1986 was forty years ago, but still the audacity of that little prick punching the ball past Peter Shilton (although how he got outjumped by him is beyond me) still wrangles with a lot of English fans, it's understandable I suppose, given that after the event Maradona termed his cheating as the hand of god and showed no remorse for his actions, instead doubling down and pretending that the Argentines were somehow entitled to their win as grave injustice had been inflicted on them. Maradona was without doubt the most gifted player on the planet during that world cup and his Argentinian side where the best in the tournament, mostly because he was so good and his performances and goals deserved to win the South American's the trophy. I have nothing against Maradona himself, so to speak, other than being a bit of a prick and blatantly cheating, but this has always been the way with the Argies. The constant cheating and diving, the screaming and balling at referees and the entitlement of a nation who will try any form of shithousery to win a game of football, this is the thing that pisses me off about them. Back in the quarter final in 1966, Geoff Hurst's header was enough to win the game and send England into their first ever semi final, but this game would be remembered for more than just that, the sending off Antonio Rattin in that game sparked scenes that Wembley stadium would have never seen before. Rattin was sent off for two bookable offences, the first was for swearing at the ref and the second was for a foul, which also may have been followed up by some choice words to the official, Rattin and the Argentinians were outraged by the decision and the Argie captain refused to leave the pitch, causing chaos on the side-lines involving all sorts of FIFA top knobs. Rattin was eventually convinced to leave the pitch and England went on to win the game. After the game Alf Ramsey famously stopped his swapping shirts with the Argentines, he then branded them as animals. Antonio Rattin sadly passed away a few days ago, so no doubt Argentina will use his passing as more motivation to beat us in the semi final, no doubt they will use the injustice of swearing at an official, refusing to walk off the pitch, spitting in the FIFA vice presidents face and pissing in the Wembley tunnel as vindication for whatever bullshit they try on Wednesday evening.
It seems that every time we play this lot there is controversy, 1998 and Beckham getting sent off after kicking out at the horrible little bloke Diego Simeone, there is no doubt that Beckham was stupid and deserved his dismissal, but Simeone screamed like someone had just cut his balls off, and don't even start me on the approving nod from Gabriel Batistuta when the ref brandishes the red card. That exit in quarter finals was awful, even with ten men we dug in and even thought we had won it, only to have Sol Campbells headed effort disallowed because Alan Shearer was deemed to have fouled the goalkeeper before big Sol put the ball in the back of the net. We went on to lose on penalties despite being the better team and Michael Owen scoring a wonder goal. Four years later England defeated Argentina in the group stages thanks to a David Beckham penalty which put to rest the demons of 1998, we all remember John Motson's famous commentary "hold the cups and glasses back home, you can smash them now, David Beckham has scored against Argentina".
Other than a friendly 20 years ago we haven't played Argentina since that penalty in Japan and Korea, by the way we won that 3-2, after being 2-1 down with only 3 minutes of injury time remaining, we then celebrated it like we had won the world cup, Argentina looked gutted at the end, it just goes to show there is a no such thing as a friendly between these two nations. This semi final comes with so much baggage from the past attached to it, unfortunately not just football related. We all know that it's going to be a tetchy affair, and there is going to be players trying to get other players booked and sent off, but I am sure that if our players can keep there heads and don't rise to their antics and get involved in that shit, we have the quality to bury this lot. I haven't been impressed with Argentina this tournament, and although we haven't been any great shakes ourselves, we have had some magical moments by some world class players, namely Kane and Bellingham. If these two show up tonight and we have a few cameos from the likes of Anderson, Rice, Pickford and Gordon or Saka, we will beat these and we might do it very comfortably, the way the South Americans play could suit the counter attacking style that Tommy Tickles wants to implement and that could lead to it being a very uncomfortable night for Messi and Co. I have more confidence about winning this game then I had against both Mexico and Norway, both those games were potential banana skins, this isn't, this is about playing our own game, playing to our strengths, using our pace and winning the battle in midfield where Anderson and Rice are going to be key. If we lose to them fair and square and they prove to be the better team, then so be it, I just hope that we aint on the end of another shitty decision that is going to overshadow what has the potential to be a fantastic semi final.
Lets go out there tonight and get to our first World Cup semi final since 1966, lets show the rest of the world that we are really contenders for this trophy, lets teach the Argentinians how football should be played without all the viveza criolla (Argentinian for shithousing) even if you get a chance to outjump Martinez and punch one in, don't do it, remember Maradona didn't have VAR against him.
Come on England!!
