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Tears brought you back to the mild July night 36 years ago. As Leo Messi stood there at MetLife Stadium – defeated – on Sunday night, it was impossible not to be reminded of him Diego Maradona. ‘El Diego’ was insolvent as the Germans arrived to receive the World Cup at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome after a 1-0 victory in the 1990 championship.Two geniuses, two completely different characters, and yet so similar in their effort to defend the greatest glory that their professional lives have offered them. Messi could have easily left after Qatar’s high level. No one would have questioned Maradona had Argentina not reached dizzying heights in 1986 four years later. But they were not ready to give up. Two artist soldiers yearned to return to the top of the world, a kind of odyssey, when resources dry up.Going into the final, just as Maradona’s Argentina were underdogs against a German side at their peak, so were Messi’s Albiceleste against La Roja hitting their stride.A look at Argentina’s possession in the two finals also suggests they have struggled to keep up with their European opponents. On Sunday, it was a poor 35% possession for the Argentinians — the lowest of any team in the World Cup finals — while available statistics say it was 39% for Maradona’s side against the Germans.Even red cards — Gustavo Dezotti’s sending-off late in 1990 — robbed the Argentines of their last fight, just as they did for the Copa America champions when Enzo Fernandez was given his marching orders on Sunday. Through the 1990 World Cup, Maradona had a team that was at its peak, quite similar to Messi’s this time. Unlike his predecessor, who could not score in Italy, Messi had eight to his name this time.
But then Maradona’s influence was enormous. His assist for Claudio Cannigia crashed Brazil into the round of 16, while the Argentine master’s threat perception prevented Yugoslavia and Italy – both highly trained European units – from showing their fangs.Just as Messi missed a penalty against Egypt in the round of 16, Maradona also cleared his lines in the quarter-final tie against Yugoslavia, only for goalkeeper Sergio Goycoche to rise to the occasion and save Argentina from blushing.The 1990 World Cup was also marked by the way Maradona divided the host country, where he also played his club football for Napoli. Before the semi-final at the stadium now called the Diego Maradona Arena, the city of Naples was divided – one group cheering for their boy, while the other sided with the national colors and the Azzurri.This time, Messi’s Argentina had a similar polarizing effect on the soccer universe. If you believed the hype, FIFA played a role in the champions’ rise, while the rest stood by Messi’s wizardry and the team’s uncanny ability to come back, time and time again.And leading to the final, Maradona, like Messi, was the biggest threat, and German striker Juergen Klinsman explained to ESPN how they plan to neutralize the influence of the genius. “We knew that one Maradona moment could finish us off. Our coach Franz Beckenbauer told (defensive midfielder) Guido Buchwald to go with Diego wherever he goes, even if it’s in the toilet… Bucky stuck with Diego every minute of the match, rendering him largely ineffective. Buchwald’s tenacity even earned him the nickname ‘Diego,’” Klinsmann said.
Times have changed, it’s no longer the era of man-to-man marking and Spain’s tactics for Messi were a little different. It was left to Rodrigo and Marco Cucurella to keep him in check when he was in their zone. The idea was to isolate him and dry up the passes to him. It wasn’t until the 117th minute that Messi sent the first shot at the goal, which might have gone in if Mikel Merino hadn’t held firm and shot him in the head.Spain coach Luis de la Fuentes’ instructions to his team to keep Messi under control were quite similar to Beckenbauer’s to his boys all those years ago “I told my players that facing Messi was the biggest challenge in football. Even at his age, he demanded our full respect from the first minute to the last. “He pushed us to our absolute limit because that’s what the greatest players do,” de la Fuentes said.The inevitable happened. Ferran Torres acted like the Andreas Brehme figure of so many years ago, piercing Argentine hearts with a dagger late in the game. And after the final whistle, two magicians, separated by time, stood on the same platform, with tears in their eyes. Only that, they were not the only ones who cried around the world.
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