What If #1 What If…Maradona hadn’t cheated in ‘86?

February 28th, 2009 | by: Rob |

Its tough sometimes being English. Perhaps every country feels the same, but it seems to me that we have more than our fair share of bad luck, near misses and moments of misfourtune. Maybe its just all those penalty shootouts that make me feel that – I’m sure the Dutch feel the same way. Mind you, they didn’t even get the World Cup they deserved either.

So I thought, in what will hopefully become a long running and fruitful series, I’d take a look at what might have been had we only had a little bit of luck, a small moment had gone our way, and hopefully prove that at the end of the day winning a world cup is 90% fluke.

Look at our own World Cup win! The was-it-over-the-line question still hasn’t been answered properly, and had it not counted, it would have changed the game.

I should also say these posts aren’t intended to be a whinge and a moan, or even suggest that England deserved to win every world cup and Euro of all time, because we didn’t. Its just a bit of fun, and a fun look at the Butterfly effect. So on to the first one. Maradona and his Hand of God.

A moment so controversial, it seemed to spark a rivalry in an instant. Forget all that talk of the Faklands War and all that, the real reason England and Argentina have gotten to the point where they can’t look each other in the eye, is all down to Maradona not playing by the rules. Certainly its why Scotland love the Argies.

Lets be honest, we started slowly in 1986. A 1-0 defeat to Portugal left us a bit shocked and in trouble. We followed that up with a less than impressive 0-0 draw against Morocco. So two games down in the group, and we’re on one point, staring elimination in the face. Luckily we started playing in the third game, and a superb Gary Lineker hat-trick sent us through in second place.

A repeat result against Paraguay (3-0) put us through to the Quarter-Finals, where we would play an Argentina side who were being dragged kicking-and-screaming through the tournament by the demented genius of Diego Maradona. The Falklands War was four years ago, and Argentina would love to beat us. They still hadn’t forgiven us for the match in 1966 either.

We were starting to look more confident, and Peter Shilton was at his absolute best that day. Unfortunatly a hooked clearance from Steve Hodge (off point, but isn’t that the worst clearance you’ve ever seen? I mean really.) meant that Shilton would have to come off his line and punch the ball away. Maradona ran in, and punched the ball over his head.

Bobby Robson, sat on the sidelines, has said since that he was waiting for the moment when the linesman would flag, or the Ref whistle. But no-one did. None of the Argentina team celebrated at first, untill it became clear that actually, the goal was going to be given.

Now just for a second, lets imagine that, as Maradona must have expected, the goal was not given, and merely a free-kick to England was given. Its still 0-0, and Maradona doesn’t have the belief that everything is going to go his way. He doesn’t have the unshakable confidence to whatever the hell he likes.

He still picks the ball up on the halfway line, but his andrenline isn’t flowing quite the same, and the England defence is concentrating, not distracted by the atrocity of justice minutes before.

Instead of not bothering, Peter Reid sticks in a crunching tackle on Maradona, and leaves the Argentine flat on the deck. Maradona spends the rest of the game sulking with a slight limp. Gary Lineker, in absurdly good form, and at that point, the best out and out striker in the world, scores late on, this time its the winner. England are through 1-0.

Maradona never quite lives up to his legend on the international stage, and indeed with the world robbed of the “Goal of the Century“, later generations wonder what all the fuss was all about.

England, meanwhile, buyoyed from beating the overhyped Argies, dispatch easily a Belguim side which had only managed a draw against a Paraguay side England had beaten 3-0 earlier in the tournament. Lineker cemented his legend, with two more goals, and England were in the final.

Who else for England to face in the final but the Germans. Fate has a wit it would seem. I’m not saying that England would easily walk this one, but the sides look fairly evenly matched on paper (and indeed, it went to penalties when similar looking sides met four years later, but that another time). I don’t think it would be a stretch to say, an England team that hadn’t conceeded since the group stage, in buyont form, and boasting the tournaments top scorer by miles, would be able to beat a German side, knackered after beating the Platini inspired France four days earlier.

Gary Lineker would go down as one of the all-time greats, not just one of England’s greats, Terry Butcher would be held in nearly as high regard as Sir Bobby Moore, when Glenn Hoddle became England Manager before the 1998 World Cup, it would be as a World Cup Winner.

Funny how things turn out eh?

Tags: Argentina, Bobby Moore, Chris Waddle, England, Falklands War, Gary Lineker, Germany, Glenn Hoddle, Goal of the Century, Maradona, Michel Platini, Peter Reid, Peter Shilton, Portugal, Scotland, Sir Bobby Robson, Steve Hodge, Terry Butcher, What If

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Comments

By Daryl | February 28th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

I’ve always wondered how other nations regard Lineker. Even in England, younger people seem to know him more as the MotD presenter who used to play football. So I’m thinking there’s no reason why any kids oversees would know much about him.

By Rob | February 28th, 2009 at 3:23 pm

That true actually, he never really cut it in Spain because Cruyff played him out on the wing, so I guess his repuatation in Europe wasn’t quite as great as it could’ve been. He was top scorer in 86 though, with a team that only made the QFs.

I think its a shame if he is just known as the guy off Match of the Day, because he probably is the best striker we’ve produced, even if he was just a goalhanger.

Also, I find him a bit smug on Match of the Day.

By Joe Argentino | March 1st, 2009 at 8:34 am

Look, I know England have some real issues getting over 86 more that 20 years on, but this article is really taking your cry-baby winging tendencies to the extreme.

In 2002 Argentina flopped, learned its our mistakes, got over it and moved forward and assembled potentially a world cup winning side four years later.

For a team to even consider being mentioned in the same breath as the big 5 World Cup winning sides – namely France, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Argentina – it will need to start showing flair, skill and cojones; 3 things I fear England largely lack.

As an Argentine who cares, my advice to England is stop crying crying crying, and practice practice practice.

My warmest regards.

By Albo | March 1st, 2009 at 1:03 pm

I have read this article carefuly, trying to understand (once again) the “English” point of view.
So what you’re saying is that if the first goal (hand of God) had not existed, Maradona would be a much worse player and would never come up with the play like the second goal?
Look, I’m not a big fan of Maradona’s in many departments. But as a football player he was all that no English player could ever be. Sorry Sir Charlton.
And dwelling on that “what if” twentysome years later shows a real knack for playing the victim like I haven’t seen before.
I refuse to think that most English football fans are as narrow minded as the writer of this blog.
What an atomic waste of time and bandwidth.
Saludos

Posted from United States

By Rob | March 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Wow. I think you guys may have misinturpreted my tone or something, its not meant to be a whinge or a cry, just a pondering on how different things could have turned out. Its actually meant to be quite a fun post – the only reason its from an England perspective, is because, well this is my blog!

As for the no hand of god, no goal of the century argument, I certainly think one influenced the other, but even if he had pulled out a classic goal, without the HoG, that only makes it 1-1 and leaves us in with a shout, no?

By Daryl | March 1st, 2009 at 3:41 pm

Think we might just have a cultural misunderstanding here folks. The what if… article is sort of an English tradition. It’s not meant to be whining about what did happen, it’s more tongue in cheek wishful thinking about what could have happened instead.

Joe Argentino, Albo:

Let’s not start insulting each other’s teams, because there’s nothing productive or interesting at the end of that road.

By Brother | March 1st, 2009 at 6:21 pm

“France, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Argentina”

Just to chime in here, real quick: why is Uruguay left out (having won more WCs than France) and England excluded? If we’re talking about the big World Cup sides, they’d have to be only Brazil, Germany and Italy, who between them have 2/3 of all the World Cups and are always contenders…

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By Joe Argentino | March 1st, 2009 at 6:34 pm

Yeh no worries, I understood it was a ‘what if’ post etc, but I initially meant to click on a news article about Maradona on the Fifa website on Google News the Google news results and must of clicked the one next to it my accident without noticing the URL (because of the professional design of this blog) – and thought I’d have a little go at the journalist because this would be a strange article to appear on the Fifa site!

… to be honest I think Lineker deals with his misfortunes very well, and has indeed moved on, is a gent and is doing well for himself considering the hand of god goal, and he also narrowly missed a goal towards the end and would have been considered one of the greats. If Maradona was cheated out of so much glory he would have fallen in to even more of a mess due to his weak character in many aspects, but you can’t doubt that the first goal leant to the second, just look at a video of all the amazing goals he has done in his career on Youtube.

I’m always bantering about football with my English friends, that’s all it was, and I can certainly “look them in the eye” along with many normal English fans, and many people from the UK go to Argentina for holidays now, so speak for yourself.

There’s a handful of Argies that whined about Owen’s dive in 2002 for a while, I prefer to blame Veron for letting down Bielsa’s system for the game, and others for not finishing properly and creating more chances. That’s in the past now and I was proud of the fact that they assembled a stronger team for the next one.

Every team has been cheated in some way out of going further in the world cup in some way by either a player or ref, but there’s nothing productive in dwelling on the ‘could have been’ (or ‘having fun’ with the ‘could have been’) really, you’ll just allow chavs to harbour even more bitterness towards us. You could have spent all the time studying tactics and systems – take football more seriously if you want to go forward! – or you’ll end up like the Scots, playing like elephants whilst there supporters are all about ‘humour’, having fun and taking the piss, when they once had the most advanced technical ball-on-the-floor styles in the world.

By pandre | March 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 am

have any of you even watched that match? I own the DVD, argentina was totally dominating the match, lol you english still can’t get over it

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By Albo | March 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 am

What if… how pathetic.

What if Ratín hadn’t been kicked out of the game, back in 1966, when, as a captain, tried to ask the ref what was a call about? Remember? We were called “animals” by the english media.

Maybe Argentina would have won that match and kicked England out of their only star in their jersey. In their own house.
Nahhh
Impossible.
I must be dreaming…

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By Daryl | March 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 am

Albo,

Exactly. What if Ratín hadn’t been kicked out of that game? No doubt things would have gone very differently. That’s the whole point of “what if…” It’s not meant to be taken personally.

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By Rob | March 2nd, 2009 at 12:44 pm

I think I mentioned in my post that the 1966 final could easily have gone the other way because of Hurst’s goal maybe-maybe not going over the line. But then I suspect some didn’t actually read the post…

By tracey | March 3rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm

Yeah, what if Argentina hadn’t made the opposition throw that game in 78, and try every dirty tactic in the book in their own house (ask the Dutch).

What if England had entered the world cup in the thirties, when they were the best team in the world

What if Mussolini hadn’t had the ref for dinner the night before the final.

If there hadn’t been wrong refereeing decisions against Hungary v Germany.

If the Germans hadn’t dived.

If Cruyff had turned up.

If Paolo Rossi had served his full ban.

If Ronaldo hadn’t had a fit or Zidane had kept his head.

But generally speaking, England have a mediocre international record because they’ve played poorly. And are crap at penalties (mental weakness under pressure).

“By Albo | March 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 am
What if… how pathetic.
What if Ratín hadn’t been kicked out of the game, back in 1966, when, as a captain, tried to ask the ref what was a call about? Remember? We were called “animals” by the english media. (the manager actually).
Maybe Argentina would have won that match and kicked England out of their only star in their jersey. In their own house.
Nahhh
Impossible.
I must be dreaming…”

By Cosmo | March 7th, 2009 at 6:40 pm

An interesting post and very interesting the way the comments have gone. The interesting comments are those from Joe Argentino, who, in his banter with Rob, has shown that ‘what ifs’ can operate from both sides in the same match or in later encounters. What if Maradona hadn’t scored the goal, would England have performed so well against them at the 2002 and 2006 world cups without the need for revenge. One what if begets another just as any action requires a reaction, if it hadnt have been for the hand of god then i wouldnt have as many argentinian friends as I do today as that is always an ice breaker, rather focus on that than the falklands conlict. A good post made better by some of the comments.

What if Koeman had been sent off for pulling down Platt, giving us a freekick and not allowing him to score a freekick against us. It would have meant we only had to win by six against san marino which would cause us to not ask ‘what if we hadnt conceeded the most stupid international goal after only 20 seconds against san marino?’

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