So I'm surfing YouTube, looking for some good maradona clips. and boy did I find them. I didn't really watch soccer when maradona was playing, he was just a name in the news.. ( IE Best soccer player in the world on coke sort of news). He is pretty much just a name to me, which is unfortunate, because the stuff I'm seeing in the highlight reels is disgusting.

Here's the best one I found so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H769xCaQjQ&search=maradona

Man, this guy is good. I'd love to have a 1hour highlight reel of maradona. what's fuked up about him is that he was the best at about 8 different things. He was a world class free kicker, could score from far outside of the box, was a brillant passer ( though I don't know if passing was his prefered thing to do) Could start and stop on a dime, had crazy moves, and could handle the ball on the run like a freak. I just don't under stand how he could do some of the things on this highlight reel.

Good.

And a cheater.

cheater?

drug addict maybe....cheater, not so sure.

JC, all I have to present in the cheater category is: the hand of god

Yep.

Who would actually say:

"a little bit by the head of Diago Maradona, and a little bit by the hand of god"

nope.

not cheating.

Its like taking a dive or making a foul that doesnt get called..its part of the game...if the ref doesnt see it, its not like you're gonna tell him that you made commited a "foul" when it benifits your team.

The fact that the Hand of God became famous doesnt make it cheating, its no worse than the American defender using his hand in the box to block a corner kick vs Mexico in the 02' world cup..that hand changes the outcome of the game if the penalty was called, but its not like the defender is going to go tell the ref that he just committed a penalty. Like coache's always say "if the ref didnt see, it didnt happen"

didnt know that i hadnt signed in...that was me.

Most players today can't handle the ball like Diego. They make millions, marry supermodels and live like rockstars. He just did it first.

I think you'll find George Best did it way before Maradonna.

and I agree with you completely. Is a player in the nba a cheater 'cause they goal tend? Maradona didn't use steroids ( though he did enough coke to kill a horse), he wasn't a cheater. He just has the most famous hand ball in history. His second goal is so spectacular in that WC, that no one should even remember the HoG

"he just did it first"


No, he didn't, there were other before Maradona... and after... but no one was greater. No one. Not Best, Not pele. No one. Maradona wasn't just a great ball handler, he was the absolute complete package of unstoablity. Anyone who thinks different is just a hater. Name someone who plays today who could hold maradona's jock strap....

Pele > Maradona AIAEC

Well, I respectfully disagree... pele is a good choice, how ever. I think Maradona's star ( in the US and maybe Europe) was dimmed from his off the field antics, but he was truely a specticale to watch.

Your probably right (as you can tell by some of the posts in this thread) about his image beign tarnished because of his off the field antics, but having watched plenty of film of both of them play, I'd still take Pele.

The biggest difference for me is Pele's spectacular plays resulted in goals or assists, a lot of Maradona's just ended in him giving the ball to the other team or him falling over.

Also, he fights like a girl as proven in the first few seconds of that video.

Really? I thought that flying crotch kick was awesome. Soccer fights are hilarious, I'd never seen one before.. All kicking!!

Not the ones I have been in, but that one was pretty funny.

I like the guy who you see flying in at the end of it out of nowhere trying to crane kick a guy off the screen.

I think an intentional break of the rules is cheating, right?

Maybe Maradona wasn't in general a "cheater", but he put the ball in the net with his hands. Come on.

If you speed you're still breaking the law, even if you don't get pulled over.


Party I don't know what you're talking about on the US handling in that 02' match; but if it was intentional, it was cheating.

US got it back when the German handled our goal in the quarters that year.

A few thoughts. Breaking the rules can be considered cheating, but if that's the bar, pretty much all professional athletes are cheaters. All soccer players pull shirts or use elbows given the opportunity. There's nothing unique or interesting about HOG excpet that it happened in a critical game and went unnoticed.

Second, I do believe that Maradona is the greatest soccer player we've seen to date. I find it interesting that Pele gets mentioned so much. I remember being a young boy when he came to play in the US, and it was a big deal. Pele's reputation is somewhat inflated in North America due to the fact that he played here for 3 years. Dont get me wrong...he's a legend, and rightly so, but Maradona's technical expertise and footwork borders on unbelievable. He made some aspects of the game look so easy that it's hard to appreciate just how good he really was. For instance there are few if any footballers who could cross a ball as accurately on a full speed run from the goal line. He made it look so effortless that this part of his game is rarely even commented on.

Yeah, I think my original response was a bit harsh; in retrospect I didn't mean he was always a cheater. I just don't think it would've occurred to me to use my hand or to be OK with having it go in and count. Seriously. Not like nobody could have seen it.

In that instance, I think any other striker would have done the same, anything to get the ball into the back of the net... For the older aged posters here who were in awe of Maradona, I get that same sense watching Ronaldinho on and off the ball, he has an incredible sense for the goal (whether it be attacking himself or setting up another player) and seems to always be two or three steps ahead in his decision making process. He is one of the great young footballers to watch.

Older aged? You cant be meaning me can you? Doh! Oh well. That's what I get for participating on a forum with as bunch of youngsters.

Ronaldinho is no doubt a great player and his star is still rising. He has time to leave his mark on the game, and I hope he does. I think this is the year he eclipses Ronaldo as the star of the Brazillion team, although that remains to be seen.

Ronaldo's performance in this World Cup has left me in awe... not in a good sense. Aside from his assist to Adriano, he has been slow to the ball, had a bad touch, and generally lazy in his play. I'm still optimistically waiting for him to kick it into gear and am just assuming that he's taking it easy in the qualifiers to really shine in the later stages of the tournament. Hopefully...

How do you like him now?

Hahaha,...big time cheater, but tremendously talented, back in the day...