What a week in Australian football! Maradona confesses that he and his La Albiceleste teammates took drugs against the Socceroos before a second-leg World Cup qualifier in 1993, and two of the Socceroos participants couldn’t give a flying fox.
When Australia played Argentina during the second leg of their World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires, a few mates and I jigged school to watch the game at the Sydney Olympic Club. I was in Year 11 and I remember missing a crucial maths class.
Watching the game was a frustrating experience because with the Socceroos down 1-0 late in the game, striker Carl Veart scored what everyone thought was an equalising goal.
The noise and jumping were so loud and thunderous that the projector failed and we lost the picture. We waited a couple of minutes while staff at the Sydney Olympic club tried frantically to get the projector to work again, while the punters screamed. Once the picture was fixed we found that the goal was ruled offside. Failure to qualify yet again was a crushing feeling.
So I was astonished to read that Paul Wade and Robbie Slater have given muted responses to the news Maradona and Argentina cheated. Anytime that game or Maradona’s name is brought up in Australia, Paul Wade and Robbie Slater are always the go to guys to get a quote, even though they were not the only players on the pitch.
Robbie Slater’s response when asked if it tarnishes the experience was that “It certainly won’t for me, it was a magical three weeks, it was mythical. In spite of this coming out … those two games, despite us not qualifying, rest as one of the best memories in my career.”
And Paul Wade’s response is even weirder. No outrage, no feelings of being cheated. Instead he takes the news as a compliment.
Chatting to the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Sebastian Hassett, Wade said ”I was absolutely shocked when I heard about it. But, wow, in a bizarre way, what a compliment to us. They must have been very scared that we’d knock them out of the World Cup qualifiers.”
News that the Argies had been talking happy pills is not any new discovery. Before the World Cup last year I read Jimmy Burns excellent book on Maradona’s Hand of God. In it he claims that during the 1978 World Cup, the eventual winners were as high as Charlie Sheen on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ,Thursday, Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday.
An excerpt from the book reveals that: “According to other reports Mario Kempes and Alberto Tarantinoi were so ‘high’ after playing one particular World Cup match that they had to keep on going for another hour before they came down again.”
Another most extraordinary episode of the World Cup involved the pregnant wife of the Argentine’s team waterboy, after it was revealed that her urine was used as to cover for an Argentine player in one of the competition’s dopes test.
At least on this occasion they had dope tests!
Surely someone from that Socceroos team has to feel cheated and robbed.
To think of being literally cheated out of playing at a World Cup and taking the news as a compliment, or one of the best memories in a career. I wonder if, indeed, they really wanted to go to the World Cup in the first place?
Johnno
Guest
Marradona at the time had a god like presence much like Micheal Jordan, Tiger Woods, so for him to come to play the soccerroos in a world cup qualifier Argentina, the world cup champs 86 runners up 1990 was was an amazing thing. The hype was massive all week and the SFS nearly collapsed when Maradonna came out for kick off. And this is the days before Internet , globalisation, and haveing lots of players in the big leagues in Europe, champions league soccer being on all the time, pay tv showing EPL, seri A la liga, all the time, and soccer in Australia being mainstream population, and not not cult or ethnic minoritiy base fans, as your regular soccer fans soccer is now mainstream fans regulary in OZ from all walks of life , and cultures, and in big large numbers the masses in other words it is no longer a minoirty or medium or small sport it is one of the biggests sports and with the highest junior participation of sports in OZ it is the World game in other words has landed well and truly in Australia scince 1993. And also pre world cups 2006 2010, and having a coach like guss hiddink, so there was so much mystique about having a team like Argentina come out. And also so many aussies had never experienced the pain of football in qualifiers or a world cup so there was so much mystique , remember pre internet times where you get every champions league match and info on players and globalistaion. So this was huge, and for those players it was i think either johnny warren or robbie slater put in a book to play Maradonna and even beat them at river plate stadium in Argentina not out of this world but out of this stratoshphere. Soo they are are humbled almost that maradonna and the Argies would have to take drugs to beat us. They(Socceroos) probably started to probably forget that maradonna was 33 overwieght was put through a relentless fitness campaign to lose weight , and now took drugs to even get on the pitch and even then barely could he last 90 mintues, so they were focussing more on the legend and mysticue and his aura than the player he had now became, bit like in cricket focusing on the man and not the ball. But class players in any sport do make crucial plays we saw that in origin last night lockeyar, thursaton,slater,cam smith, class at the clutch, MJordan had it so does marradonna and tiger woods and those QLD stars as examples. He did a beautiful flick on paul wade then a good cross, he knocked Brazil out of Italia 90 with 1 classy run, so that is a sign of class otto step up at big moments. But he deifinatly wasnt the player he was in 86 iin those qualifiers, good but not a 1 man team. I loved when Aurilio Vidmar scored as loud a roar i have heard at SFS it took John Aloisi to beat it 12 years lata. So i can see where the flattery is coming from and also those players were part of the generaaton where a culture of failure was part of Aussy soccer and they should just feel humbled to step on the same park as a team like Argentina, or Brazil,, or germany not actually beat them, a bit like when Sri lanka started playing circket a thigh level they showed aussies to much nicesness and humility then under Arjuna Ranatunga they developed some exciting stars and sledge back and no longer behaved like gentleman but fighters and gave the Aussy cricket team regular dosages of there own Medicine. Now all the players play in Europe and actually get annoyed if they lose to them, they feel the socceroos if they play to 100 percent and have a full strength squad they can beat anybody. At least that group of the so called golden generation had that belief in twenty 06 with Hiddnk in charge, and to a lesser level in twenty 10, and i really think if wed of snucked thorugh after that germany fiasco we were hitting form at the right time and with a fit Harry Kewell we could of given all the big teams including spain a fright. Oh well bring on 2014 in Brazil.
dasilva
Guest
I absolutely agree Let's remember that if this scandal broke out soon after the qualifiers that their team did drugs and not only on an individual basis but that the coach and the head of the ARgentina Association not only knew about it but actively facilitate the process. They would have been kicked out of the world cup and had Australia qualified by default. This is further evidence of the whole curse of the socceroos. If this scandal came out straight after the 1994 World Cup Final has been completed (therefore too late for australia to replace ARgentina) instead of almost 2 decades later then I am quite sure this would have gone down in Australia as one of the lowest point and the greatest day of infamy in the history of Australian Football and Australian sport as well. THis would have made the 1997 Iran match even more painful. The whole injustice that was felt after the Italy game would have been nothing on this.