World Cup Team History: Argentina (Part II: 1986-2006)

December 15th, 2009 | by: Daryl | View Comments

We’re doing a series of World Cup team history posts for every team at the 2010 World Cup. This is Part II of our Argentina World Cup team history, covering 1986 to 2006. Part I (1930-1982) can be found here.

1986 World Cup in Mexico

It probably doesn’t get much better than this. Especially not for Diego Maradona. After the frustration of 1982, El Diego dominated this tournament, winning the Golden Ball as best player and captaining Argentina to a second World Cup title. Mardona played every minute of every match, scoring five, assisting five and making himself inarguably the greatest player in the world. Not too shabby for the boy from Villa Fiorito.

Argentina topped Group A by beating South Korea 3-1, drawing 1-1 with Italy and beating Bulgaria 2-0. In the knockout round of 16 they beat Uruguay 1-0 and then faced old rivals England in the quarter-final. The game is famous for two very Maradona incidents.

First the infamous “Hand of God” goal where little Diego beat Peter Shilton to a high ball by using his hand, later claiming “The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, a little by the head of Maradona.”

Yes, it was cheating. But even as an England fan, I have to admire the skill with which he pulled this off. There’s even a little nod of the head there to disguise it.

Maradona more than made up for that little bit of cheating by scoring arguably the greatest goal in World Cup history later in the same game:

El Diego picked the ball up in his own half, and dribbled past at least half the England team before sidestepping Peter Shilton and rolling home. Can’t argue with that.

Maradona scored another two as Argentina beat Belgium 2-0 in the semi-final, including this beauty:

Maradona didn’t score in the final, but was influential as Argentina beat West Germany 3-2 with goals from José Luis Brown, Jorge Valdano and Jorge Burruchaga:

1990 World Cup in Italy

This started badly, with Argentina losing their opening Group B game 1-0 to Cameroon. A huge shock at the time, though in hindsight not so much as Cameroon won the group and went on to the quarter-finals. Carlos Billardo made five changes to the team that lost to Cameroon and Argentina then beat the USSR 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Romania to go through as one of the best third placed teams.

In the second round, Argentina beat Brazil 1-0, with Claudio Cannigia scoring after his buddy Maradona found him with a pass:

The game became infamous for the “holy water scandal” after Brazilian left back Branco claimed the Argentinean staff passed him a water bottle laced with tranquilizers during the game. I’m still not sure if that’s true or not. But there’s a very simple lesson to be learned here: Don’t ingest anything given to you by your biggest international rivals in a World Cup game.

In the quarter-final Argentina and Yugoslavia fought out a 0-0 draw, with Argentina winning on penalties. Then came the semifinal. Italy vs Argentina in Naples. Big because Maradona was a local legend having just dribbled Napoli to a second Serie A title.

However, Maradona pushed things a little too far by suggesting the people of Naples should support Argentina instead of Italy in the World Cup semi-final. Brilliant New York Times story from 1990 about that request here. Any sane person could tell you that wouldn’t work, but Maradona has been famed for his sanity. The result was a bit of a backlash, as Italians in Naples booed Maradona.

Italy took the lead through Toto Schillaci, but the albiceleste equalized through Claudio Cannigia and the match went to penalties. Ironically, it was Maradona who scored the spot kick that sent Argentina through to the final and Italy to the third place playoff.

The final vs West Germany was a disappointingly dull affair, with West Germany winning 1-0 through an Andreas Brehme penalty. So Argentina picked up a second runners-up medal to match their two World Cup wins.

1994 World Cup in the USA
Alfio Basile replaced Carlos Billardo as DT for the 1994 World Cup, Diego Maradona made a big push to lose a few pounds and be fit for the tournament and the squad had plenty of other top talent to call on. Talent like Nestor Sensini, Claudio Cannigia and a 25 year old Gabriel Batistuta. We all know how this ended, but let’s go through it chronologically anyway.

Argentina were in Group D, and opened the tournament in style. A 4-0 win over Greece with a hat-trick from Batistuta, a goal for Maradona, and an all around beauty of a performance, especially the passing:

Looking good.

In the second game against Nigeria, Argentina won 2-1 with two goals from Claudio Cannigia. But Maradona went for a drugs test after the game and that was the end of his World Cup. He tested positive for the banned substance ephedrine and was sent home from the World Cup in disgrace.

Two things worth noting here. To this day Maradona maintains that he had ingested the ephedrine unknowingly, given to him innocently by his trainer who made a mistake. His biography “El Diego” spends a lot of time protesting what happened. I honestly don’t know what to think.

What I do know is that countless people (including everyone I knew at high school) ignored the fact that it was ephedrine that Maradona tested positive for, and the story soon spread that he’d tested positive for cocaine and that his goal celebratio vs Greece could be used as proof.

In hindsight, that’s all extremely silly.

However, Maradona’s disgrace had a profound impact on the rest of the team. They lost the final group game 2-0 to Bulgaria and only qualified for the second round as the third placed team in Group D.

Argentina faced Romania in the Round of 16 and 3-2. A rough end to a rough World Cup, and in a lot of ways you have to feel sympathy for a talented squad that was overshadowed by the Maradona drug test controversy.

1998 World Cup in France

So we move on to the post-Maradona era. With Daniel Passarella now in charge and once again a talented squad (Sensini, Batistuta, Seba Verón a young Hernan Crespo) Argentina had a 100% record in Group H by beating Japan 1-0, Jamaica 5-0 (with two from Ariel Ortega and a second World Cup hat-trick for Batistuta) and Croatia 1-0.

In the Round of 16 there was an epic battle with old foes England. The game is famous for Michael Owen’s goal and David Beckham’s sending off (which you have to say was well played by Diego Simeone). The game finished 2-2 with goals from Batistuta (again) and Javier Zanetti. Argentina held their nerve and won on penalties.

In the quarterfinals it was the Dennis Bergkamp inspired Netherlands. Claudio López equalized after Patrick Kluivert had given the Dutch the lead, but then in the 89th minute Dennis Bergkamp did this:

If you’re going to lose in the last minute, then it may as well be to a beauty of a goal like that.

2002 World Cup in South Korea & Japan

This did not go well. Marcelo Bielsa (who will manage Chile at the 2010 World Cup) was in charge. Despite having the twin talents of Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo at his disposal, Bielsa decided that going one up front was the best option. It wasn’t.

Argentina opened Group F with a 1-0 win over Nigeria (Batistuta again) but then faced a fired up England in the second game and lost 1-0 to a David Beckham penalty and could only manage a 1-1 draw with Sweden in the final game. So out in the group stage it was.

2006 World Cup in Germany

Bielsa was gone and José Pekerman was in charge. Gabriel Batistuta had retired after 2002, but there was an 18 year old Leo Messi in the squad, and the attack-minded team was organized around the lazy magic of #10 Juan Román Riquelme, then at the peak of his powers.

Argentina were drawn into Group C with Cote d’Ivoire, Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro, the undisputed Group of Death. With a 2-1 win over Cote d’Ivoire, a 6-0 spanking of S&M (see what I did there?) and a 0-0 draw with the Netherlands, Argentina finished 1st.

Here are the highlights of that 6-0 win over Serbia, which had everyone talking about Argentina as favourites to win the 2006 World Cup.

In the Round of 16 Argentina beat Mexico 2-1 in extra time, with this stunner from Maxi Rodriguez…

…which set up a quarter-final clash with hosts Germany.

Argentina took a 49th minute lead through Roberto Ayala, but then Pekerman lost his nerve and abandoned the attacking approach, taking off Riquelme and Cambiasso to defend that lead. It didn’t work, and Germany equalized in the 80th and went on to win on penalties.

The big news in 2010 is that Maradona is in charge. For better or worse. But the good news is that – with the exception of Juan Roman Riquelme – the majority of that talented 2006 squad will return, with Leo Messi four years older and four years better.

Argentina complete World Cup record:

1930 – Second Place
1934 – 1st Round
1958 – 1st Round
1962 – 1st Round
1966 – Quarter-Final
1974 – 2nd Round
1978 – Winners
1982 – 2nd Round
1986 – Winners
1990 – Second Place
1994 – 2nd Round
1998 – Quarter-Final
2002 – 1st Round
2006 – Quarter-Finals

Click here for more World Cup team histories.