My Memories of My Favorite World Cup

My Country, India is a land of population of more than a billion people but somehow we have not been able to produce 11 capable people for representing our country at Asian level in Soccer, leave alone Olympics or World Cup. So its natural that apart from Kolkatta, most of India gives a 'miss' to most Soccer events.

Even I am no exception and rarely followed Soccer since my early days but I still remember it was Summer of 1986 and the Soccer World Cup was being held in Mexico. We had only one TV channel those days and it used to broadcast LIVE matches after midnight from Mexico. Since we had little Live coverage those days, one night I got up and switched on the TV. Since Summer Vacations were on, I faced little resistance from parents of a 13-year old boy.

I think it was a match involving debutant Cameroon who had a forward called 'Roger Miller'. They upset some very big team then in very first game and the jig that 'Miller' fellow did after every goal is my first 'vivid memory' of World Cup. On the other hand, newspapers were filled with a new name everywhere on all pages. It was 'Diego Maradona', the mercurial Argentine Forward.

I checked the schedule of matches in Newspaper and got ready for my first Argentina match. The noise was unbelievable and only name I could hear from commentators was 'Maradona'. He was 'pure magic'. He used to start the run from mid-field and would accelerate with such a speed and control that he would get into the opposition D in no time. He would have a shot at goal which would invariably find the target.

The 'final sight' would be Maradona rushing back to be with his colleagues celebrating a goal while a couple players from opposition would be lying on ground whom he would have deceived on way to goal. In later matches, I would find Maradona being mercilessly tackled and brought down every time he got the ball in mid-field. Defenders would prefer giving a free-kick or even earning a warning card for themselves but not allowing him the luxury of free-run. But the magician would still find a way of passing the ball to other forwards and ultimately taking Argentina to victory.

I watched every match of Argentina, even the semi-finals featuring the 'hand of God' goal by Maradona. The celebration by Argentine players after winning the trophy when whole team carried Maradona on shoulders is still fresh in my mind.I watched many world cups after that but none could match the frenzy of 1986 Mexico World Cup again.