Lionel Messi Can Be Compared to Diego Maradona, but in the Correct Way

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at Internationaled.org

Published: July 9, 2015

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There was something baffling about the reaction to Lionel Messi’s performance in last Saturday’s Copa America final, which Argentina lost on penalties to Chile. It wasn’t just that he was criticised for his performance—which was understandable enough given how little impact he made on the game—it was the clear glee certain people took in the assessment and, most particularly, in the negative comparisons with Diego Maradona.

Messi bottled the final, numerous posts on Twitter claimed; Maradona wouldn’t have bottled the final. It’s a ludicrous way of looking at football.

Messi was restricted in the final. Stats from WhoScored.com show he had only 63 touches in normal time—his lowest tally for the tournament. Jorge Sampaoli, the Chile coach, devised a tactical plan to stop him, and it worked—just as Maradona was negated in the 1986 World Cup final by Lothar Matthaus, if we have to make the comparison.

With Argentina 2-0 up, Matthaus was forced into a more attacking role, and West Germany came back to level. That gave Maradona more space, and he used it to play Jorge Burrachaga through to score the winner. Much, in fact, as Messi suddenly found space late on and played a perfect through ball for Ezequiel Lavezzi, who played a poor cross to Gonzalo Higuain to skew wide from a narrowish angle.



Maradona’s main contribution in the 1990 World Cup final, meanwhile, was to barge referee Edgardo Codesal after he’d sent off centre-forward Gustavo Dezotti.

Criticise Messi for his performance by all means, and particularly the way he seemed to allow frustration to take hold to such an extent that in extra time he was bullied by Mati Fernandez, but don’t do it by pretending Maradona was always brilliant in finals.

What if Higuain had scored? What if Messi had played the pass that led to the winning goal in the Copa America final...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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