of 'proof' that supposed steroid usage, mentioned by himself, reached the media and is also noticed by others besides me]
I never read any article in 1985 that mentioned that. The link to that poster (Murphy) would hold more weight if he provided evidence. He speaks about what Maradona's family used to give him, but this is blatantly false. The interviews that I own from that era never mentioned that. And as mentioned before with the link to Terry Butcher, if Maradona was taking drugs during that time-frame, he certainly would have been detected by FIFA - who would have loved to catch him, since he and Havelange had their ongoing issues during that tournament.
Furthermore, if Maradona was so open about taking 'PED's' during 1985 (as alleged by the poster that goes by the name of Murphy), why is it that he was not persecuted by FIFA and banned from football? In addition, Murphy claims that Maradona in 1985 made incriminating statements that his 'family had given him steroids to make him bigger', but how can this be, if Murphy never provided any link or article that could corroborate this. Furthermore, how could poor and uneducated parents from the slums have access to 'PED's when Maradona was growing up? If anything it should be administered by someone that's qualified. And I've never read or heard any story of any player in Argentinian football taking or even having access to those drugs in the 1970s. The whole story sounds like someone with an axe to grind with a priori agenda. As for Ronaldo, nothing was ever scientifically proven - he himself was never sanctioned. If anything was going on, it was covered up.
This is for Ronaldo http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Serie..._Piano/2008/02_Febbraio/15/ronieedoping.shtml http://www.cycling4fans.de/index.php?id=5315 http://www.personal.psu.edu/cjb5120/seventhassignment.html The cycling4fans.de link is a bit one sided and obviously with an agenda and I don't claim it is the truth but rumors about Ronaldo are widespread and have arisen from various different sources.
Thanks for the link, but it's well known that many athletes did follow the program (and taking some substances) to grow their body muscle. NOT to defend NOR to argue, but one should be clear to distinguish these with some other "dopings" to increase the stamina (like Maradona Wc94) or Lance Amrstrong ... and many others in Olympics. Zico was supposed to get into the same program at Udinese if he extended the contract tehre. They claim his body needs more mass to sustain the "heavy tackles and body contacts" in SerieA at time. Again I think these are "tollerable" per se
First: whatever allegations were directed towards Ronaldo led to no trials or sanctions ever being made. He denied it and was never officially banned from football. Second point: Maradona was detected in 1994 with a substance called ephedrine, which in his case was for the purpose of losing weight, not to enhance his stamina. His case has no comparison with what Lance Armstrong was taking. Furthermore, Armstrong (as with Ben Johnson) had witnesses that always alleged he was not clean throughout his career. This never was the case with Maradona. The only drug that Maradona was known to be involved with was cocaine, not PED's. Finally, I don't know about that story of Zico in Italian football. The issues with him at Udinese during the 84/85 season mostly had to do with injuries, being home-sick, and the club unable to recruit better players because most of the money from the club had been spent on acquiring him.
Here's a recent interview of former French coach Michel Hidalgo about the Magic Square, between other subjects. I translated as well as I could but it's not perfect... Isn't the Magic Square -which started to take place in novemeber 1981 vs the Netherlands- the best evidence that the individual qualities of the players are more important than the tactical schemes ? At the international level, it is unlikely to find teams playing with three attacking midfielders. The midfielder is often made up of defensive midfielders but actually playing with four defenders should be enough. The midfield is where you must keep the ball and create chances. And for that, you need technical players. The first time I played Platini and Giresse together on the field, everyone told me it wouldn't work. And then, I added a third one called Genghini in the WC. He was also a number 10 ! A left-footed number 10. So my midfield was composed of Platini, Giresse, Genghini and Tigana. Three numbers ten plus Tigana, who was not a ten, but not a defensive midfielder either. All of this happened because Platini got injured : Genghini took his place and scored a goal [against Austria in the second round]. After that it was difficult to bench him. When Platini returned, he told me : "you can not remove Genghini! "I was a little embarrassed. So why not four number 10 ? And that's how it went. It was a matter of technical quality, rather than athletic ability. That is how the midfield composed of Genghini on the left, Tigana on the right, Platini and Giresse in a more advanced position was born. Some say Platini played as a false center-forward ... This is not quite right because we let him do what he wanted to do. In training sessions he played as a striker. Giresse was embarrassed by that and once said "Michel, if you continue to play up-front, it will go wrong for us". Platini answered : "these are training matches, and I like to have fun, and I have more fun playing up-front. But in competition, you will see that I will play deeper. ' You said that you regret not having picked Zimako. Do you think in retrospect that Luis Fernandez, who had a very good season, could have been included also ? He was very young in 1982, and I didn't need another defensive midfiler. I picked him in EC84, and he did very well. Concerning the magic square of 1984, one might think he was more successful and had more cohesion than the one in 1982, with Fernandez instead of Genghini ... No. The 1982 magic square was better because we had three number ten including a left footed one. I do not think 1984 was better than 1982, even though the 1984 was pretty good too. Now let's talk about the coaching in the second half of the ½ final vs Germany. At that time you could only have five subs on the bench, and among them you did not pick any midfielders, whereas René Girard had played the first round. Instead you had two strikers on the bench : Soler and Bellone. Did you plan to give them a chance had everything gone normally in that game ? You can not predict injuries. Genghini got injured and I replaced him with Battiston.Then Battiston got seriously injured. I could not change three players so Lopez took the defensive midfielder spot but that was not his natural position so the team became a little unbalanced. Two players got injured in ten minutes : it doesn't happen frequently (...) But Soler or Bellone could have taken the place of Rocheteau who had been hit in the knee against Northern Ireland? You can not predict everything, you can't know how far can go a player who is not in the best physical condition. Now you can try to make a more balanced bench but you cannot predict everything. You can't know what will happen, even if you try to bring the best players, because when there are injured players during a game, it changes things. Germany had two experienced attackers who came late in the game [Horst Hrubesch and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge]. Some say "you should have done this, you should have done that," I heard it all my life. We played with the players we had, that's all. There is no regret to have. You did not have Joël Bats at the time, and in 1984 and 1986, he was quite influencial. We didn't have a great keeper in 1982. Bats became the undisputable number 1 afterwards. It seems there is more speed in today's football and that the game became more physical, but there is also less individual technique and a lower quality of passes. Today's football is different for sure. It is faster but it is not necessarily pleasant to watch, except Barça. The key for me is not speed, but technique. I had the chance to play with Stade de Reims, with Albert Batteux as a coach and Kopa on the ground. It was all about technique. I tried myself to build a team with players who were able to keep the ball in their feet, with three numbers ten and with Tigana who was quite a small size player. I tried to build a technical team instead of a physical one. At one point in the last years, there were only solid, sturdy teams and now there's Barcelona with its four small size midfielders who dominate the world ! That's what we did 30 years ago. My four midfielders were also small guys. We tried to play in that way in 1982, and we were close to win the WC. Do you agree that the current French team lacks a leader on the field capable of making decisions during the game, as did Platini? It's not easy to find a Platini or a Zidane. There have been two generations who have benefited from these players. And yet Zidane was a great player, but not a great captain as Platini was. It's hard to find players of that dimension. Deschamps was a great captain but the technical leader was Zidane. When we look at the 1998 team, we don't talk much about the attackers. This is a team that won the WC because it conceded few goals. It could rely on the defense. And in 98 there were not three number 10 but three defensive midfielders with Deschamps, Petit and Karembeu. Aimé Jacquet built a defensive team based on the players he had and that was a very clever choice.